Aiming at bigger Indian market share
Quality expectations of a textile manufacturer are always unusually higher. Foreign matters found in the fiber during raw material selection, transportation or the production process raises a number of questions regarding the quality of the fibre. With more and more customers getting quality conscious, even the slightest of visible contamination results in the cancellation of the entire lot.
Fortunately, many technology companies are updating and creating new testing equipment to help manufacturers efficiently and consistently produce quality goods throughout the supply chain. One such company that has been striving for the last six decades to restrain contamination in fibres is Loepfe of Switzerland.
Loepfe Brothers Ltd. was founded in 1955 by two brothers, Helmut and Erich Loepfe, at Wetzikon, 30 km from Zurich. The company initially started manufacturing electronic equipments for weaving machines. Only at a later stage did it venture into spinning. Today Loepfe gets majority of its business from this vertical.
Loepfe is the pioneer for optical yarn clearers. It enjoys a global market share of approximately 50 per cent. The unique “all-round view” ensures the complete evaluation of the yarn structure. Yarn clearing is vital to meet the increasing demands on yarns. Loepfe continues to carry extensive research and development at its Wetzikon site, with direct customer co-operation, to determine the clearing limits for the respective yarn.
The scenic location of Loepfe’s production unit is something worth mentioning. The plant houses ultra-modern laser cutting machines and uses state-of-the-art technology to produce circuit boards. Everything that goes inside or outside a Loepfe’s yarn clearer is made in-house at this attractive Swiss facility.
With a production capacity of 20,000-25,000 a month, the company has made adequate provision for ramp-up of production, if necessary. The production site incubates a massive clean room, where critical components are kept.
In an exclusive to The Textile Magazine, Mr. Gianni Heusser, Product Manager, stressed: “We believe our products are of high quality. We supply products that are 100% Made in Swiss. This is the reason why we command 50% market share on a global scale.”
YarnMaster, MillMaster and WeftMaster, the brands from the Loepfe portfolio for spinning and weaving respectively, have been well appreciated within the textile community.
The new optical yarn defects sensor FALCON-i is an important innovation contributing to a knotless weaving fabric. Problems faced in manufacturing high-tech fabrics, such as elimination of smallest knots, fluff and filamentation from the weft yarn are solved by installing FALCON-i yarn defect sensors.
Loepfe has once again succeeded in raising the reliable technology of optical yarn clearers to a new level by the introduction of YarnMaster ZENIT+. The new yarn clearer features three dedicated sensors – one optical sensor to detect neps, short thick, long thick and thin places (NSLT) faults; a second improved optical sensor to look for colored foreign matters; the introduction of the NEW Tribo-electric sensor P3 enables detection of white and transparent synthetic fibers in raw-white yarn during the winding process. The YarnMaster Zenit yarn clearer is very flexible with respect to yarn types and covers the complete yarn count range with only one sensing head. Even fancy yarns ranging from silk to wool are cleared efficiently by using simple clearer settings.
Loepfe’s NEW central unit LZE-V is innovative and extremely simple to operate. At the touch of a button, everything is available at a glance and in real time!
The LabPack online laboratory provides all relevant quality test parameters. The collection of off-standard bobbins is in the center of “no more rely on random samples”.
The company has products for both spinning and weaving, but a major chunk of business, close to 85 per cent, comes from the spinning division and the rest from weaving. The ZENIT yarn clearer is the best-seller from the Loepfe stable.
Loepfe considers the Indian market as one of its most important business hubs. “Currently we have a market share close to 50% in India and are aiming at increasing this number. Big names like Alok, Arvind, Kallam and Ravalli are using Loepfe systems for many years and are extremely satisfied with the products,” said Mr. Heusser. With service centers ideally located all over and with well-trained technicians, the company provides the best-in-class customer service.
Six decades of experience in the field is behind the Loepfe systems’ all-round popularity. Spinning mills processing their yarns with the YarnMaster Zenit yarn clearer from the company have an assured future.