With the textile machinery industry preparing itself for ITMA 2019, SWISSMEM, the Swiss Textile Machinery Association, which is also a member of Cematex, organised a pre-event conference for the media at Lucerne in Switzerland. Lucerne is more than apt for such get-togethers, with its picturesque natural scenario, pleasant weather marking the start of spring, and the huge mountains surrounding the area.
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Mr. Ernesto A. Maurer, President, Swiss Textile Machinery Group, and also President of SSM AG, conducted the three-day event in a very cordial atmosphere. In his welcome address, he said: “We are here to prepare for the ITMA in Barcelona. The purpose of this event is to provide information. This is also very important for networking, among industry representatives, and networking between those who make our products known to the world. We are well equipped, we can provide information anywhere in the world. SWISSMEM was started in 1940, during World War II. The textile machinery manufacturers felt the need to combine, to unify their strengths and to face political leaders. It looks unbelieveable, some companies here are more than 150 years old. To keep our machinery industry alive is a matter of innovation. Nobody knows some innovations happened in Switzerland like the computer mouse. As a member of Cematex, the organiser of ITMA, we have 63 Swiss exhibitors, and this year in Barcelona the show is heavily overbooked”.
Cornelia Buchwalder, Secretary General of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association, accepts that the industry faces ever-changing challenges, not least of which is inexorable globalisation of the textile business. “We in Switzerland are confident that we have the structures and strength to keep pace with the continuing evolution of the textile world, thanks to our financially sound companies and, of course, the ongoing development of the machinery and equipment that our ‘inventor DNA’ makes possible,” she says.
The presentations of the member-companies:
Mr. Silvano Auciello, Loepfe
Loepfe products are developed and manufactured in Switzerland. It is our goal to offer directly from our headquarter a comprehensive service from the development to manufacturing and to customer service and support. To encourage this we are extending our office building to give more space to R&D and technical departments.
Since Loepfe’s foundation in 1955 it is even setting milestones in textile quality control. Most of them are presented during ITMA.
Here I give you a general overview of our product range, which can be divided into three product groups.
Spinning solutions – which is our core competence since 55 years. Our YarnMaster optoelectronic yarn clearers already of various generations detect foreign matter, shade variations, OffColor, contaminants, twist variations, and more.
Loepfe’s second mainstay is the product range WeftMaster. Here we are working close with well-known weaving manufacturers like Dornier, Picanol, ITEMA, to name some. Our new products for ITMA are WeftMaster CUT-IT and FALCON-I. The third product group will be Textile Laboratories with LabMaster YARNMAP.
Mr. Andreas Weber, Regional Sales Manager, Luwa Air Engineering AG
Luwa stands for Swiss quality. We are in charge of providing mills with good air. In many processes this is needed to produce best quality yarns and fabrics. Luwa is specialises in engineering for textile plants in air-conditioning, air filtration, waste removal and heat recovery. We are in our 80th year of existence. Luwa is unique in acting globally. Headquartered in Switzerland it runs five affiliates in India, China, Turkey, Singapore serving South-East Asian clients, and the US. We are very proud to celebrate our 25th Silver Jubilee in our Bangalore office, India.
Now about Luwa’s competencies. From the beginning we are an expert in spinning. Weaving-cotton and synthetic, nonwoven and technical textiles gave a big boost to our business in the last 10 years. In technical textiles we also count glass weaving and synthetic fibres where we do process conditioning. One of the latest achievements is heat recovery, to save substantial energy and increase economy of the process, to clean exhaust air and recover warm water.
Luwa will exhibit at ITMA an integrated metal and spark protection system to protect the blowroom lines and filtration units. The latter works with an ultrasensitive spark deduction / extraction system. The other exhibits are the CFU compact filter unit with incorporated MCV MultiCell Filter which saves 80% space and the UV immersion lamp for increased air washer hygiene. In weaving the company will launch the LoomLite which is increasing the weaving mill’s energy and work efficiency.
Mr. Raoul Bloch, Amsler Tex
Amsler is a long lasting brand. The company is known for decades for its Swiss-made, robust and economic manufacturing devices for Slub and Core-yarn. The announced bouquet of ITMA-news encompasses three directions: Innovation, Relaunch and Upgrade.
Innovation Wrapper Yarn is a novel kind of yarn for new fashion or functional applications (patents pending). It consists of a basic yarn in the center, which is wrapped by an additional yarn or filament and is manufactured in one step on a spinning frame. The applications are broad. Knitware with wrapper yarn shows an astonishing softness, has little spirality and enjoys low pilling as well as a good dimensional stability.
Amsler’s Core yarn system is famous for its proven and unbeaten technology. In order to keep its aim to offer the best core yarn device in the world, Amsler makes a relaunch. The new system Core V simplifies the handling, while keeping and improving the elastan centering performance as well as the rock solid filament monitoring and roving stop function.
Upgrade Control Unit STG 4000 to STG 5000. Here Amsler promotes an upgrade of the existing STG 4000 control units of its loyal customers to the new STG 5000 system. This is a smart enhancement of the current slub device, which increases efficiency, enhances slub yarn quality and improves costs.
Mr. Ralph Von Arx, Managing Director, Retech
For the third time since 2011 in Barcelona, 2015 in Milano and now 2019 again in Barcelona, Retech is exhibiting interesting innovations under the motto of the blue thread and thereby remains faithful to its line. In Barcelona, the company will show a diverse and interesting range of new products for different applications. In the forefront we shall show intentionally three innovations from different areas of activity. However, there are further new things to be discovered on Stand B109 in Hall 7.
Retech as an expert in monitoring your yarn tension to perfection will show in Barcelona a further development of the long proven and successful yarn tension sensor. This yarn tension sensor, which is based on the HALL sensor technology, has established itself in the last 20 years as the leading technology for the on-line measurement of yarn tension.
Retech, as an expert in drawing your fibres to perfection, will present with eager anticipation a new godet generation as its second main innovation in the area of today’s core business of heated godet rolls for the drawing and treatment of all kinds of synthetic yarn. Based on the proven and efficient motor technology by means of permanent synchron magnet technology, which enables a very economic operation, an interesting further development has taken place, which rounds off further the Retech godet roll range.
Retech is also showing its newly-developed temperature control and measured value transmission line. Under the name “Blue-Line”, the next generation of this system will be shown at ITMA Barcelona.
Mr. Ueli Mauerhofer, Area Sales Manager, Asia, Heberlein
“We listen to the market, to our customers”
Heberlein AG is launching, among others, the following products for modification and treatment of synthetic yarns at ITMA Barcelona. Our range includes air jets for the modification and treatment of man-made fibre yarns and also suction cutting and splicing units.
Heberlein is represented in 68 countries around the globe. One of our core competencies is the machining of ceramics. This is a strategical important decision already taken in the 1990s. We purchased planks and treat them with high precision grinding. Treatment of yarn is the interlacing process. In this, filaments are compacted by compressed air and the thread is created. All our products work with compressed air.
We have new products in the pipeline. At ITMA, we will highlight all air splicers which will be demonstrated with different materials, SlideJet, WarpJet, PolyJet and TexJet-ATY.
Simona Gambini, Head of Corporate Communications, Saurer
Saurer DNA has been coming with innovations, being loyal to its customers. This is going to be strengthened and emphasised going forward, and we definitely want to show this at ITMA. We are launching a plethora of new products. This year is a very special year celebrating 150 years of embroidery. The innovations that Saurer Spinning Solutions will show at ITMA include new machinery, automation and digitisation technologies as well as quality-determining components and services.
In Barcelona, with our E³ principle, we acknowledge our responsibility to create sustainable machinery. Our new products require less energy and fewer resources while featuring optimised ergonomics to enhance user-friendliness. In addition, we are increasingly incorporating intelligent technology to augment the human effort. Our focus is on meeting the needs of investors and operators of spinning mills as they strive to reach their goals.
The Saurer Technologies Segment is also presenting an array of innovative products. Our direct cabling machine CableCorder CC5 is already in its fifth generation – this version is even more economical and features a smart spindle concept as well as smart quality control and software solutions.
Customers in the carpet yarn sector will need look no further than our new series of CarpetCabler / CarpetTwister – these machines are capable of fulfilling any requirement with ease. We will also be launching the latest generation of the CompactTwister, which has already demonstrated its dominance in the market with sales of over four million spindles.
We are also offering a complete top-down embroidery solution. Customers can complete each step of the ennoblement process, from the first drawing of the design to the final stitch on our Epoca 7 machine.
With the launch of a device-monitoring system for all ball bearings, Saurer enters the market for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions. The system allows the constant condition monitoring of every single Temco bearing within a plant. In our elastomer components business line, we are fulfilling customers’ requests for a ring-spinning cot with a hardness of 68 Shore A, completing the range of Accotex J-series cots from soft to hard with different lifetimes for different applications.
We look forward to showing our latest innovations at ITMA 2019. To find out how we power your creations, visit us in Hall 6 at Stand B201.
Mr. André Imhof, CEO, Autefa Solutions, Switzerland
Autefa Solutions is represented at ITMA 2019 with its business units – Nonwovens Technology, Fiber Logistic Technology and Woollen Carding technology. André Imhof explains: “This year it was the first time we reached the 100 million Euro sales benchmark. It was a big step for us. We want to be the preferred line solution provider in nonwovens. In the next few months we are going to open a 600 m² carbon and advanced nonwovens lapline. For ITMA we are setting a strong focus on energy saving spunlace production – it patented V-Jet technology with lower energy consumption up to 30% proven lower energy, reduced water consumption and higher fabric strength.”
The new concept of the Aerodynamic Web Forming Machine Airlay FUTURA increases productivity and quality by tailor-made technology modules. The Airlay FUTURA stands for fast cleaning, easy maintenance, and extended access to all parts of the machine.
Under the headline “Industry 4.0” customers will get an approach for the entire nonwoven production system covering all aspects of improving the performance of a production line during lifetime Autefa Solutions Service 4.0 covers all aspects of improving the performance of a production line during lifetime. Based on the availability of a permanent digital communication link, Autefa Service 4.0 provides well-graded services for the customer’s benefit.
Mr. Christian Lerch, Head of Sales, Jacob Muller
The Jakob Müller Group is the No. 1 supplier of systems and solutions for the ribbon and narrow fabrics industry, providing everything from warp preparation to the final product on a one-stop shop basis. We will present only new developments, which will be released at ITMA 2019 only, no information will be disclosed before. However our campaign nfm.swiss shall keep the tension upright, please click on the relevant website.
For the Internet of Things, which is the driving topic, we will present solutions and applications. Digitisation of our production process, we have cooperation with Digital Capability Center (DCC) at the University of Aachen / Germany.
Industry 4.0 topics can be visualized using practical examples. The DDC and Jakob Müller AG offer application-oriented workshops, training and events, which can be booked by interested customers for their specialists and management.
At ITMA 2019 Jakob Müller AG will present the following modules of digitisation:
- Service-Portal ‘mymuller’
- Production data acquisition system ‘MÜNET MASTER’
- New ‘smart’ applications produced on our machinery (visit our booth).
Mr. Gianfranco Di Natale, founder and main shareholder, Rüti Textil
Rüti Textil is a new company founded in 2016 and located near Rüti. It owns various patents and the registered trademark Rüti Textil. We bring machines of the brands Sulzer Rüti and Sulzer Textil up to date with a new conversion concept based on the possibilities of Industry 4.0.
The quality, functionality and uniqueness of Sulzer Rüti and Sulzer Textil machines are exceptional. For instance, over 150,000 projectile weaving machines have been produced, many have been in use for over 30 years and can easily produce another 30 to 40 years.
Our products: Conversion kit with modules that optimize selected areas of the machine. The modules function independently, but can also be combined as desired. They are individually adapted to the customer’s needs. You achieve more performance, better fabric quality, relief of the weaving machine itself.
Innovations at ITMA: D12 Projectile, Picking lever, Weft tensioner and many more.