The Chinese manufacturing industry has been promoting the Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025. Chinese producers are investing in advanced equipment with high connectivity. What is the progress of the upgrade in the Chinese textile sector? Let’s hear what some of the exhibitors say at the ShanghaiTex 2017 fairgrounds.

China, as the biggest producer in textile industry, is in the middle of Industry 4.0 era, according to Mr. Manfred Mentges, Sales Manager of Sedo Treepoint.

“When we talk about Industry 4.0 and smart factory concept, we are talking about productivity, profitability, quality and sustainability,” he said. “China is catching up quite well in the era of Industry 4.0. The textile industry in the country is at the stage of try to achieve integration of machines. At this stage of integration, customization plays a very important role,” he commented.

He explained that many factories in China are using a mix of new and old machines, so special attention has to be put on the integration of different systems.

“Therefore, Sedo Treepoint will bring the Chinese customers to the right path, handling the integration on a project basis,” he added.

When offering dye house optimized automatic production solution, the competitive advantage of Sedo Treepoint is its expertise in recipe management and color measurement. Its ColorMaster is an expert software package from laboratory to production.

ColorMaster allows cost-effective recipe to be calculated in the laboratory. For production, the integrated processes within the software offer the best possible treatment and define the correct dye program.

Meanwhile, the modular SedoMaster management system is designed to manage the dye house or an entire textile finishing plant. It supports all required interface to other systems such as chemical dispensing, recipe management and ERP.

Mahlo: Chinese domestic driving the growth

Mahlo GmbH + Co. KG is a worldwide leading manufacturer of measuring, control and automation systems for the textile and finishing industry as well as the coating, film and paper sector.

Mahlo’s process control equipment helps to optimize the process, by measuring parameters such as fabric temperature, moisture, density, thickness, etc., and monitoring distortions and correcting them. Improved productivity and quality are thus achieved.

According to Mr. Thomas Höpfl, Sales Director of Mahlo, the Chinese market is increasingly demanding for high quality fabrics every year. This trend therefore drives the growth of advanced machines and control systems in the market.

“In the beginning when Mahlo started business in China, only those producers who export their goods to Europe and the US were looking striving to improve quality and productivity. However, as domestic market has been growing with Chinese local consumers also asking for high quality products in the past ten years, the overall Chinese market is going bigger for equipment suppliers,” said Mr. Thomas Höpfl, Sales Director of Mahlo.

In addition, many Chinese customers are asking for Industry 4.0 solutions. It is important as they can always get the online measured data which can improve the production process and quality. 

“There are still a lot of Chinese producers have no control systems, so Chinese market presents huge potential to Mahlo,” Mr. Thomas Höpfl said.

As one of the pioneers to enter the Chinese market with quality equipment many years ago, Mahlo has been enjoying fruitful sales opportunities in China which represents about 20-25% of the company’s global business.

Mahlo displayed the ORTHOPAC RVMC-15 Modular straightening and process control system at its booth. The system combines the functionality of a weft straightener with that of a process control system in one combat device.

As process parameters, such as dwell time, thread density, residual moisture, can be measured and regulated, it automatically ensures a straight-thread product before and after the drying or fixing process, and optimizes the process all around the stenter. Thus, increases the quality and saves resources and energy.

Dig data to be the future of Industry 4.0

Santex Rimar Group is also working on solutions from the perspective of Industry 4.0. CEO Mr. Stefano Gallucci agrees that the next step to nurture Industry 4.0 is to smartly use the data collected by systems.

“When we collect more data from the machines, the key is to use the data collected to improve the production process and product quality,” he said. “When we say to make the machines and processes better, it includes the goals to use less energy and chemicals.”

He also expects that the machines will be able to improve by themselves, meaning that they can suggest how to produce with highest productivity.

Mr. Silvano Auciello, Sales Director of Loepfe Brothers Ltd., said he had witnessed catching up of the market in the second half of the year as many customers have been upgrading their existing installations with new technologies.

He also highlighted that the technology trend in the industry is definitely the Industry 4.0 with smart data processing. The company has been providing data processing systems in different products at different levels since a few years ago. And the aim of the company is to intensify in this area.

At the show, Loepfe Brothers displayed its YarnMaster ZENIT+ yarn clearer with new features introduced in the course of the year, such as improved fiber detection and easier handling of the control unit. The company is working on new product line for laboratory so that more of its products can be integrated with testing machines for measuring more parameters.

For the Swiss based SSM, its machines feature latest technologies and also ready for Industry 4.0 according to demands from the market. The company stressed that it is in close contact with the customers and therefore aware of their demands. Besides, basically any customization is possible on its products.

When commenting the trends in Asia and China, SSM observed that Asian markets including China are going for higher quality products, automation, sustainability and highly-connected products.

In order to implement the most modern, state-of-the-art models in terms of lean production and operational excellence, the company’s long-standing subsidiary in Zhongshan, Guangdong, has recently moved to a new building, allowing to serve even better the customers’ needs in China and worldwide.

Exhibit highlights Sedo Engineering introduces smarter way to indigo At the booth of Sedo Treepopint, Sedo Engineering showed their new revolutionary way to produce “Smart Leuco-Indigo” for denim. “Smart Leuco-Indigo” is produced for the first time in an electrochemical process consuming considerably fewer resources than existing methods. Using only indigo pigment, caustic soda, water and electricity, the technology is a highly sustainable process to dye denim with savings in wastewater treatment and energy. According to Mr. Herbert Guebeli, General Manager of Sedo Engineering, it’s time to market for this development, replacing chemicals with electricity was 5 years in the making. Two years longer than originally planned. “Nothing good comes easy – kept us awake more than once through desperate nights,” he said. Santex Rimar Group highlights SMIT weaving platform At the fairground, Santex Rimar Group showcased the SMIT GS940 Smart Platform which caught the attention of a lot of visitors. The architecture provides the most advantageous weaving machine configurations to produce high quality fabrics for any sector, widening weaver’s creativity and market access. The machines feature the Free Flight Ribbons System. Without ribbon guide hooks, it provides faster weaving width change, high textile efficiency and top fabric quality even in presence of most delicate warp fibers. In addition, the sturdy machine structure and the optimized distribution of mechanism masses ensure the greatest stability and the most effective reduction of dynamic load on the floor. SSM showcases the highly flexible winding solution SSM focused on the SSM-X-Series at ShanghaiTex this year. As mentioned by the company, the series is one of the most optimized winding solutions in the market, trimmed to the max yet maintaining highest flexibility for any cost-efficient winding application. The PWX-CTM and -MTC showcased offers a highly flexible and economical system for cone-to-muff and muff-to-cone winding. The new PWX-CTM enables the preparation of low-density muffs, while maintaining the highest possible elasticity of the yarn throughout the dyeing process. For the highest flexible and productive rewinding, the SSM PWX-MTC offers the proper solution; regardless whether muffs, hanks, dye packages on dye tubes or coreless dye packages are to be rewound.