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.
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