Oerlikon Textile concludes many new transactions in spite of a difficult market situation

.
- Oerlikon Textile records new orders in the value of more than 28 million Euros - Rigorous actions against patent infringements showed their effects
- Four world premieres presented

At the "ITMA Asia + CITME 2008", China's largest-ever textile machinery exhibition, held from 27 to 31 July 2008 in Shanghai, Oerlikon Textile occupied a display area of more than 1,500 m² in the "Circle of Success". The company presented many new developments, including four world premieres. The reflection of Dr. Carsten Voigtländer, CEO of Oerlikon Textile, on the exhibition was definitely satisfied: "New orders in the value of more than 10 million Euros show that it is still possible to successfully conclude transactions in the entire textile machinery sector in spite of the difficult market situation in the first months of the year. At least on the first four of the five days, the visitors` interest was very strong and we were able to show that we and our products are actually more than a step ahead".

With relation to the exhibition, Oerlikon Textile was able to conclude in these days also new orders covering 18 million Euros. Furthermore, on the occasion of a large press conference, the Chinese Shenghong Group and Oerlikon Barmag signed two Letters of Intent. On the one hand, this concerns a R&D partnership in which the Chinese partner has the intention to invest about 10 million Euros into the world's greatest technology development centre for manmade fibres of Oerlikon Barmag in Remscheid, Germany. On the other hand, Shenghong is strongly interested in the purchase of another 200 DTY machines.

As the worldwide leading supplier of total solutions in manufacture of machines and equipment for manmade fibres, staple fibres and nonwovens, Oerlikon Textile also took intensive actions against patent infringements during the show. On this occasion, many offences have been registered. With the help of the exhibition management, in one case an entire booth has been evacuated. In another case, a machine has been stopped.

Oerlikon Schlafhorst: Staple fibre spinning at the highest level

At the ITMA Asia, Oerlikon Schlafhorst confirmed its position as an innovation and market leader in spinning machines for staple yarn fibres when it presented innovative technical solutions for the ring spinning and rotor spinning machines. The company showed plenty of new ideas regarding packages, yarn quality and yarn joining. With the "world premiere No. 1", the Autoconer 5S, Oerlikon Schlafhorst serves a very interesting niche market with growth potential. An automatic rewinding machine, for example for dye packages, with the technology of the world's most successful automatic winding machine Autoconer 5 that has been showed in Shanghai with the revolutionary Preci FX yarn displacement system. In the rotor spinning sector, Oerlikon Schlafhorst presented the second world premiere with the optimised BD line BD 416. In addition, the company showed the Autocoro S 360 with DigiPiecing. The innovative quality solutions in CompACT³ spinning with Zinser ring spinning machines made a powerful impression, as did the new ring spinning machine generation Zinser 360.

Oerlikon Barmag: New solutions for efficient yarn production

Oerlikon Barmag's exhibition presentation focused on efficiency enhancement. On WINGS, the new POY machine, the company showed the efficient integration of godets and intermingling units into the winder. This plug-in-unit, exhibited for the first time at ITMA 2007 in Munich, guarantees POY producers consistently high yarn quality as well as greater productivity and efficiency. With a laser show, Oerlikon Barmag presented WINGS in a separate room, not only because of the better effect of the laser beams but mainly to protect the know-how of this revolutionary technology against too inquisitive visitors.

Another striking technological advance was the proven double winder i-QOON that now also facilitates 24-fold spinning of fully drawn yarn (FDY). In the DTY sphere, the "eFK" was the third world premiere. It is a texturing machine that combines tried and tested features of two Oerlikon Barmag workhorses - the energy-saving godet technology of COCOON and the ergonomic handling of the FK6-1000.

Furthermore, a machine configuration for polyester has been shown that permits the product spectrum in the fine titre range to the extended right down to 15 denier, thanks to a flexible cooling tube in the superstructure. This Oerlikon Textile business unit has a wealth of expertise in the manmade fibre sector and covers the entire process chain from polycondensation through to DTY machines. A very good opportunity for the visitors to receive an impression of Oerlikon Barmag's variety of service.

Oerlikon Neumag: Cutting edge competence in nonwovens, carpet yarns and staple fibres

Oerlikon Neumag, now under the direction of Georg Stausberg, showed its complete product portfolio. The previous Chief Technology Officer at Oerlikon Textile took over the direction of the Oerlikon Textile business unit from Dr. Tarik Vardag shortly before the exhibition. The presentation of this company included the key technologies involved in the manufacture of nonwovens, e.g. airlaid, carding and spunbond systems. This Oerlikon Textile business is the only supplier in the world to combine these nonwoven processes in a plant concept and, with its comprehensive know-how, is able to develop new methods for more efficient production and more varied nonwoven products.

At the exhibition, it has also focused on cutting edge technologies in the manufacture of BCF carpet yarns, e.g. the new single-thread Sytec One generation of machines, and new plant concepts for the manufacture of synthetic staple fibres that enable significant productivity increases with production output of up to 400 tonnes a day

Oerlikon Saurer: Innovations for twisting and embroidery systems

Under the new directory of Jan Röttgering, hitherto Chief Commercial Officer, who, at the exhibition start, succeeded Dr. Jürg Henz (changed within the Oerlikon group to Oerlikon Solar) as Head of Oerlikon Saurer, the Oerlikon Saurer business unit showed the new Volkmann "FusionTwister", the world premiere No. 4 at the exhibition. The Volkmann product line concentrates on the high-productivity manufacture of staple fibre yarns, glass filament yarns and carpet yarns. Furthermore, the Oerlikon Saurer product line Allma showed solutions for tyre cord, technical plied yarns and fancy yarns. Oerlikon Saurer and its product line Melco also reinforced their position as leading suppliers of shuttle and multi-head embroidery machines.

Oerlikon Textile Components: With high-tech components to a quality product

In order to emphasise the component business more clearly for the visitors to the machine presentations of the aforementioned four Oerlikon Textile business units, Oerlikon Textile Components presented its product lines Accotex, Daytex, Enka Tecnica, Heberlein, Temco, Fibrevision and Texparts at the next-door booth. This business unit is a leading supplier of quality-relevant components that come into contact with threads during the yarn manufacturing process. Its product portfolio covers the three areas of staple fibre spinning, filament spinning and nonwovens.