Annual technical & customer meet a grand success
In December 2012, Oerlikon announced the decision to divest its natural fiber business along with the textile components business to the Jinsheng Group of China. Oerlikon’s Textile Segment will focus on the man-made fiber business, a high performing one with less cyclicality. The divestment is an important strategic step to optimize and balance Oerlikon’s portfolio by significantly reducing the group’s overall exposure to the textile industry whilst retaining and building on its position as a world leader in the man-made fibers segment. Oerlikon’s revenues from man-made fiber business globally is around CHF 1 billion and has witnessed a healthy growth of about 20 per cent since 2008-09.
Oerlikon will continue to develop its leading position in the growing man-made fiber market. The global man-made fiber market has registered a compounded annual growth rate of about five per cent for the past five years. New industrial applications in the automotive industry and construction provide further growth potential, in addition to the ongoing substitution of natural fiber in the apparel industry worldwide.
Oerlikon’s Man-made Fibers Business Unit, with its brands Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag, is the worldwide leading supplier of innovative solutions for chemical fiber production that meets requirements for productivity, quality and lower conversion costs. In addition to filaments and staple fiber solutions it also offers solutions for nonwoven and BCF carpet yarn technology. Its technological leadership and strong market position have resulted in an exceptionally strong order book which already contains orders for equipment delivery in 2015.
Oerlikon commands a global marketshare of more than 45 per cent in the man-made fibre spinning and texturizing machinery business. Almost 60 per cent of the business comes from China. India contributes 10-15 per cent of the total business, and this is bound to increase in the coming years.
Oerlikon Man-made Fibre business (Oerlikon Barmag & Oerlikon Neumag) recently organized its annual technical seminar and customer meet at Silvassa. The seminar was addressed by the senior management and technical teams of the company led by Mr. Stefan Kross, Managing Director, Oerlikon Manmade Fibres business. Speakers from Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag, Germany, as well as India presented the latest developments in the areas of POY, FDY, DTY, industrial yarn, BCF yarn and staple fibres. The meet attracted customers from all over India.
Welcoming the gathering, Mr. Stefan Kross said: “There is a booming market for polyester in Asia, particularly in markets like India and China. Global markets are becoming increasingly more transparent and competitive with margins getting rationalized”.
He compared the global scenario to an international championship. Every customer must be able to compete in this championship. The question is what kind of equipment is going to achieve the best position and to win. “You need the best machine to win one that allows you to make money and be competitive. We realized this tendency in the last few years, and with our business model of innovation and new technology, we get in line with these tendencies and deliver you the best and innovative equipments. Like the WINGS FDY, we want to give the latest technology for our customers to be able to compete in this championship worldwide. In fact, the first WINGS FDY in India will start production shortly”.
Oerlikon is also focusing on ways to optimize on operating expenditure (opex). For the purpose, it is working on ways to reduce energy consumption, labor cost and waste.
Oerlikon Barmag: Tomorrow’s solutions today
To be a “solutions supplier” means to make life easier for customers and to make their success a top priority. Oerlikon Barmag, the world market leader in the field of spinning installations for man-made fibres such as polyester, nylon, and polypropylene as well as for texturing machines, meets this challenge. More than 1,600 employees around the world work every day to create innovative technologies that set new standards, for the customers’ progress.
The spinning installation WINGS (Winding INtegrated Godet Solution) integrates the drawing unit into the winder and thus enables a low building height, improves the energy balance by about 25 per cent even for POY production (polyester, polyamide) and is easier than ever to operate. Now Oerlikon Barmag is offering the WINGS technology for FDY (Fully Drawn Yarn), too. This was achieved by modifying the FDY process and adapting it to a machine that can be operated from the floor, as well as developing and improving various components. The result: The drawing unit and winder can be operated by one person; and production sequences and energy consumption reach a significantly better standard than conventional FDY systems. This results in even more efficient and profitable FDY production with the proven yarn quality.
Around 5,000 WINGS FDY positions have been sold so far, and the first have been installed already. “WINGS FDY is well on its way to becoming what WINGS POY already is: a benchmark for filament production. Our competitive advantage has grown with this innovation,” ensures Mr. Stefan Kross, head of the Oerlikon Barmag business unit.
Evolution in Texturing: eAFK
Oerlikon Barmag’s fundamental principle is innovation through evolution: The modular texturing machine eAFK is the advancement of its predecessors such as AFK and, MPS. It retained proven elements such as the ATT take-up, the pneumatic yarn string-up, the ease of handling and the energy-efficient godet technology. But, with the new modular design, the system moves to the next step in technology, with greater efficiency and ergonomics. The eAFK aims to meet essential market requirements at a good cost-benefit ratio: A wide range of variations and options allow adaptation to nearly all production needs.
Mr. D. Ghosh, Dy. General Manager – Sales, Oerlikon Barmag Division in India, made a presentation on the need for automatic DTY machines. India has a population of 1.2 billion people, then why do we need automatic DTY machines when we have so much labor? Mr. Ghosh gave some interesting figures to highlight the importance of automatic DTY machines.
India has installed POY capacity of 200,000 tonnes per month which is slightly in excess of the actual demand. Out of this capacity, 180,000 tonnes is utilised and the balance still remains unutilised. The entire POY has to be converted into DTY. We found that out of the 180,000 tonnes, 125,000 tonnes goes for domestic consumption, 35,000 tonnes of DTY goes for export and 20,000 tonnes are directly exported as POY.
Out of the 125,000 tonnes of DTY, almost 80 per cent, which is 100,000 tonnes, goes into weaving and 20,000 tonnes for knitting. The proportion of knitting is increasing by the day, especially in North India and other markets. Out of the 20,000 tonnes which goes to knitting, 95 per cent goes to circular knitting and five per cent for warp knitting.
In the weaving sector, most of the yarn is twisted before it goes for weaving. About 40 per cent of the yarn is twisted, and hence there is a requirement for excellent unwinding performance. As India is moving more towards shuttlesss automatic looms, the unwinding performance of weaving is a must. Weavers are demanding flawless fabric. There is also the requirement coming from the warping sector, which is for exact metered length. Customers are willing to pay a premium for metered package.
The Indian industry is demanding better quality DTY yarn. This is why India needs energy-efficient and automatic DTY machines. Due to the shortage of labor, customers are increasingly looking for machines that need less labor. Two Oerlikon Barmag machines can be operated by one operator.
WinTrax fibre winders
Whether automobiles, airplanes, wind turbines, racing bikes or tennis racquets, light and super-stable carbon fibres are the material of the future for more and more applications. An example: The weight of heavy batteries is balanced with chassis made of carbon fibres in the production of electric vehicles. With the WinTrax, Oerlikon Barmag has developed a winder designed for economic winding of high-quality carbon fibres. Flexibility, perfect package composition, easy operation and minimal maintenance have made both the manual and automatic models of WinTrax a worthwhile investment, with the Asian and Russian markets leading the way.
Oerlikon Barmag considers itself the market leader in the field of technical yarns too. Various solutions are amongst the most productive and flexible concepts in the global marketplace. The range of applications is wide, from tyre cord, tarpaulin, conveyor belts and geo-textiles to airbags and safety belts.
Regarding space saving, the equipment is state-of-the-art: The new 6LA spinning pack makes a technical yarn machine 25 per cent more compact than systems with conventional single-end spin packs. And, with its own engineering, Oerlikon Barmag offers solutions along the entire production chain also for the trend geotextiles.
Making customers successful with innovations. At Oerlikon Barmag, this begins with a clearly defined long-term development strategy tailored to the customers and market, concrete concepts regarding machine technology of the future, and the shortest possible research and development phase.
The Oerlikon Barmag technical training centre in Remscheid contributes by acting as a greenhouse for the leading technologies of tomorrow. Customers can use it, too. And with its engineering services, the company also creates optimal solutions along the entire textile supply chain for each customer and provides comprehensive support and service. But there is one thing that always stays the same, according to Mr. Stefan Kross: “The motto: ‘Time to market’ always applies.”
Anyone who wants to consider himself market as well as technological leader must point out innovative routes to the future. For more than 60 years, Oerlikon Neumag, a brand of the business unit Oerlikon Manmade Fibers, has faced this challenge as a customer-oriented supplier of reliable installations in the worldwide industry for synthetic yarns, fibres and nonwovens. And it meets the challenge with high-performance technological developments.
BCF: Distinct performance plus with S+
With a 70 per cent market share, Oerlikon Neumag is the leading global supplier of systems to manufacture highly developed BCF carpet yarn. The company achieved market leadership through continuous development work to improve the machines, components and processes. The result: individual solutions, from modular systems all the way to turnkey systems.
The equipment generation S+ is a good example of the technological capacity that serves as the foundation. This BCF machine brings together all the benefits of previous technologies: proven components like the godets and texturing characteristics of the S5, along with the straight yarn path and the optimized spinning mill from the Sytec One. The optimization measures also allow the S+ to dramatically increase production speed and output, reaching 99 per cent efficiency.
Staple fibres
Over 25 staple fibre systems installed around the world, with a capacity of 200 tons per day – there is no better proof for the performance of a technology. And now the next developmental step has been taken: The new system, with a capacity of 300 tons per day and thus the highest output in the world of a single line manufacturing polyester staple fibres, significantly reduces operating and production costs per ton.
The first systems are already in operation at a leading manufacturer of polyester products in Asia. However, Oerlikon Neumag also has smaller systems in its portfolio: For example, inline staple fibre systems for the production of fibres for nonwoven applications. These systems produce up to 80 tons per day of fibres, e.g., made of recycled PET or for use in geotextiles.
Nonwoven
All technologies contribute to market-oriented developments. Oerlikon Neumag has an extensive range of nonwoven technologies, from spunbond and meltblown to airlaid. The uses include special technical applications such as filtration, roofing, geotextiles and automotive. And the company also offers tailored solutions applying spinning processes such as the Bico process for spunbund products.
The focus on customers is apparent in the comprehensive support and service offered, from system design to engineering and after-sales service, covering every aspect of the production of BCF carpet yarn, staple fibres and nonwovens. The same principles always apply: a detailed understanding of the entire production chain down to the final product, with the focus on customer benefit, quality and innovative power.