USTER, the global brand of quality control for pocesses from fiber to the fabric, participated at ITM with its local sales and service team led by Andreas Tanner and supported by senior managers from its headquarter in Switzerland, most notably Harold Hoke, Head of Sales and Service. Customers showed interest in different instruments from the USTER® HVI 1000, the global reference tool for cotton classification and quality assurance in the mill; the USTER® AFIS PRO 2 instrument for testing and analyzing the critical fiber raw material parameters for spinning preparation, e.g. to control machine settings and maintenance cycles by testing the material at each process step through the blowroom, carding, combing and roving equipment; and its range of specialized LAB test equipment, USTER® ZWEIGLE, among which the hairiness lenght tester USTER® HL400 is the latest addition. USTER® TESTER 5 is acknowledged throughout textiles as the global standard in evenness testing and with its special features preferred for fancy yarn testing as used in denim production. USTER® TESTER 5 was also observed closely by the Turkish denim manufacturers. As always, the company also displayed the USTER® QUANTUM 3 yarn clearer with its unique yarn body feature.
We interviewed Reine Wasner, Head of Marketing and Business Development at Uster Technologies Ltd, about the market position and the new technologies of the company. He expalined about the brand’s contribution to quality perception and gave his view on the developments within the global and Turkish cotton and yarn markets. Wasner said that they were satisfied with the interest and the positive sales results USTER received at ITM and added that they experienced a great demand on the first two days of the fair. “In our opinion there were perhaps slighlty less visitors than in the past, however the number of the quality visitors was high and we had the opportunity to meet with our most important customers” said Wasner.
2011 was a Successful Year
Evaluating the company’s business success, Reine Wasner concluded that 2011 was one of the most successful year for USTER after becoming a separate company, observing contributions from all product segments and all markets in which they operate. Stating that they continued to be the leader of the market in 2011, Wasner spoke in a cautious way about 2012. He remarked that this year will be more challenging than the previous year and that the same goes for the whole sector. Wasner continued by saying; “There are various uncertainties about prices currently. Moreover there are problems arising from the export-import restrictions imposed by India, both contributing to uncertainty in the global markets. Demand from the retailers is not that intensive yet as they appear to wait and see how the decline in cotton prices will affect the yarn and fabric prices.”
On the other hand, Wasner stated that there is hope for the second half of 2012 to be better and as a result a recovery will take place throughout the year. “The second half of the year we believe will be more positive. The yarn manufacturers are about to consume all the expensive cotton they have and have already started to use lower price cotton and retailers will need to replenish their stocks to meet fundamental market demands,” said Wasner.
Turkey is the Most Successful Market in Adapting Itself
Reine Wasner remarked that the Turkish market kept up with USTER very well and that Turkish spinners are pushing the envelope, not the least in terms of quality. Based on feedback from regional sales head, Andreas Tanner, it is clear that it is valuable to work with the Turkish yarn manufacturers, “because the Turkish yarn manufacturers know a lot about yarn production and they can take full advantage of USTER devices. Take the USTER® TESTER 5 as an example: it is one of our most advanced devices and offers various measurements and opportunities for how to improve productuion, however, one has to understand how these test results can be used. Turkish spinning mills know this! They are very well educated and know what they want and what to do. We are working hard to continue, to maintain and develop these relationships with the Turkish spinners –one step has been to move our offices from Istanbul to Adana to be closer to customers.”
How USTER is Changing the Quality Perception
USTER is known for its unrivalled precision, reliability and understanding of yarn quality issues. “Customers always demand the best from USTER and we work very hard to meet their expectations. With the new approach to quality management presented at ITMA, Total Testing, we offer our customers a new perspective. In the past, there has been a misconception that our instruments are only for the production of top quality. With our new line of yarn clearers, we’ve been given the access to customers whose main focus is on cost and good enough quality. The idea behind Total Testing is to help all spinning mills to consitently achieve the desired and targeted quality level at the highest possible output and lowest possible cost .”
Wasner underlined that the technology they produce help the customers to fully control the production process within the limits of the quality they demand. The basis is to combine laboratory sample testing with on-line testing, comparing test results from both to identify problems and waste in production. For example,
Wasner stated that a great success is achieved in clearing process thanks to the online yarn monitoring system and consequently the faults thay may occur in the weaving process can be seen. “If there are weak points in the yarn, e.g. thin places, end-breaks will occur during the weaving and knitting processes and generate costly stops and lower efficiency. The first step is therefore to identify the weak points, which is take care of by the yarn clearer during winding. Secondly, the root cause has to be identified to develop a “cure” or solution and this is done with lab instruments like USTER® AFIS PRO 2 (for fiber) and USTER® TESTER 5 (for yarns). Finally, our know-how and customer support help customer understand how to change machine settings and improve their production process to reduce waste and claims, yet meet customer quality expecations,” said Wasner.
Our Technologies Consume Less Energy and do not Produce Waste
Reine Wasner also gave some insights on how their R&D activities and technology development processes contribute to a more sustainable textile value chain. The main strategy is to develop technologies to help its customers to produce the right (does not have to be the highest!) quality demanded by the customers with minimum waste and energy consumption. Wasner stated that USTER’s focus is not on developing special environmental or sustainability products, but rather to utilize the latest technologies to enable maximum production efficiency while at the same time guaranteeing acceptable quality –otherwise waste is being produced. Wasner emphasized that USTER addresses environmental and sustainability issues by recognising potential sources of waste early. “Starting to monitor quality already in the blowroom, we help our customers and the environment to save energy, water and precious raw material by not producing yarn of a poor quality that becomes waste,” said Wasner.
Wasner stated that they help the customers to make the right decision and within USTER, they have a department focused on the application of textile technologies for that purpose only. “This department helps our customers how to use the data and information and makes them understand where to make the changes. This is a point which we want to include in our devices. By using USTER devices, we can predict the possible problems according to the test results. In such cases we make recommendations to our customers. There are only a few companies other than us that can do this and this is rewarding through long lasting partnerships with our customers,” said Wasner.
