Oerlikon Textile, which has a strong position in the market thanks to the innovative technologies it is has developed for the spinning machines, has been recently attracting attention with the e-save label. With the new product groups and the brands it includes in its body such as Barmag, Schlafhorst, Neumag, Saurer and Textile Components, the company attracted great interest at ITM 2012. At its booth of 400 sqm, the company experienced a busy process together with its visitors. At its booth, the company attracted attention with Autocoro 8 rotor spinning machine, WINGS POY winding machine for Polyamid 6, S+, the best selling equipment of BFC or Volkmann CT, the energy efficient two-for-one twisting machine. Oerlikon Textile, which exhibited its equipments at the booth B210, also established a ‘Virtual Showroom’, where it was possible to watch the complex facilities and process flows in 3D. The editors of Textil Dunyasi made a special interview with Andre Wissenberg, Vice President Marketing and Corporate Communications, and received detailed information about the works of the company for 2012.
Wissenberg, whom we reminded about the restructuring of Oerlikon in 2012, talked about the changes in the management and reducing the number of the business units to 3 from 5. “From the beginning of this year, we started to work with Clement Woon, our new Singaporean CEO. Woon is a manager, who has many years of working experience. On the other hand, the change in the business units is a necessity arising in time. People and organizations changes in time in order to develop. Our company is focused on the Asian market in the new period. For that reason we’ve changed some of the management positions from Germany to Asia. As a result of these changes, Oerlikon Textile increased its power as a global company. Therefore it doesn’t matter where our headquarter is. It is important that we are there where our customers are. So, that’s the reason why we’re in ITM, in other words in Turkey.”
Wissenberg reminded that Oerlikon Textile is through a growth process especially when it comes to the investments it makes in China, where the company has a big production site. Wissenberg also emphasized that they maintain their activities in Germany and Switzerland. Underlining that Oerlikon is a global company, Wissenberg stated that Oerlikon Textile has decided to move the top management to Shanghai owing to the fact that the region is the center of gravity for the textile business. “We can say that in the next 10-15 years, the Asian markets, especially China, will increase their dominance. That’s the reason why we made changes in our corporate structure,” said Wissenberg.
We Know the Turkish Customers well
Wissenberg stated that Turkey has been one of their most important markets for years and therefore they continue to focus on Turkey. Wissenberg reminded that they have been doing business in this market together with Erler, Tekstil Servis and Ecila for partly more than 60 years. Wissenberg continued by saying; “We know the Turkish customers very well and from a European point of view, I can say that Turkey is a very important market for us. We do not have an investment plan in Turkey but we’re focusing on developing the companies in Germany for the Turkish market.” Wissenberg added that they try to maintain their good relationships with the Turkish customers and to provide them with the best service.
We asked to Andre Wissenberg about the similarities and the differences between the Turkish and the Asian textile manufacturers. Wissenberg answered by stating that the manufacturers of both markets are faced with nearly the same problems and that the company offers solutions to them with their e-save concept. “The customers in Asia, especially in India and China, Turkey and in America, in Brazil, are faced with the same problems basically. We’ve detected the issues hampering our customers with our e-save activities. Everybody talks about using the energy effectively. That’s the reason why we established e-save programme in 2004. We focused on using the energy effectively and machines that ensure high productivity,” said Wissenberg.
Wissenberg emphasized that there aren’t too many differences in Turkey and China in terms of the market. Wissenberg added that the labour costs are increasing in China and more automation is needed right now. Wissenberg stated that 5 years ago the Chinese manufacturers looked for semi-automatic or manuel machinery but today they demand automation. Wissenberg continued by saying; “There has always been such a demand in Turkey. It is a country that performs a very high level of textile production and there is a lot of automation in the country. In this regard Turkey is a developed country while China is still developing. According to the twelfth 5-year plan prepared by the Chinese government, the Chinese sector has to be improved. The weakness in automation is a problem for the Chinese yarn manufacturers, therefore automation will be ensured in these fields initially.”
More Than a Label: e-save
Andre Wissenberg stated that the e-save concept is more than a label and that they have been working on the philosophy of e-save for more than 8 years. Wissenberg added that they’ve developed thanks to the e-save. “We started with focusing on energy efficiency. We made workshops with our R&D department. We’re disussing how we can improve the energy efficiency consumption in our machinery. The development process had begun and the concrete results were received already a few years later. For example the WINGS machine was the new POY system we introducted in the market in 2007. With this prouduct, we achieved a significant decline in energy consumption,” said Wissenberg.
Wissenberg reminded that they are now focusing on a more productive economic dimension and that sometimes it is not possible to manufacture machines that would ensure more production by using less energy. As an example to this, Wissenberg stated that there is a decline in the energy amount needed for the production of 1 kilogram yarn and he added that decreasing the energy consumption is an issue discussed from time to time while air productivity is an issue discussed more frequently. “Here, we’re not talking about a decline by 1 or 2 percent. We’re talking about 10 to 50 percent,” said Wissenberg and added that with its new concept, ALLMA CC4 cabling machinery reduces energy consumption by 50 percent.
Wissenberg underlined that all these products are related with the e-save label. “It is our philosophy, how we do development,” said Wissenberg and added that Oerlikon Textile’s e-save philosophy is not only a marketing activity compared to some other upcoming activities in the industry. Wissenberg continued by saying; “We want to show the customers that we have a green label. This green label has a very clear philosophy and strategy. We help our customers to save money in the market and contribute establishing a better environment for all of us.”
Wissenberg stated that e-save has been known by the Turkish customers for a few of years now. “Maybe not everybody can remember this as ‘e-save’ label yet, but when we talk about energy consumption with our customers, we do not focus much on marketing side of the issue. This is not our target. We just want to show the results to our customers. By this way the customers realise that they can save up to 20-40 percent on energy costs. And that’s important” said Wissenberg.
The Sales Targets for 2012 and the Potential of Turkey
Andre Wissenberg stated that the machines they’ve sold to the Turkish market recently are for new investment rather than modernization. Wissenberg added that modernization applications are also on a substantial level. “Most of our customers establish new plants next to their old facilities. The customers that aim to achieve a growth upgrade their facilities with new investments and new machineries. And we offer them a lot of upgrades and services, which is a part of our e-save activity,” said Wissenberg. Stating that they meet their customers’ demand for modernation and guide them in the right way, Wissenberg remarked that these upgrades are important both for the productivity of the customers and environmental protection.
Andre Wissenberg emphasized that they participated in ITM 2012 in order to present their innovations to their Turkish customers. Wissenberg showed Autocoro 8 machinery, which reflects the complete technological change of the rotor spinning machinery since 30 years, as an example. Wissenberg also stated that they offer innovations in the man-made fiber machinery and that they provide their customers with a further opportunity with their innovative technologies. “e-save and our philosophy behind guides the customer. When we look at the energy costs in Turkey, we see that they have been increasing over the last 5 years between 6 to 8 percent a year. So our customers have to pay much more money fot energy costs. If we know the solution to reduce the costs up to 50 percent, it will be a perfect solution and the customer will surely be very happy about it,” said Wissenberg.
Wissenberg remarked that Oerlikon’s Zinser ring spinning machine, the Autocoro rotor spinning and the Autoconer winding machines attract great interest in the Turkish market. Wissenberg stated that they have an important market in Turkey also in the field of carpet yarn production. Wissenberg remarked that they focus on Gaziantep region in this field. Stating that Neumag S+ and Saurer’s Volkman CT are in demand for BFC carpet yarn, Wissenberg stated that much more investments can be made in man-made fiber in Turkey, which has the potential for it.
Oerlikon Textile Conference Became the Mirror for Innovations
‘The cutting-edge technologies for the spinning mills of tomorrow’ were introduced at the Oerlikon Textile Conference, held on the first day of the exhibition. Clement Woon, new CEO of Oerlikon Textile, Andre Wissenberg, Vice President Marketing and Corporate Communications of Oerlikon Textile GmbH, Stefan Kross, Head of Oerlikon Textile Manmade Fibers and Daniel Lippuner, Head of Oerlikon Textile Components and Gerard Küsters, Head of Oerlikon Textile Natural Fibers made presentations at the exhibition. The innovative and eco-friendly technologies that ensure low energy consumption were the focal point of the presentations, through which the innovations of the 5 leading brand of the company were explained. Clement Woon, CEO of Oerlikon Textile since 1 January 2012, stated that they aim to convince the global textile markets with their motto ‘Innovation has a name’.
Oerlikon Barmag, the market leader for filament systems, exhibited its twelve-thread WINGS for polyamide 6 for the first time in İstanbul. The machine offers innovations in processing the demanding polymer to produce good yarn grades. The company’s automatic texture machine eAFK and its manuel model eFK, were presented to the visitors after ITMA Barcelona.
Autocoro 8, developed by Oerlikon Schlafhorst, is the first and only rotor spinning machine that can spin a yarn at a rotor speed of 200,000 rpm. By ensuring productivity increases of up to 25 percent and with fast machine start-up and multi-lot capability, this new technology decreases the spinning costs. The world’s longest semi-automatic rotor spinning machine BD 448 and the ring spinning machines Zinser 351 and 451, were the other important technologies of the brand.
Oerlikon Neumag, which has a strong position in the Turkish market with the BCF carpet yarns it has developed, ensures cost efficiency in production with S+ with three yarns, the best seller in 2011. The machine that produces the up-and-coming carpet material polyester BCF, which has been substituted for the twisted polyester yarn, increases the production capacities of the facilities.
Oerlikon Saurer’s Volkmann CT, which ensures high quality knitting, spinning and cost saving, eco-drive concept and eco-spindles are included in the e-save spindle family. The machine saves up to 40 percent of energy costs even for the finest yarn counts. Volkmann Heat-SET integrates cabling, thermofixing and winding in one process sequence. In addition to the new Allma TC2 two-for-one twisting machine, Alma CC4 and Epoca 6 ensures an increase in productivity with their innovations.
As for the innovations of Oerlikon Textile Compenents, solutions for the filament and staple fiber spinning mills stand out. Texparts PK 2630 SE Weighting Arms products of the company that introduced its innovations at ITMA Barcelona, can be used for machines from Rieter and LMW. Spindles with the Texparts Zero Underwinding System provides efficiency and operator-friendliness in use while preventing underwind threads. Since the new curved edge of the Daytex Shrinkage Belt is devoid of sharp edges, it prevents tears from forming and extends the belt’s service life. As for the Heberlein TexJet-ATY, it also has innovations in airlaid texturizing processes.
