World Machinery Shipments in 2010

The ITMF (International Textile Manufacturers Federation) has recently released a report showing the world shipments of textile machinery in 2010 (the ITMF’s 33^rd annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics). The report indicates that at the moment, some sectors of the cotton and textile industries are still suffering from the world recession. However this is not the case for the textile machinery industries, especially in 2010. Comparison with the textile machinery shipments in 2008-2009, a strong growth was recorded for these shipments in 2010.  Shipments of the following items in 2010 were found to increase in various percentages, for examples:

-          75% for short-staple spindles

-          163% for long-staple spindles

-          212% for open-end rotors

-          146% for shuttle-less looms

-          36% for large circular knitting machines

-          187% for electronic flat knitting machines

In this article, only the shipments of spinning and texturing machinery are stated in detail.

Spinning Sector

World shipments of short-staple spindles in 2008 and 2009 were found to drop 33% and 17%, respectively. On the contrary, shipments of these items increased 75% to 12.5 million spindles in 2010 which was closed to those shipments of 12.8 million spindles in 2007. Of the total shipments in 2010, 96% or 11.9 million short-staple spindles were shipped to Asia in which China ordered for 63% or 7.9 million spindles, followed by India 19% (2.4 million spindles), Indonesia 4% (500,000 spindles), Bangladesh 3.2% (400,000 million spindles) and Turkey 2.4% (300,000 spindles).

In 2010, world shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles increased 163% to 84,000 spindles. It was found that shipments to Asia increased 99% to 33,400 spindles, those to Europe (including Turkey) increased 263% to 38,400 spindles, and those to South America increased 139% to 11,000 spindles. North America has made a purchase order of 1,150 long-staple spindles while there was no order from Africa in 2010.

For world shipments of open-end rotors, the report shows that in 2008 and 2009, shipments dropped 66% to 195,650 rotors and 26% to around 144,500 rotors, respectively. In 2010, those shipments significantly increased 212% to 450,000 rotors. 83% of these total shipments in 2010 or 374,000 rotors were shipped to Asia with China shared for 72% or 323,000 rotors, Brazil shared for 5.5% (24,800 rotors), India shared for 5.5% (24,600 rotors), the United States shared for 4.7% (21,100 rotors), and Turkey shared for 2.3% (10,400 rotors).

Texturing Sector

The report shows that world shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (for polyamide filaments) increased 2,095% from 2,880 spindles in 2009 to 63,240 spindles in 2010. China was the biggest buyer with a share of 71% of total shipments or 44,700 spindles, followed by Brazil with 21% (13,500 spindles), Belarus with 4.7% (3,000 spindles), and Taiwan with 2.7% (1,728 spindles). For shipments of double heater draw-texturing spindles (for polyester filament), an increase of 109% from 248,000 spindles in 2009 to 518,000 spindles in 2010 was found. China remained the biggest buyer with the amount of 365,000 spindles or 71% share, followed by India with 54,000 spindles (10% share), Vietnam with 20,600 spindles (4% share), Thailand with 13,200 spindles (2.5% share), Japan with 12,200 spindles (2.4% share), Turkey with 7,000 spindles (1.4% share), and Brazil with 6,200 spindles (1.2% share).

Latest Development in Spinning Sector

Early this year Mr. Taneji Ichikawa, President of the Japan Cotton Traders’ Association, has publicly made 4 proposals (from the spinners and cotton trader sectors in Japan) regarding cotton production shown as follows.  The first proposal relates the offering of “high spinnability cotton.” Spinners need cotton that is contamination-free and possesses excellent grade, staple length, micronaire and fiber strength. Moreover, the efficiency of the spinning operation is also very important for maintaining yarn quality. The goals are to process cotton at high speeds without yarn breakage, and to improve the spinning yield while reducing cotton waste.

The second proposal is to maintain cotton supply in a steady and sufficient volume. It is hoped that world production of cotton will be increased especially for extra-fine cotton. The third proposal involves the stabilization of the world cotton prices. Price fluctuations in the world cotton market have made an adverse influence upon cotton growers and consumers, while maintaining stability in the world cotton market should be a top priority to be concerned. The last proposal involves the environmentally friendly cotton production. It is necessary to adopt the integrated pest management and other strategies that enable producers to improve resource use, reduce environmental waste, lower the discharge of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and strengthen relations with local stakeholders. In addition, it is also important to improve the working conditions to those involved in the production of cotton.

Reto Thom from Rieter has stated earlier that speed and flexibility are the future of spinning. He has shown that Rieter is exploring new ways to increase fiber yield as well as working with customers on recycling and reusing waste projects. The company is focusing on sustainable technologies with minimal power consumption. It must be realized that high-performance equipment can reduce space requirements and therefore decrease the amount of space facilities needed to be heat or cool. In spinning preparation step, focuses must be put on maximum fiber yield, the highest possible performance, and consistent quality. Spinning machines nowadays must provide users with options to adapt easily to new trends such as core yarn or slub yarns, or to a different kind of raw material completely. Increasing demand for fiber and yarn, identifying new raw materials, and a focus on innovation will all help to keep the spinning industry lively. Finally, in order to keep the industry’s momentum going, there must be well-trained and dedicated young professionals who enjoy working with textiles.

Rieter

During June 14-17, 2011, Rieter exhibited its two latest spinning technologies: the C 70 high performance card and the new generation R 60 rotor spinning machine, at Shanghaitex 2011.  In addition to these highlight, the company also showed Rieter yarns under the brands of Rieter Ring yarn, Com4 yarn, ComfoRo yarn, and ComforJet yarn produced from Rieter’s 4 spinning technologies consisting of ring spinning, compact spinning, rotor spinning, and air-jet spinning.

The C 70 is a 1.5 meter-wide high performance card that offers a number of improvements over the earlier generation C 60 card. Due to a redistribution of the carding zones in the flats area and redesigned flats guiding, the new card C 70 is able to increase its production performance by up to 40% while maintaining or improving sliver quality. It features 32 operative flats that can provide a 45% greater active flats area than the C 60, and a 60% greater area than conventional cards. Thanks to its precise flats guiding system and updated design, a precise and reproducible minimum distance of 0.1 mm can be set between the cylinder clothing and the flats. There are two new draw frames to offer: the RSB-D 22 double head draw frame and the RSB-D 45 single head draw frame.  Both types are perfect autoleveling function for best sliver quality. Other features also include an extraction knife with variable ejector distance located in the pre- and post-carding area to optimize fiber utilization, plus quick exchange of the knife without tools; a frequency converter that enables infinitely adjustable flats speed independent of the cylinder speed; and 15% lower energy needs per kg of produced card sliver than the C 60. Options include Rieter’s exclusive fully automatic integrated cylinder grinding system.

The new S 60 spinning unit with improved technology is very easy to operate

The new automatic R 60 rotor spinning machine offers a better productivity and flexibility, compared with the previous generations. Its advantages originate from the new S 60 spinning unit with unique spinning geometry and a robot with an accelerated cycle. Due to the new arrangement of nozzle and TWISTstop in the new S 60 spinning unit, the spinning stability increases while the number of ends down decreases. This feature leads to an increase of productivity per spinning position by up to 5%. In addition, the modular robot construction also helps increasing the speed by 10% while a complete doffing and piecing cycle can be done in only 22 seconds. With the newly designed TWISTunit, the set-up times can be reduced to the absolute minimum. Individual drives for the feed cylinder improve the AEROpiecing^® technology for yarn-like piecings by their direct and immediate control of the sliver feed.  The R 60 can have up to 540 rotors. Compared with the previous model R 40, the R 60 can further increase productivity by 8% and reduce energy consumption by 5%.  A new option for the R 60 allows spinning different lots independently on each machine side.  Fancy yarns can also be made on the R 60 that equipped with the VARIOspin.

Oerlikon Textile

At Shanghaitex 2011, Oerlikon Textile presented products of its 5 brands shown as follows. Oerlikon Barmag, German-based market leader for filament machines, introduced the new eAFK automatic texturing machine that combines proven technology from previous models with a flexible, modular machine structure and offers increased productivity with reduced personnel requirements. The innovation WINGS spinning system is now available for FDY.  In addition, the new multi-threaded automatic winding head for high-strength special yarns is also offered and this leads to less energy consumption and less space utilization.

Oerlikon Schlafhorst, the market and innovation leader in ring spinning, rotor spinning and winding, introduced its Zinser ring spinning machines. With these machinery, the automatic doffing process makes handling simple; the manual effort and with it the labor requirement are significantly reduced. Furthermore, with the ImpactFX compact technology, the raw material efficiency and process reliability increase. In winding, Autoconer provides various automation levels and machine types to further reduce the labor requirement.

Zinser ring spinning machines  from Oerlikon.

Oerlikon Neumag, the leading supplier in the manufacture of sophisticated BCF carpet yarns, exhibited the S+ generation of machine for the production of highly developed BCF carpet yarns. The BCF machine also provides all benefits of previous technologies as well as significantly higher processing speed and performance. In the production of synthetic staple fibers, the 300 tons-per-day unit sets the benchmark in the manufacture of polyester staple fibers with the largest capacity for an individual line anywhere in the world.

Oerlikon Saurer, the leader in embroidery and twisting, exhibited several technologies shown as follows. The Volkmann FT is the two-for-one twisting machine for staple fiber yarns. The Volkmann carpet cabler helps reducing operating costs in the carpet yarn sector. With the Volkmann GT-series ring spinning machines, technical applications are now possible as well as up-twisting glass filaments. The Allma CC3 (a two-for-one machine) and CC4 cabling machines offer users with quality, economic efficiency and low energy consumption (energy saving up to 50%). Finally, the Epoca 6 generation offers perfection and maximum productivity in shuttle embroidery as well as a higher production speed by up to 30%.

Suessen

Suessen EliTe^® is currently the preferred compact spinning system which has been proven by 3,000,000 EliTe^® compact spindles in India (out of almost 5,000,000 EliTe^® compact spindles running worldwide). With EliTe^® compact, yarn strength and elongation can increase up to 20%.  This helps reducing the twist multiplier of the yarn, yielding higher production, and decreasing power consumption per kg of yarn. Furthermore, combing can be reduced as well as the reduction of waste. With this spinning system, lower grade cotton may be used. Compact yarn was initially used for weaving, mostly Ne 40’s to Ne 60’s for shirting. Nowadays, there are at least 700,000 to 800,000 EliTe^® spindles are used for knitting yarns. The commercial count range of Suessen EliTe^® compact yarn is now available from Ne 8’s to Ne 300’s.

Another development by Suessen is the EliTwist^® compact spinning system. Over 350,000 spindles are now operating in India. The yarn count ranges and their applications are from 2/20’s for the outer shell of rain coats, 2/40’s for trousers, 2/60’s for knitting, 2/100’s for sari blouses, and all the way to 2/170’s for special knitting applications.

Uster

The Uster^® Quantum 3 is the new yarn clearer for all spinning mills. Generally, yarn manufacturers have to carry out their own fault analysis and to work out the most effective and profitable quality control regime for their yarn clearers. With Quantum 3, it’s just like having an all-time expert on hand. Quantum 3 contains optical and foreign matter sensors that can see everything, in greater detail than any previous yarn clearer. In combination with powerful processing electronics, the system displays the full yarn body. The new foreign matter sensor has multiple light sources for detecting new colored foreign fibers and helping separation of colored foreign fibers from mostly non-disturbing vegetable matter. A brand new polypropylene clearing option is available for the completion of the contamination package of the Uster^® Quantum 3. There are several improvements featuring in Quantum 3 such as a better sealed clearer core to keep out dirt and dust, as well as reinforced sensors to cope with vibration, a wider foreign fiber sensor, and new air blowing arrangements (to reduce dirt build-up at the sensor).

Uster^® Quantum 3, a new yarn clearer for all spinning mills