To lead a successful business in the textile industry, the spinning mills must use market trends and success factors as their guide. This applies to planning daily business as well as to decisions for the future in regard to investments in new machinery, technologies and applications. Developments at Oerlikon Schlafhorst, a Business Unit of the Oerlikon Textile branch of the corporation, are geared logically to this and get spinning mills into shape for the future.

When managers in the global textile industry are asked what topics and trends they are currently dealing with, the answers are always the same: raw materials, staff, energy and efficiency. To enable mills to master these challenges successfully, Oerlikon Schlafhorst offers spinning machines with the respective trendsetting innovations.

Utilisation of Raw Materials: Greater Productivity and Flexibility
Zinser's ring spinning machines are a good example of equipment made for particularly good raw material utilisation. The compact technology ImpactFX offers a convincing combination of raw material efficiency and maximum process reliability thanks to self-cleaning compact units and secure vacuum and compact stability.

In the field of rotor spinning, raw materials, raw material utilisation and the resulting process costs will be the focus of the future. "We will greatly extend the old productivity limits and set new standards in terms of flexibility," promises Mr Gerald Küsters, head of the Business Unit Oerlikon Schlafhorst.

Due to process sequences and units (eg, upper yarn sensor, Ecopack FX) that reduce waste, short and intelligent piecing cycles (single-motor drives) and a cleaner separation of waste and yarn residues, Oerlikon Schlafhorst's winding machines contribute to better raw material utilisation.

Automation: Exemplary Discipline for Autocoro & Co
When it comes to automation, spinning mills cannot ignore Oerlikon Schlafhorst technology with regard to rotor spinning machines. The Autocoro has set the benchmark for a fully automatic rotor spinning machine for decades and demonstrates this with its market leadership and a market share of over 60 per cent. Even Oerlikon Schlafhorst's semi-automated rotor spinning machines use automated processes, such as the automatic mass piecing process Joint Spinning In on the BD line, which is unique in this segment and guarantees complete machine start-up in just a few minutes.

In ring spinning, the automatic doffing process on the Zinser roving frame and on the ring spinning machine simplifies handling considerably. Manual work and thus the labour requirement are significantly reduced. Thanks to automatic transport systems for roving frame bobbins, spinning mills can adapt their logistics solutions individually to their requirements.

The Autoconer winding machine also offers various stages of automation. On the manual variant, the new X-Change package doffer is a crucial step towards automation. The labour requirement of spinning mills can be reduced even further with the machine types D and V with automatic material flow. On all Oerlikon Schlafhorst machines automation goes hand in hand with an increase in quality, because manual operating errors are eliminated and both processes and quality are monitored by sensors and online.

Energy Efficiency: Process-oriented Concepts for Positive Energy Balance
To optimise the energy requirement, Oerlikon Schlafhorst has invested in energy-saving total concepts, single-motor drives for intelligent piecing cycles and sensor-monitored processes and control systems. These measures lessen the dependence of spinning mills on the availability of power and ensure a positive energy balance for every kilogram of yarn.

Oerlikon Schlafhorst offers customer support, process monitoring and partnership during the entire product life cycle for rotor and ring spinning machines, winding machines and roving frames of all machine generations. A global service network guarantees swift assistance and rapid spare parts delivery round the clock. As a leading provider of total solutions, the company has been contributing extensive expertise towards engineering projects throughout the world for many years.