SHANGHAI/FRANKFURT — October 21, 2016 — ITMA ASIA + CITME 2016, Asia’s foremost trade fair dedicated to textile machinery, is once again marked by a significant presence of German companies both in their number and in the quality of their technology. German technology can indeed play a major role in China’s and other countries efforts to make the environment cleaner and to increase the energy efficiency of the textile industry. Furthermore, with their products and services the VDMA member companies have already taken steps towards Industrie 4.0, in China called intelligent manufacturing.
Visitors to the event will have an opportunity to appreciate the high level of technology being proposed by more than 100 German machinery manufacturers exhibiting at the fair. They cover nearly all different machinery chapters with a focus on spinning, nonwoven, weaving, knitting, warp knitting and finishing. The overall exhibition space occupied by German machinery manufacturers is more than 7.000 square meters, confirming Germany’s leading position among exhibiting foreign countries.
The commitment of VDMA members to sustainability
On the occasion of the VDMA press conference on the opening day of ITMA ASIA, Fritz P. Mayer, chairman of VDMA Textile Machinery and Associate of Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik emphasised that German technology can play a major role in efforts to make the environment cleaner, to increase the energy efficiency and so the competitiveness of textile producers. “For some time now, VDMA member companies have been focusing on the issue of sustainability for their products, in order to satisfy the demand for efficient technology solutions that effectively cut back on consumption, and consequently on production costs” explained Mayer. New technology is the number one key to better products and competitive production. And, technology is one precondition for resource and energy saving, he explained. Professionally investing customers are happy to pay for sustainable technologies and improved energy efficiency. VDMA calls this “Sustainability meets profit“, Mayer concluded.
Energy savings of up to 30 percent
VDMA started its sustainability initiative Blue Competence, to which over 40 textile machinery companies have adhered, already back in 2011. Instead of scientific certification experiments and theoretical approaches, VDMA always focused on best practice examples. First to mention is an analysis by VDMA experts that examined the energy saving effects over the entire production chain of five textile products: A cotton T-Shirt, a functional T-Shirt a textile billboard, an architectural textile and a hygienic nonwoven. The result of this in-depth analysis is impressive: In the production of these products up to 30 percent energy can be saved with German technology of today compared to the one available 10 years ago. Details of this analysis are available as a brochure at the VDMA booth.
Steps towards Industrie 4.0
The future of the textile industry is more and more determined by Industrie 4.0. This interconnection of information technology and manufacturing processes is on track. Thomas Waldmann, Managing Director, VDMA Textile Machinery: “Leading customers are increasingly interested in condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, including remote services.” Other hot topics according to him are virtual machines, traceability, remote control data exchange, self-optimising, intelligent user interfaces or individualisation. Generally speaking, smart machine controllers will correct process parameters automatically according to the sensors report. Or, if delivery deadlines are not met, downstream production processes will be adjusted immediately. Without discussing the potential of new business models, immediate advantages of Industrie 4.0 are improved plant efficiency, more economical production processes, energy savings, more flexible production, just to name a few.
Chinese textile industry – Germany biggest foreign supplier
Between January and May this year, the Chinese textile industry imported machinery worth 1.04 billion Dollar, with an increased focus on advanced technology. With a market share of 35 percent, Germany is the biggest supplier. Against the trend of decreasing imports, the deliveries of spinning machinery increased by 20 percent from January to May, from Germany by 25 percent.
Posted October 21, 2016
Source: VDMA
