Interview with Dr Carsten Voigtlander

We have presented the new benchmarks from our point of view at the International Exhibition of Textile Machinery (ITMA) 2007 in Munich in September. With the new automatic package winding machine Autoconer 5 from Oerlikon Schlafhorst, we will clearly raise the bar concerning productivity, quality, efficiency, and availability. With our new Oerlikon Neumag product ‘Sytec One’, we were able to achieve a productivity increase of 40% compared with before as regards the BCF production of carpet yarns. Our new production technique for synthetic staple fibres also beats the records and now allows producing 400 instead of 250 tons per day – which is a top performance on the market. And our new concept of Oerlikon Barmag POY spinning reduces investments as well as operating costs.

However, these isolated cases are only excerpts. We believe the actual progress of efficient textile production to be in the overall contemplation of a solution along its value added chain, in a project, if possible starting with the feasibility study and ending with the implementation of the machines and their guarantee. This is how the greatest advantages can be generated. We call this ‘total solutions’.

Oerlikon Textile stands for high grade overall solutions in textile engineering and in manufacturing and processing natural and synthetic fibres, yarns as well as nonwovens. The segment of the Oerlikon Group operates in all market segments of staple fibre processing, filament and nonwovens production and is, in each case, either the number one or the number two on the market.

Currently, more than 60 per cent of all textiles worldwide are produced in China and in India. These two Asian regions alone are currently responsible for a global growth of more than 3 per cent as regards production of all kinds of fibres. This trend which has been constant for about 5 years will still increase – not least because demand for textiles and end-consumers’ requirements are also on the increase in Asia’s populous threshold countries. The state support programmes too, in particular in China, India, Vietnam and Turkey encourage the import of high grade production technology which mainly comes from Europe. We will continue to benefit doubly from this.

Let us only take a look at the staple fibre market in this region: In India, as a classic ring-spinning country, demand mainly focuses on our high-end automatic winding machines Autoconer 338 and now, newly, Autoconer 5. They guarantee the customer optimum yarn and package quality following the ring spinning. In China, there is an increase in particular in the mid-range quality sector for the reasons mentioned above. Also in this case, we have precisely the right products with our Oerlikon Schlafhorst business unit to be able to participate to a considerable extent in the continuing boom in the natural fibre markets.