Stäubli to showcase global innovation in weaving & knitting technologies

In an exclusive interview to The Textile Magazine, Mr. Fritz LEGLER, Vice President – Marketing, Sales & Service, Stäubli, gave a broad outline of the emerging trends in the global textile industry particularly the role of European machinery manufacturers. He also dwelt at length on the high technology machines that his company proposes to showcase at ITMA 2019.

Excerpts:

Our teams are very excited about the opening of this year’s trade fair and welcoming our visitors, customers and partners to our two booths. We are prepared to present a sweeping overview of our extensive product portfolio, including our most recent innovations, at this dynamic international event. Stäubli was present at the very first ITMA held at Lille in 1951, and today, 68 years later, I can say that we have never missed a single ITMA as a prime opportunity to show our future-oriented products and advantage-bringing solutions.

ITMA, and especially ITMA Europe, is an important event not only for Stäubli but for the whole textile world, particularly for European machinery providers offering cutting-edge solutions that offer even more advantages to textile-producing industrials.

At ITMA we benefit from the presence of influencers, decision takers, customers, and partners around the world – and all these players benefit from the resulting discussions on the customer needs and expectations. This is an ideal opportunity for us to meet many of them in one place to hear what they think of the vast spectrum they see offered here and learn more about their specific markets and the emerging trends and developments they are experiencing. Our presence allows us to build strong personal relationships based on knowledge and trust. We believe that business partners have to trust each other. When it comes to automation for weaving and sock knitting, Stäubli’s global presence, combined with our competent service and reliable support, is a solid foundation for long-term relations with our business partners.

Stäubli @ ITMA

Our two-level booth in the weaving hall (C201/H4) and our knitting solutions booth (B212/H8.1) allow us to present a significant selection of machinery and offer an overview of Stäubli’s broad range of solutions. As a leading supplier of automation solutions for weaving preparation and shedding solutions for frame and Jacquard weaving, we are dedicating a large area to these product ranges. In weaving preparation, we are presenting warp-tying installations and a SAFIR S60 drawing-in machine featuring Active Warp Control – all in operation. Many cam motions, including a new model, and electronic rotary dobbies of the S3000/S3200 series can be seen on plots, also in operation. Three complete Jacquard installations featuring our LX/LXL/LXXL series are weaving interesting applications, and our ALPHA 500 carpet weaving system allows walking over the weaver’s stand to closely observe the production of various carpets. 

Regarding today’s global textile market business situation, we hope that Barcelona will bring some fresh wind, inspiring ideas, and positive vibes to the struggling market. Our target audience includes our customers, weaving and knitting mills seeking to complete their factories with reliable and flexible machinery and to find out how our automation solutions can boost their profitability where they might still be employing older, traditional production methods, in either weaving preparation or sock knitting. We offer them solutions that promise great time savings and allow them to produce more metres of first-quality woven fabrics.

At our booth in the weaving hall, visitors can see a broad overview of Stäubli’s extensive product range and discuss their needs with our teams in order to find optimum solutions for their mill.

Global performance

Overall, 2018 was a good year for Stäubli. As expected, textile activity weakened last autumn, but ITMA Asia in October was a good opportunity for us to make many contacts. We met many customers, had productive talks, and received confirmation that we are on the right track with our broad range of weaving solutions and that the products we present are in line with the market needs. Regarding 2019, we cannot deny that the global textile market is currently struggling.

China, India and Turkey remain the main big three, even if they are facing difficulties in global trade. India just finished its elections, so let’s look forward with a positive mindset and count a little on ITMA Europe to boost the market – and we’ll see what comes in the next months.

New applications

As we saw at ITMA Milano, demand for large-format Jacquard machines is still going strong, and we are meeting it with our perfectly adapted LXXL machine, available with up to 25,600 hooks. Mills can even combine two machines to achieve formats up to 51,200 hooks.

The ultra-high-end market is less affected than those supplying low and middle range garment segments. High-end fabrics need to be protected against counterfeiting, and at ITMA Barcelona Stäubli will be showing a new generation of Jacquard machines that allows weavers to do this very elegantly.

Regarding applications shifting to knitting mills, mattress ticking remains a large market that is more or less lost for the weaving sector, but this has been so for a while. On the other hand, you can see some technical applications, but some others are coming back to weaving and are turning away from knitting. Stäubli is working in close collaboration with its customers on these issues. We strive to recognise market trends in their infancy in order to adapt our range of solutions and to give mills the machinery they need to perform as required and produce with efficiency.

Manufacturing competence

Through our drive for excellence, we are constantly expanding our expertise and experience in mechatronics by designing, producing, selling and providing support for products and systems in markets where high productivity, reliability and precision are essential. Today the Group operates 14 industrial production sites serving its three activities: Connectors, Robotics and Textile. The plants are run to the highest quality standards. Stäubli employs around 5,500 personnel worldwide, including around 600 R&D specialists and application engineers and 2,000 sales and customer service engineers.

Industry 4.0 is an opportunity to strengthen and develop long-term relationships even further and to help customers find new solutions for their daily challenges. Stäubli, as a leader in its field, is constantly innovating to maintain the role of a solution provider that delivers its customers the very best machinery, systems, and services for their industrial production.

Aftersales service

Stäubli’s service infrastructure is a worldwide organisation. Our global workforce of 5,500 shares a commitment to partnering with customers in nearly every industry to provide comprehensive solutions with long-term support. The Stäubli guarantee of high quality, reliability and performance is built into every one of our products. But helping customers meet the industry’s growing demand for high productivity also requires strong support. Partnering with our customers worldwide to provide personal service and support are key to ensuring efficient production and minimal downtime. This is supported as well by our online spareparts catalogue, which makes for quick and easy ordering and is highly appreciated by our customers.