Technological pace setter of the textile future

2007-6-25

Oerlikon Textile is synonymous with innovation and customer benefit　around the globe

 

 

240 kilograms of yarn, 8,000 metres per minute - Oerlikon Barmag machines draw their

filaments at 480 kilometres an hour, faster than any Formula I meteor. This outstanding

technological achievement makes Oerlikon the leading solutions supplier in manmade

fibre spinning. But innovative machines offering top quality and maximum efficiency in

textile production are just one piece in the mosaic of extensive expertise.

 

 

Customers can benefit from the segment’s know-how all the way along the textile value

creation chain. On request Oerlikon Textile will partner its clients from their initial

business idea to the functioning plant and the successful marketing of their products.

The service extends from financing to the turnkey installation.

 

To achieve this, Oerlikon Textile works closely with its customers and invests around

110 mio Swiss Francs (CHF), equivalent to roughly six per cent of its turnover, in

research and development. Over 450 scientists work solely on turning innovative ideas

into productive applications and establishing these quickly in the market. One result of

 

these efforts is the e-save® energy efficiency programme, for example, which is

characterized by production processes that conserve resources. The focus is on direct

customer benefits elsewhere too: customers can test out product attributes and

production sequences on manual, semi-manual and automatic systems around the world

in special technology centres, as well as researching new applications and business

areas.

 

 

This orientation to the requirements of a modern, dynamic market is based on a wealth

of experience. Oerlikon Textile can draw on the strengths of two traditional Swiss

companies. It came into existence at the beginning of 2007 with the acquisition by hightech group Oerlikon of the textile machinery manufacturer Saurer. Two firms with a

history stretching back 154 years on the one hand (Saurer AG) and 101 years on the

other (Oerlikon) are thus joined. Another company in the former Saurer Group has now

also become part of Oerlikon in the Oerlikon Graziano Drive Systems segment.

 

The roots of Oerlikon Textile lie in Europe, but its plants and offices populate the entire

world. Approximately 8,000 employees currently work at 50 production and service

locations internationally, mostly in multicultural teams. The principal markets are in

America, Turkey, the Middle East and in recent years increasingly in China and India,

the big growth regions in the textile industry.

 

The large operating radius of Oerlikon Textile is not only geographical. It also extends to

the various applications and end products created with the aid of innovative

manufacturing technologies in downstream process stages: from cotton T-shirts to hightech

fibres in aircraft, from nappies to delicately embroidered lingerie, from spacesuits to

substrate materials in transplant medicine.

 

To be able to meet the respective user requirements of customers satisfactorily, Oerlikon

Textile is structured into five business units:

 

􀂃 Oerlikon Neumag (staple fibre systems, nonwovens systems, carpet yarn systems);

􀂃 Oerlikon Barmag (filament yarn systems, texturing systems);

􀂃 Oerlikon Schlafhorst (Jinsheng-Saurer spinning preparation systems, rotor spinning

systems, Zinser ring spinning systems, winding systems);

􀂃 Oerlikon Saurer (Allma Volkmann twisting systems, Saurer and Melco embroidery

systems);