VDMA: Going digital at ITMA

ITMA 2019 is once again marked by a significant presence of German companies. More than 220 exhibitors from Germany including more than 110 VDMA member companies 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 21,000 sq m, an increase of booth space by approximately 3.5 per cent compared to ITMA 2015.

VDMA members show in Barcelona most advanced technology solutions and applications of Industry 4.0 (also called Industrial Internet of Things for intelligent and integrated manufacturing) including Smart Services.

During the VDMA press conference at ITMA, spokespersons of twelve renowned VDMA member companies showed how Industry 4.0 solutions are impacting the textile process chain. Here are their statements:

Alexandre Butte, Director Business Development, ANDRITZ Perfojet: “ANDRITZ has pooled its relevant expertise to offer attractive digital solutions for existing and new plants under one technology brand: Metris. Metris technologies are the very latest state-of-the-art in the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) or Industry 4.0 sector and can be fully tailored to individual customer requirements.”

Pieper, CTO, Brückner Trockentechnik: “Software innovations around textile machines are becoming increasingly important in product development. Our newly developed mobile machine operation panels and management cockpits have increased user-friendliness significantly. Advanced production assistance systems support the operator to maximize production output at the lowest possible cost while maintaining a consistent high-quality level. Our advanced service tools offer new features such as predictive maintenance, video tutorials and augmented reality support.”

André Imhof, COO, Autefa Solutions: “Digitalisation succeeds when the focus is on customer benefits. Our Service 4.0 covers all aspects of improving the bottom line of a production line during lifetime. Based on the availability of a permanent digital communication, Autefa Service 4.0 provides well-graded services for customer’s benefit. Autefa Service 4.0 integrates tasks from well-known daily jobs up to high sophisticated big data algorithms always focused on customer needs.”

Dierk Dornieden, Head of Sales, Dienes Apparatebau: “The DIENES MultiMode system is the I4.0 for research. All the functionalities of the MultiMode® allow the research institutes and the industry to reduce cost and to operate fast and flexibly in the development of new products.”

Marcus Ott, Managing Director, Halo: “In our view the textile industry needs custom-tailored IT solutions to reach the highest level of data transparency – from fibre to finished product. Direct communication between man and machine does not only enable this consistently transparent presentation of all relevant data, but also gives employees flexible and, most importantly, mobile access to it.”

Antonia Gottschalk, Managing Director, KM.ON, a software start-up company of Karl Mayer: “At ITMA we will build a bridge from machine building via applications and textiles up to the topic of Industry 4.0: We will show seven innovative machines, giving an insight into the “Future of Textiles” and present new digital solutions of KM.ON. The products of our digital brand can be used by our customers and by other textile manufacturers to considerably improve their processes in all business units. So, for example, the innovations include a first product belonging to k.production, by means of which it is possible to efficiently eliminate and analyse malfunctions during the production flow. Besides, our software start-up, KM.ON GmbH, has already set up first subsidiaries abroad, in Asia. In this way, we can sharpen the regional focus of our offers, at the same time receiving important stimuli for new developments from our main market.”

Sebastian Mayer, Member of the Management, Mayer & Cie.: “We aim to always be one step ahead. The digitisation offers us valuable opportunities to stay true to our company principle, beyond the developments in technology.”

Klaus A Heinrichs, Vice President, Monforts Textilmaschinen: “With the help of Monforts advanced sensor technology, all technical machine data are mapped in the cloud virtually and in real time. The data in the cloud indicate the current state of the system with its respective specifications and can map the entire production process, enabling targeted analysis and controlled planning and production: Insights harnessed from data analyses can be used to optimise the actual production process. The status overview in real-time improves machine availability while minimising downtime considerably. Potential sources of error can be anticipated and eliminated. The digital twin provides information on individual wear parts of a system, such as converters or gears, for example. In the future operators will be able to see how long a wearing part will last and when it has to be maintained or replaced ahead of time. Direct access to the integrated Monforts webshop allows users to order wearing and spare parts at the press of the button when they are needed, virtually preventing machine downtime.”

Wilhelm Langius, Division Head, Neuenhauser Maschinenbau: “Neuenhauser saw with the recent advances in autonomous vehicles and navigation systems that AGV’s are necessary for the spinning mill future. AGV stands for Automatic Guided Vehicles, a technology that has been around for years but has been fuelled recently by the introduction of Industry 4.0. Within shortest time, our team developed a state-of-the-art transport system using a large fleet of intelligently controlled automated guided vehicles. At ITMA Europe 2019, we will be presenting our AGV’s to the specialist audience for the first time and are very excited about
the response.”

André Wissenberg, Vice President Marketing, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment: “Oerlikon invites all visitors to this year’s ITMA on a journey into the future of manmade fiber production. We will show all our guests our vision of a sustainable and automated manmade fiber production in a spectacular virtual 4D showroom: “Clean Technology. Smart Factory.” is the motto of the future. And this is only a stone’s throw away from reality at our booth. Today we are presenting four world premieres for efficient machine and plant concepts in a new, innovative industrial design. Together with numerous other innovations, all this forms our new DNA.”

Andreas Hannes, Marketing Manager, Sedo-Treepoint: “Digitalisation and the smart factory are big challenges for our customers – especially in dyeing and finishing, there is a high potential for savings and technological improvements. Sedo Treepoint as a market leader in dyeing and finishing automation has been providing innovative solutions to our customers for more than
40 years. Our new developments shown at ITMA are designed for the Smart factory and will help customers
to strengthen competitive advantages. We are your Experts for process optimisation!”

Dr Christof Soest, CTO, Truetzschler: “Excellent spinning preparation is crucial for yarn quality – and at Truetzschler, I4.0 technologies help to make this process even smarter. By integrating intelligent, self-optimising machinery solutions and digital systems Truetzschler enables customers
to take a big step towards automation to ensure
consistent quality.”