Autocoro 8 helps European firm boost output by 18%

Tirotex, Europe´s biggest textile company, has succeeded in overturning the practical limit on rotor spinning of 150,000 rpm that has been insurmountable for over 20 years. On its Autocoro 8 rotor spinning machines from Schlafhorst, Tirotex is spinning high-quality weaving yarns for its own weaving mill at a rotor speed of 1,60,000 rpm. This has been made possible by the innovative single drive technology of the Autocoro 8, which has smashed all the previously applicable productivity barriers.

Over 200 million square metres of wovens for the global market
The Tirotex textile company was established in Tiraspol, Moldova, in 1972. It is a vertically integrated manufacturer with a huge industrial complex that has a sophisticated infrastructure and its own power plant. The complex boasts its own spinning and weaving mills, dye shops, finishing plants and sewing lines employing over 3,200 people in all. Tirotex has invested consistently in innovative European textile machinery. The majority of its machines, which assume a key role in relation to quality and productivity, originate in Germany. The overall area of the production halls is equivalent to the size of 58 football pitches. With an annual output of over 200 mn sq m of finished fabrics and wovens, Tirotex is one of the biggest textile companies in Europe. It is export-oriented, manufacturing underwear and home textiles such as bedding, tablecloths, furnishing fabrics and curtains for the global market. Tirotex supplies dyed and printed fabrics made from 100 per cent cotton or polyester-cotton blends. The attributes of its wovens meet every customer requirement: they are resistant to water, oil, dust and stains, and do not crease, pill or shrink.

The company spins all the yarns for its fabrics. Tirotex operates 27 Autocoro rotor spinning machines from Schlafhorst. Each year it processes more than 17,000 tonne of cotton, primarily from Uzbekistan and Tadzhikistan. In the layout of its spinning mill, maximum productivity and a guaranteed yarn quality for downstream processing in the weaving mill are the defining objectives for Tirotex, and so the company has been investing for years in highly productive rotor spinning machines from Schlafhorst. With the new Autocoro 8 Tirotex has now smashed the seemingly unassailable barrier of 1,50,000 rpm and has thereby increased its production by 18 per cent.

´The limit now only exists in the mind´
For over 20 years, the maximum rotor speed of 1,50,000 rpm was regarded as the ceiling for rotor spinning – both in practice and with regard to the technology. There were good reasons for this in practice: higher rotor speeds can result in more yarn breaks, which reduce machine productivity. The time-consuming piecing process by the travelling piecing units with their long, unproductive travelling times nullify any increase in productivity on conventional rotor spinning machines. The belt drive also comes up against a physical limit – its design means that its running precision declines at higher speeds and on longer machines. Greater wear and quality loss are the consequences. And finally, energy consumption explodes on conventional rotor spinning machines as the speed rises – an absolute no-go issue in times of escalating energy costs.

The Autocoro 8 with its revolutionary single-drive technology smashes these limits. Technically the innovative rotor spinning machine is designed for rotor speeds of 200,000 rpm. ¨The practical limit of 150,000 rpm now only exists in the mind,¨ says Andrey Mezhinskiy, general director of Tirotex. ¨Schlafhorst long since overcame the barrier with the Autocoro 8. But no-one throws out overnight a rule that has applied for over 20 years. Neither do we. Many factors come together in practice. Various key indicators should be heeded if one wishes to increase profitability and efficiency in a susta