The evolution of quality management

Uster Technologies offers a unique portfolio of solutions for textile quality control, management and improvement, from fiber to fabric – adding value for each stage of production. Now, USTER strengthens that concept even further, enabling textile producers to actually prevent poor quality, rather than just recording it.

This latest advance combines textile know-how and technology with smart software, as the textile industry embraces the digital age through intelligent systems which promise faster, better and more cost-effective manufacturing.

Introducing data-based optimisation

“Digitalisation offers many opportunities for evolving and improving our systems and services,” says USTER CEO Thomas Nasiou. “At the same time, the core of our offering will always be Think Quality and all our efforts will aim towards quality measurement and management to maximise the value for our customers.”

At ITMA 2015, USTER introduced data evaluation to textile quality control, with the USTER® TESTER 6. This allowed users, for the first time, to combine both laboratory and in-process data from different production stages to optimise quality control and its management. In 2019, the next logical step is to extend this connected approach to the further production processes, to offer value modules which enable textile producers not only to be informed of quality problems but also prevent and optimise wherever possible. This is another major step in ‘managing a textile mill with quality in mind’.

Launching at ITMA 2019

USTER® QUALITY EXPERT, the Quality Management Platform, collects and evaluates information from different production stages and exands its insightful analytics with valuable intelligence as each additional instrument is connected. The entire process becomes more transparent for managers and operators. Finally, the Quality Management Platform drives consistent quality in every part of the spinning process.

The introduction of the Quality Management Platform marks an important evolution for Uster Technologies. It combines collection and smart data analysis from more process steps with the next level of knowledge-based alerts about possible defects and extended prognosis of yarn performance in subsequent processes. Also very new is the possibility for better contamination control and quality-based optimisation of the ring spinning process, including the possibility to stop defect production as early as possible.

Alerts are available on a mobile app and important performance indicators are also projected on dashboards – both with the target to trigger early reaction to problems. Of course, the reporting is also accessible on client terminals across the plant.

The Quality Management Platform will form the centerpiece of the USTER presentation at the upcoming ITMA 2019.