Oerlikon Schlafhorst with new technologies at ITMA

Oerlikon Schlafhorst, the market and technological leader for spinning mill machines in the short staple range, sets new milestones on the ITMA 2011. With innovative machines and technologies, Oerlikon Schlafhorst opens up completely new possibilities for the production of innovative products, in rotor spinning and ring spinning as well as in winding. 

Also in the focus: trends and requirements of spinning mills for more costefficient production processes. Oerlikon Schlafhorst supports the spinning mills in coping with these challenges with great success.

Autocoro 8 – the high-tech revolution of rotor spinning

The new Autocoro 8, celebrating its premiere on the ITMA and shown there in live action, will revolutionise the automatic rotor spinning technology and is the most important innovation in rotor spinning within the last 30 years. It opens the door for up to 25 % more productivity and for even better yarns and packages. With the new Autocoro 8, spinning mills are as flexible as never before, and spinning costs can also be reduced.

Thus the new Autocoro generation offers a variety of potentials, no matter whether yarns for mass production or yarns for special applications are produced. This new rotor spinning machine is based upon an innovative machine concept with single drive technology. Every spinning position is autonomous and individually automated. Single drives, already successfully established by Oerlikon Schlafhorst for its winding machine Autoconer and used in the former Autocoro generations for individual functions, are the key to the increased capacities of the new Autocoro 8. Top-level performances are guaranteed, even if raw materials are used which challenge the automated machine by their high piecing frequency. In addition there are rapid acceleration times, which are up to 80 % shorter than with conventional rotor spinning machines equipped with belt drives.

The consequence: Down times during acceleration are dropped, as well as the energy losses involved. Reduced productivity, as has been typical for long machines up to now, is a thing of the past. Rotor speeds can be increased by up to 10 %. Up to 5 lots can be produced simultaneously. Lot changes may even be ‘flowing’ - i.e. without interrupting production. Spinning positions consuming energy during lot changes without production now are a thing of the past. Furthermore, personnel and logistics costs are reduced, and in downstream processing, for example in warping room and weaving mill, yarn breaks are reduced by up to 50 %. The Autocoro 8, the new masterpiece of Oerlikon Schlafhorst’s engineers, is a quantum leap in rotor spinning and makes it fit for the future. 

BD 448 – Get even more

The market leader Oerlikon Schlafhorst offers trend-setting new technologies for the economic utilisation of resources for the semi-automatic rotor spinning machine series BD, too. This is proven by the new semi-automatic rotor spinning machine BD 448, which is the longest semi-automatic rotor spinning machine in the world with its 448 spinning positions. The BD 448 is the only machine in its class that is equipped with the synchronous piecing system Joint Spinning In JSI. Thus the BD 448 obtains its full productivity at the touch of a button, in only 10 % of the time needed by a conventional semi-automatic machine. Another advantage of the new BD 448 is its energy consumption, which is up to 10 % lower than for former BD generations. 

Automation from one single source – from roving frame through to cross-wound package 

Oerlikon Schlafhorst is the only supplier offering excellent opportunities for the highest possible degree of automation in the ring spinning mill, adapted to individual customer requirements. From the roving frame through to the winding machine, a process flow without manual handling is possible: After automatic doffing and transfer of the roving bobbins into flexibly configurable roving bobbin transport systems, the roving bobbins are specifically fed to the ring spinning machines in the shortest possible way. The doffer of the ring spinning machine, too, automatically puts the bobbins onto the bobbin carriers, which in linked systems are directly fed to the Autoconer for producing crosswound packages. Automated and intelligent material flow, automated and adapted bobbin handling as well as automatic and most rapid package change with the new XChange make a perfect, fully automated ring spinning mill. The customers benefit from reductions in personnel, space, and logistics costs, eliminate human operating errors and thus can trust in the highest possible process reliability.

Zinser 670 RoWeMat – individual automation for highest quality 

The integrated automatic doffer and the automatic bobbin transfer station RoWeLift are the keys to more automation and to bobbin handling without manual interventions. The Zinser roving frame 670 is the only one to offer an additional integrated tube stripper, thus enabling an efficient utilisation of the raw material. Highest roving bobbin quality is guaranteed due to intelligent machine control. 

Zinser 351 Impact FX – automatically highest compact quality 

The Zinser 351 Impact FX with 1680 spindles is the longest compact ring spinning machine in the world. Zinser compact spinning technology sets the benchmark for quality and economic efficiency. The self-cleaning and maintenance-free compacting system always guarantees maximum compacting performance. The negative pressure for compacting is guaranteed to be constant over the entire machine length, for it is electronically controlled and independent of the normal spinning vacuum. Thus a high and constant yarn quality is guaranteed at any time. In addition, the compacting element is aerodynamically optimised for spinning most different fibres. That makes the Zinser 351 Impact FX the ring spinning machine with the highest possible flexibility. It is the only machine which enables the spinning mill to reduce spinning costs through specific raw material selection. 

Zinser – market leader for worsted yarn ring spinning machines 

Zinser worsted yarn spinning systems are globally acknowledged as top-quality technological products for premium worsted yarns. The Zinser 451 C³ technology combines top quality with top productivity. Due to better fibre utilisation, yarn twist can be reduced by 10 – 15 % with identical strength and elongation. At the same time, the number of yarn breaks is up to 50 % lower compared to other worsted yarn spinning machines, thus spinning mills benefit from improved productivity.

Autoconer X5 - ready, steady, go! 

With the Autoconer X5, Oerlikon Schlafhorst customers make investments in the winding technology of the future, offering maximum freedom for highest economic efficiency and quality in winding. For example with PreciFX: Here the customers enter the world of digital yarn displacement directly from the bobbin to the package. They are able to define their individual package quality using all FX high-performance modules available. As all resources, whether time, staff, energy, or raw material, are available only in limited quantities, the Autoconer X5 offers starting points for an economic reduction of process costs in many respects. With the Autoconer X5, Oerlikon Schlafhorst customers are optimally prepared for the future, because, for example, due to Plug&Wind and its electronics and CAN bus concept, which is nearly unlimited in capacity, they can at any time make extensions of their performance and application range – with the shortest possible set-up times and with highest flexibility. The Autoconer X5 machine concept offers different stages of automation options; a clear staff saving effect is already reached with the new intelligent package doffer X-Change. Oerlikon Schlafhorst also offers specific automation of process sequences with the automated machine models of the Autoconer X5. No matter whether as a “stand-alone” version (type D) or in direct linkage to the ring spinning machine (type V), the market and technological leader always installs the solution which is best and individually adapted for the respective company organisation and the specific process sequences.

Plant Operation Centre – plant overview and optimisation in the staple fibre range: Simple. Flexible. Efficient. 

The new Plant Operation Centre, specifically fitted to the requirements of a textile company regarding textile technology and production technology, combines all Oerlikon Schlafhorst product lines to one single community. The high flexibility of the system – obtained by most diverse connection possibilities, such as individual machines, machine groups, and machine combinations – is oriented towards individual customer requirements. Optimum resource utilisation through structured, user-friendly, and configurable shift and production reports with a focus on optimum staff assignment and efficiency favours the Plant Operation Centre. Information transparency on the highest level, supported by a web-based data transfer, communicates information to plants at locations all over the world.

Customer Support – a guarantor for lifelong partnership, innovative original parts, and world-wide service 

The Oerlikon Schlafhorst Customer Support offers its more than 3,000 customers worldwide reliable support and process monitoring during the entire product life cycle for all Oerlikon Schlafhorst machine generations. The production of high-quality technological parts such as Belcoro spinning components for Autocoro machines and BD spinning components Value Line for BD machines sets quality standards world-wide.

The customer portal myOerlikon.com with the integrated on-line shop SECOS allows the comfortable choice and ordering of original parts for all our product lines, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Here, Oerlikon Schlafhorst customers find offers for innovative modernisation, service, and technology kits. With the Longlife Rotor Brake Package for retrofitting the patented MRPS e cartridge instead of an existing hybrid or MRPS magnetic bearing, Autocoro customers save up to 22 W/spinning position/hour. This results in an amortisation period of less than 1 year. In ring spinning, Oerlikon Schlafhorst offers the new modernisation kit ‘compact technology’, as the market share of compact yarns steadily continues to grow throughout the world. Retrofitting Zinser ring spinning machines with the world-wide most efficient compact technology is automatically self-cleaning, equipped with its own controlled vacuum unit, and variably adjustable in its compact characteristics.

In the field of winding, retrofitting the optimised suction system allows an energy saving potential of up to 15 % for Autoconer 338 machines. Retrofitting the Electrobox with its new SP frequency converters for BD machines of the No. 3 series ensures even better piecing quality with reduced operating costs.