紡織設備制造商必須是一個創新極客

自從疫情開始，法國紡織行業經歷了幾個不同的階段。服裝和家紡的商店沒有想象的那么重要，關閉過好幾次。我們可以想象到，2020年零售營業額大幅下降，2021年可能會再次低于正常水平。至于技術紡織品，情況就大不相同了。大多數是其他產品的零部件，比如汽車行業。汽車的銷量下降了紡織品的銷量也下降了。但也有一些重要的意外：想想醫用紡織品，尤其是口罩！隨著口罩的短缺，口罩的銷售變得十分瘋狂。這些產品大部分是從中國進口的，現在法國已經恢復了全國性的生產。

四月初，我們在感染人數上漲和疫苗的接種過程之間展開了一場競賽。我們相信疫情會在今年夏天結束，但與此同時，我們也不得不說接下來的幾個月將是非常困難的幾個月。

對于我們的公司來說，2020年我們有很多好的積累訂單，也有許多新項目正在與我們的客戶進行研究。然而疫情來了。來自不同國家的許多客戶的工廠被完全或部分關閉接近兩個月。我們部分的工廠也關閉了。在這場全球的動蕩中，服務需求和設備的銷售幾乎停頓，許多項目被推遲。因為我們的首要任務是保護自己的員工，并為客戶提供他們所需要的少數但往往是緊急的服務。

在出口方面，我們一直致力于為紡織生產商提供最先進的技術。我們為合作伙伴設計了許多特殊的設備，并幫助他們引入新產品到相應的市場。我們的研發不是在象牙塔里完成的。我們是中小型企業，就使得信息在可以在商業、技術和研究部門之間快速流通。讓我們與客戶建立比純粹商業關系更遠的關系成為可能。我們可以提供硬件、軟件和服務等他們需要的解決方案。

本屆紡機展上，我們有三家優質的法國企業參展。 SUPERBA就是其一。該公司正在擴展其應用領域并幫助其客戶介紹工業4.0的概念。新的SUPERBA B403自動絡筒機帶來了真正的技術突破。通過單獨的主軸電機驅動，每個位置結合一個張力傳感器，來實現恒定的張力卷繞過程，精確的筒管長度測量，以及每個紗線位置的獨特質量控制。它在風量自動方面開辟了新的機會。B403是工廠4.0概念的一部分，通過云計算連接到新的VANDEWIELE TEXCONNECT監督系統。它可提供現成的紗線張力數據，可以實現預測性維護并減少紗線浪費，使制造商能夠以最經濟的價格生產出最高質量的地毯。

工業4.0同時也體現在FIL CONTROL提供的傳感器。日益發展的紡紗市場也開始擁抱FIL CONTROL開發的運動反射傳感器。該公司滿足了環錠紡紗機械MRS-P速度傳感器的高需求。據悉該傳感器可以監測、控制和優化紗線制造商的生產效率，以更低的成本獲得更好的質量。此外，為輪胎和地毯紗線加捻而開發的新型運動紗線張力傳感器也吸引了眾多紗線制造商的矚目。

服務型公司HANNECARD也是一家十分優質的展商。他們的主要業務是對工廠進行實地技術訪問，以提高技術氣缸的效率（如擠壓率）、橡膠涂層的使用壽命、收縮機的收縮率、s型輥的完整維護操作和完整鋼基氣缸的供應（標準或抗彎曲）。

創新是多面的，可以在設備、服務、和合作伙伴的溝通渠道等方面實現。除了我們經常提到的，創新的主題還有生態責任、工業4.0、循環和精確成本分析這四個主題。法國紡織設備制造商一直致力于長纖維紡絲（羊毛、腈綸等）、紗線加捻和控制（包括工藝紗）、空間染色、地毯紗的熱定型、地毯系統、染整、毛毯整理工序、非織造布、紡織工廠的空調、以及紡織材料的回收等。

我們所有的公司都在促進紡織智能化和可持續性。紡織企業將智能化生產的概念融入到生產的過程中，從一個或幾個設備，再到他們整個的生產過程，甚至到他們與供應商和客戶之間的信息流動，去獲得真正的競爭優勢。對于如何實施可持續性的問題，必須從每臺設備開始到整個生產過程，實現節約能源、水和原材料。說起來很簡單，但執行起來卻需要管理層的全面參與。

中國是我們最重要的市場，以2020年來說，我們的銷售額低于前幾年。印度市場的情況也是如此，投資的決定比我們想象更慢一點。其他亞洲市場也很活躍，印尼、泰國、越南和韓國等許多市場的投資情緒都很積極。在伊朗，紡織工業正處于起步階段，使用的紡織機器過時很久了。美國的經濟也在逐步上升，東歐、西歐和中亞也做的不錯，但還是不能彌補中國增速降緩帶來的影響。

由于國際市場的原因，我們相信中國紡織工業將很快實現重新反彈。我曾經去過中國，那里的人們熱衷時尚正如熱衷智能手機一樣，他們已經準備好了在服裝方面的消費支出。我認為中國的國際市場將以最快最好的速度得到提升。生產服裝、家用紡織品和技術紡織品的企業也將越來越需要那些最高效、節能的設備。

企業討厭不確定性，但我們卻習以為常并對我們的公司進行了重新安排以應對這份不確定性。但不得不說，自新冠疫情大流行以來，我們從未面臨過如此不確定的環境。舉個簡單的例子，接受采訪的今天，距離ITMA ASIA還有兩個月的時間，我們仍對旅行限制的要求一無所知。我們可能面臨著入境前的隔離。這些不確定性也限制了除中國以外的客戶，以前他們經常參加ITMA ASIA展。在這樣一個特殊的時期，我們的策略是比以往任何時候都更多地依賴我們當地的組織、子公司、代表和代理商。

我們對未來的紡織業還是很自信的。當我們在看全球紡織品生產的統計數據時，纖維消費的增長率相當穩定，每年約為2%或3%，這意味著行業必須進行經常性的投資。這可能會迅速改變每個國家的增長率。紡織產業正迅速地從一個國家轉移到另一個國家，主要是向亞洲轉移。服裝和家用紡織品的升級和技術紡織品的發展也是未來行業的趨勢之一。

ITMA ASIA是亞洲最重要的紡織機械展會之一。這次展會是一個不同尋常的展會，因為外國的展商將比以往要少很多，并且出席的展商也可能會有較以往少些的工作人員參加。外國的參觀者也將有所減少。不論如何，由于中國市場的重要性，ITMA ASIA 2020的舉辦是必須的。我們作為歐盟的一員，ITMA又是CEMATEX下的一個重要品牌。對于ITMA AISA的成功舉辦，我們表示非常開心，并且我們也會繼續推動展會的進一步發展。

紡織行業未來的發展趨勢——創新，創新，還是創新。

紡織設備制造商必須是一個創新極客。作為一個協會，我們也在創新。現在，我們正在設計一個虛擬的展覽，這會是一個非常有用的補充展覽。提前透露一個重大消息，這個虛擬展覽包括了許多3D設備的展示，敬請期待。

Textile equipment manufacturers have to be innovation geeks

Interview with Christian Guinet， Secretary General of UCMTF

In France， there have been different phases since the beginning of the pandemic. Stores selling apparel or home textile are not considered as essential. They have been closed several times. Then you may imagine turnover at the retail level was way down in 2020 and probably will be again lower than usual in 2021. As for technical textiles， it is quite different. Most are components of other products， for the automotive industry for example. Sales of automobiles have been down then these textiles sales also declined. But there are important exceptions： think of textiles for medical uses and particularly for face masks！ Sales of face masks went crazy as shortages appeared. Most of them were imported from your country China but a national production has been put in place.

Beginning of April， we are in a race between the increase of the number of people affected by the virus and the vaccination process. We believe the pandemic will be mostly over this summer but， in the meantime， the next few months will be very difficult.

For our companies， we started 2020 with very good order backlogs and many new projects were being studied with our customers. Then came the Corona virus. In many countries， our customers factories have been closed or partially closed for around two months. Ours too were partially closed. During this global turmoil， demand for services and sales of spare parts came nearly to an halt and many projects were postponed. Our priorities were， of course， to protect our own employees and to give our customers the few but often urgent services they needed.

On the export side， we have been committed to providing textile producers with the most advanced technology. We offer the textile producers state-of-the-art technologies. We design many special equipment to be our customers partners and help them introduce new products on their markets. Our R&D， we do not develop it in some ivory towers. We are SMEs in which the information flows very rapidly between the commercial， technical and research departments. This is how it should work and it does. It allows to go much further than purely commercial relationships with the customers. Then we can offer them hardware， software and services which are the solutions they need.

We have three high-quality French enterprises participating in this textile machinery exhibition. SUPERBA is one of them. SUPERBA is expanding its area of applications and helps its customers introduce the industry 4.0 concept. The new SUPERBA B403 automatic winder marks a real technological breakthrough. With its individual spindle motorization drive， combined with a single tension sensor per position， it enables a constant tension winding process， a very accurate bobbin length measuring as well as a unique quality control for each yarn position. It opens up new opportunities in terms of winding quality. Connected through cloud computing to the new VANDEWIELE TEXCONNECT supervision system， the B403 is part of the Factory 4.0 concept. It provides readilyavailable data on yarn tension to supply the predictive maintenance and reduce yarn waste， allowing manufacturers to make the highest quality carpets at the most economic prices.

FIL CONTROL provides sensors also needed by Industry 4.0. The ring spinning market is now ready to welcome the Motion Reflective Sensor developed by Fil Control. The company is meeting a high demand for their MRS-P speed sensors for ring spinning machinery that allows monitoring， controlling and optimizing the yarn manufacturer productivity for better quality at lower cost. The new Motion Yarn Tension sensor developed for tyre and carpet yarn twisting is attracting many yarn manufacturers.

HANNECARD is an example of a service-oriented company They include： technical visits at the mills to enhance the efficiency of the technical cylinders （e.g.， squeezing rate）， the lifetime of the rubber coatings， the shrinking rate of the shrinking machines， complete maintenance operations of the S-rolls and the supply of complete steel base cylinders （standard or anti-flexion）.

Innovation is multi-face. Innovations can materialize in equipment， service， communication channels with our partners. There are 4 major themes for innovations which go beyond the usual ones； Eco-responsibility， industry 4.0， recycling， precise cost analysis. The French textile equipment manufacturers are particularly strong in long fibre spinning（wool， acrylic， etc.）， yarn twisting and control （including technical yarns）， space-dyeing， heat setting for carpet yarns， carpet systems， dyeing and finishing， felts and belts for finishing processes， nonwovens， air conditioning of textile plants， and recycling processes of textile materials.

All our companies are promoting textile intelligence and sustainability. I just gave you some examples of how they help their customers integrate the factory 4.0 concept which is really a disruptive innovation. The textile producers who will integrate it in their production process， starting from one or a few equipment and， in a second phase， to their all-production process and even to the flow of information between themselves and their suppliers and customers will gain a real competitive advantage. Concerning your question about sustainability， the answer is quite similar. To save energy， water and raw materials， you have to start from each equipment and in a second phase to the whole production process.The idea is quite simple， the execution requires the full involvement of the management.

In 2020， on our most important market， your own country， China， our sales were lower than the previous years. It was also the case on the Indian market where investments decisions are slower that we had imagined. Other Asian markets are active and the investment mood is positive in many markets like Indonesia， Thailand， Vietnam or South Korea. In Iran， the textile industry is in the starting blocks as the machinery is outdated. The US economy is clearly growing and markets like Western Europe， Eastern Europe or Central Asia are doing quite well but are not big enough to compensate the slowdown in China.

We believe the Chinese textile industry will rebound thanks to its national market. When I travel all over China， I see that most Chinese men and women like fashion as much as smart phones， that they are ready to spend money on apparel. Then I think that the Chinese national market will grow at a fast rate and that the best， most efficient， energy conscious equipment will be more and more needed to produce apparel， home and technical textiles.

Business does not like uncertainty but we are used to it and have re-engineered our companies to cope with it. But， since the beginning of the global Covid-19 pandemic， we have never been in such an uncertain environment. One example related to the timing of the interview： today， two months ahead of ITMA ASIA， we do not know what the travel restrictions will be. We may face a quarantine to enter China. These uncertainties are also a constraint for our customers from outside China who are used to visit ITMA ASIA. Then， our strategy is to rely more than ever on our local organizations， our subsidiaries， representatives and agents.

I have to say we are quite confidence about the future of the industry. When you look at the global textile production statistics， the growth rate in terms of fibers consumption is quite stable around 2 or 3 % per annum which means the industry has to invest on a rather regular basis. What may be changing rapidly is the growth rate in each country. The industry is shifting quite rapidly from one country to another. There has been a major shift towards Asia， now the industry is shifting within Asia. Other major trends are the upgrading of the apparel and home textiles and the development of the technical textiles.

ITMA ASIA is the most important textile machinery show in Asia. This edition will be an unusual one as the foreign exhibitors will be less numerous than usual and the ones who will exhibit will have less staff from their head office. Foreign visitors will probably be also less numerous. Nevertheless， the Chinese market is so important that ITMA ASIA 2020 remains an absolute must. As you may know， we are members of the European organization， CEMATEX which is the owner of the ITMA brands. We are very happy of ITMA ASIA success and we have promoted this show since the beginning. We will continue.

The future development trend of textile industry is innovation， innovation and innovation！

The textile equipment manufacturers have to be innovation geeks. We， as an association， we innovate too. Right now， we are designing a virtual show which will be a very useful complement to such shows as ITMAs. May I give you a breaking news： this virtual show will include 3D demonstrations of equipment.