German machinery:Going digital at ITMA 2019

ITMA 2019， the worlds leading fair dedicated to textile machinery， 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 thousand square meters， an increase of booth space by approximately 3.5 % 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.”

Axel 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： “Digitalization 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 customers 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 digitization 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.”