“Turkish, Indian and Pakistani Visitors Showed Great Interest to Our Booth”

Interview: Dilek Hayırlı

Stäubli Textiles Marketing Officer Fritz Legler said; “Thanks to our overall group strategy on innovation, we count today around 2200 granted or pending patents and around 500 engineers are in a daily quest for developing further our market.”

Stäubli company exhibited its solutions that will increase the performance and general efficiency of weaving mills at ITMA 2023 Fair. Among the products exhibited by the company; SAFIR S60 automatic drawing-in system with Active Warp Control 2.0; shed formation solutions for frame weaving, LX PRO, LXL PRO, LXXL PRO Jacquard machines; NEW ALPHA carpet weaving system and new MyStaubli Portal.

We interviewed with Stäubli Textiles Marketing Officer Fritz Legler after ITMA 2023. Explaining the products they exhibited at the ITMA, their work on digitalization and sustainability, and the interest of the visitors, Legler also announced their expectations for 2023.

As Stäubli, you exhibited a wide range of products with jacquard machines, drawing-in machines, carpet weaving machines at ITMA 2023. First of all, how was the interest shown in your machines during the fair? What kind of feedback did you get from your visitors?

Our booth in the weaving hall enjoyed a high traffic of visitors coming through. We had a lot of interest from Turkey, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We have also welcomed a big delegation from Brazil as well as important weavers from Peru, America and Mexico.

The general feedback on our booth was very positive. Visitors highly appreciated the live demonstration of the SAFIR S60 automatic drawing in machine featuring Active Warp Control 2.0, allowing the detection of running colour nuances. Jacquard weavers observed the three complete Jacquard installations producing African Damask fabric with very fine cotton yarn, women apparel and an OPW shoe fabric. The weavers stand of the new carpet weaving system was a highly appreciated highlight as well and thus was steadily investigated for observing the rug production showing many versatile designs.

What will be the biggest contributions of these new machines to the users and the industry?

Weavers that opt for a Stäubli solution appreciate choosing machinery from a leading supplier where they can rely on. The Stäubli Group is a global industrial and mechatronic solution provider with four Divisions: Electrical Connectors, Fluid Connectors, Robotics and Textile. This group is focussing on differentiation and growing businesses with strong future potential. Operational excellence, focus as well as strategic investments enable Stäubli to grow and take a leading position in the defined businesses and markets. This makes for reliable future partnering and support.

 “We Count Today Around 2200 Granted or Pending Patents”

Developing technology is a very difficult process. What were the biggest challenges you faced while perfecting the technology?

As a leading company to future oriented weaving mills you are expected to always be at the forefront and provide the solutions that best fit the real market demands. Thanks to our overall group strategy on innovation, we count today around 2200 granted or pending patents and around 500 engineers are in a daily quest for developing further our market. Our sales and after sales service technicians are all listening closely to our customers and the whole makes for developing technology that brings real benefits to the weaving mills.

“The Recycling Potential of Our Machines is Over 99%”

ITMA focuses on automation, digital future, sustainability/circularity and innovative technologies. For Stäubli which of these is the most important and what kind of work do you do on this issue? Did you come across the technologies that surprised you at the fair?

As we said during our press conference, above mentioned subjects are buzzwords or general trends  all over the textile world, not only at ITMA. At Stäubli we are into concrete and measurable improvements, innovation is in our DNA for more than 130 years. Our technology is renowned for reliability and longevity which is an important aspect when we talk about sustainabilty.

Ciruclarity: in a first look, machinery is not concerned but during ITMA you could observe a customer statement at our booth where an important Indian home textile weaver told that even after more than 20 years he obtains a great resell value for a Stäubli machine when he decides to renewal his machinery park with latest solutions such as our LX PRO/LXL PRO/LXXL PRO series of Jacquard machines. These machines provide important energy savings and are rendering possible a very high percentage of recyclability. Our Jaccquard machines and accessories are made mostly of recyclable materials such as ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals or plastic. The recycling potential of both machines and modules is over 99%.

The global energy crisis also affects all textile companies. Is your company affected by the crisis? If so, what precautions do you take? What are the products and solutions for this problem?

Currently all industries worldwide are influenced by global events, the whole is more or less an unknown and rapidly changing and volatile situation. Energy is for sure one among other main challenges. As mentioned before, we launched the complete PRO series of new Jacquard machines. They feature the unique Stäubli NOEMI electronic architecture, as well as the MX PRO module for the reliable constant hook selection. On the one hand there is an ingenious airflow in the machine, on the other hand there are the material properties, and the whole makes for important energy savings.

How does a trade fair show like ITMA helps to support your bussiness? Did ITMA 2023 meet your expectations?

ITMA gives a very positive impact morally to all big, middle and smaller players in the textile industry. The high number of visitors can be interpreted as well as being the high expectations from all actors in the industry. For Stäubli ITMA 2023, in terms of interest and visitors, the trade fair met the expectations, but for sure, Stäubli is facing the same issues as all global players at the moment; such as the global incertainity or currency issues.

Which of your products did Turkish manufacturers show the most interest during the exhibition?

Turkish weaving mills produce almost any type of fabric to be used in apparel, home textile including curtains, carpets, upholstery fabric, and many other. To persist and gain in the international competitive worldwide market under tension, the Turkish weavers have to be open to technological developments in order to produce as well more environmentally friendly products for international brands. Many of them came to our booth to observe the efficiency of our broad offer of machinery and solutions that can support their production of a complete range of woven applications by providing easy in use, less maintenance and oil requirements, and as well energy savings.

How was the year 2023 so far for your company? Can you evaluate it in terms of your  orders and export markets?

2023 is a challenging year for all textile machinery producers. There are simply too many stress elements (inflation, higher interest rates, supply chain and geopolitical issues and so forth) and uncertainties which immediately affect consumers in their spending behaviors. Overcapacities exist in whole supply chain. We are used to deal with such distortions and it is nothing new to our industry.