“We Aim to Expand into New Markets and Sustain Our Growth on a Global Scale”

Interview: Tuğba KARADEMİR

With more than 50 years of experience in cutting room automation, Özbilim is a driving force shaping the global textile industry, redefining the concepts of quality, efficiency, and traceability through its solutions based on artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and Industry 4.0.

At a time when expectations for speed, precision, and sustainability in textile production are steadily increasing, solutions that manage cutting room processes through end-to-end automation have become critically important. Standing out with over half a century of experience in fabric cutting room automation, Özbilim takes the concept of the digital cutting room to an advanced level with its patented systems, AI-supported quality control solutions, and augmented reality-based applications. We spoke with Güven Öz, General Manager of Özbilim, about the company’s areas of expertise, its R&D focus, its position in global markets, and its preparations for the ITM 2026 exhibition.

Özbilim has been developing machines, testing devices, and process solutions for the textile industry for many years. What are the main product groups your company

As Özbilim, with more than 50 years of experience and our expert team in the field of fabric cutting room automation, we serve the global textile industry with our patented innovations. By addressing cutting room processes from beginning to end, we develop holistic solutions covering material quality control, relaxation and preparation for spreading, fabric handling and conveying, fabric spreading, fabric cutting, as well as digital process and data management.

In order to respond quickly to changing needs, our R&D department works on new solutions by utilizing all the opportunities offered by advancing technology. With the patented Industry 4.0 innovations we have developed in recent years, we have gone beyond ready-to-wear and home textiles and are receiving strong interest worldwide. The interactive augmented reality-supported cutting guide system used in our patented fabric spreading machines, our new fabric quality control machines operating with artificial intelligence and high-precision cameras, our Agent & Base and Dashboard systems that manage cutting room processes from a single center, and our new spreading solutions for automotive and technical textiles are actively in use today.

“We Succeeded in Rapidly Adapting to Changing Sector Needs”

2025 was a challenging year for the textile industry both in Türkiye and globally. How would you evaluate this year for Özbilim?

Both domestically and globally, our sector faced various challenges. Despite this, as Özbilim, we succeeded in rapidly adapting to changing sector needs. By diversifying our R&D activities, we continue to proudly represent our country on a global scale.

While restructuring our production and sales performance accordingly, we maintained our determination to keep our service quality at the highest level, as we have done for 50 years. Despite the difficult conditions, I can say that we had a balanced and controlled year.

“We Aim to Eliminate Human-Induced Error Factors”

How do you evaluate the technology trends that stood out in the textile industry in 2025?

During this period, minimizing the human factor in quality control processes and accelerating workflows became our main priority. Our new fabric inspection machine, which operates with high-tech camera systems and AI-supported machine learning algorithms, significantly reduces the margin of error in quality control processes.

Similarly, the augmented reality-supported cutting guide system C-CUT integrated into our patented fabric spreading machines aims to eliminate human-induced errors in cutting rooms. Thanks to these solutions, raw material utilization efficiency increases, while significant gains are also achieved in terms of sustainable textile production.

What advantages do Özbilim’s quality control and testing devices offer to manufacturers?

The new quality control devices we have developed automate the inspection steps located at both the beginning and the end of cutting room processes, minimizing human-induced errors. Our fabric inspection machine, which performs raw material quality control before spreading using high-precision cameras and artificial intelligence algorithms, ensures process stability with an accuracy rate of over 95%.

Our interactive cutting control table developed for post-cutting processes provides manufacturers with a reliable infrastructure for subsequent sewing and production stages thanks to the speed and measurement accuracy it offers.

How does Özbilim respond to increasing expectations for speed, precision, and efficiency?

We respond to these expectations with automation solutions that analyze cutting room processes end to end and operate in a fully integrated manner. All our systems are designed to ensure repeatable quality and minimal material loss at every stage of production.

How does digitalization and the Industry 4.0 transformation affect your product portfolio?

All our machine groups operate with advanced electronic infrastructures that enable data collection, real-time monitoring, automatic reporting, and software integrations. Our Agent & Base and Dashboard systems monitor spreading and cutting processes in real time, automatically generating lay reports, waste analyses, and efficiency data.

While the O/FIN fabric inspection system transfers dimensional quality data to the digital environment, O/bAR and C-CUT technologies provide full traceability through augmented reality-supported error management and interactive marking. These systems operate in integration with ERP, CAD, and planning software, transforming cutting rooms into digital and traceable structures.

“We Export to Almost Every Region of the World”

What would you like to say about your export activities and your position in global markets?

We have been exporting to almost every region of the world for many years. Recently, South America, Southeast Asia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Vietnam have stood out among our key markets. Our customers prefer Özbilim because of its ease of use, strong service infrastructure, low energy consumption, and its ability to deliver traceable and repeatable results.

In which areas do your R&D activities continue? What developments do you aim for in 2026 in terms of new machine design, measurement technologies, or process optimization?

Producing more efficient and more sustainable solutions is at the core of Özbilim’s innovation approach. Özbilim’s R&D activities focus on new machine designs, more precise measurement technologies, enhanced digital integration, and the automation of cutting room processes. Our goals for 2026 include the development of next-generation spreading and quality control platforms offering high speed and precision, the integration of intelligent algorithms that analyze fabric behavior into machines, and connecting the entire production line through a stronger data infrastructure.

In addition, expanding other systems to further advance quality control, traceability, and autonomous decision-making mechanisms, as well as introducing new machine series with high energy efficiency, enhanced user interaction, and low maintenance requirements, are also among our 2026 R&D plans.

ITM 2026 will be an important technology meeting point for the sector. How is Özbilim preparing for the exhibition?

At our presentation line within the exhibition area, where we will showcase our most in-demand innovations, we will have the opportunity to establish one-on-one communication with visitors. During this process, guests will be able to closely examine our products and gain detailed insight into our various products and options, our working methodologies, and our technology vision.

We aim to bring many innovations together with industry professionals, particularly C-CUT feature automatic fabric spreading machines offering cutting simulation during spreading through augmented reality (AR) technology, interactive pattern control tables, artificial intelligence (AI)-supported fabric inspection machines, and state-of-the-art conveyor and air spreading table solutions.

What are your growth and market targets for 2026 and beyond?

In addition to ready-to-wear and home textiles, we are working more closely with different sectors, especially automotive. With the innovative solutions we will develop, we aim to expand into new markets and sustain our growth on a global scale.