Dornier: Quality Before Quantity
“China has always been an important market for us, but since the demand for higher quality textiles has also begun to grow, it has become our biggest market“ says Wolfgang Schöffl, Head of Business Unit Weaving Machines at Dornier. In China, LiDO weaving machines are used to create fine scarves and elegant women‘s apparel from cashmere wool and silk as well as intricate airplane parts from carbon fibers. This last category is part of the growing global market for technical textiles, which is supplied with special coatings, airbags, tirecord and filters as well as much else which is manufactured in the Middle Kingdom on weaving machines from Dornier. And the volume of these high-performance fabrics required just to satisfy China‘s domestic demand is enormous.
FLAWLESS PROCESSING OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE FIBERS
Let us consider filtration, for example: The fact that the Chinese city of Xi‘an cleans its air with the tallest anti-smog tower in the world (100 m) is convincing testament: cleaning air and water is a major concern in China. And this is one reason why Dornier in Shanghai – for the first time ever in Asia – will exhibit its new P2 rapier weaving machine in its most powerful configuration (Type: TGP). This machine is able to bring a reed beat-up force of up to five tons for producing wide, seam- less fabrics for high density air and water filters. “The textile is exposed to exceptionally high forces specif- ically for wet filtration; seams are weak spots, which should be avoid- ed if possible“, explains Schöffl.
The weaving machines from Dornier have represented the gold standard for flawless processing of high-performance fibers such as carbon, glass fiber and aramid for over 60 years. “The greater the volume of high-quality fabrics China manufactures, the more weaving machines we can send them“, says Schöffl. At the same time, the division head continues, besides the technical quality the company‘s Chinese customers also value LiDO‘s aftersales and training services, ease of contact and fast response times.
“MADE IN GERMANY” WEAVING MACHINE SHOWROOM
Besides the P2 TGP rapier weaving machine, Dornier also exhibited other machines at the trade fair: an air-jet weaving machine for manufacturing car upholstery and an airbag weaving machine (at the stand of the Belgian machine building company Van de Wiele) also on displayed.
The “Made in Germany” label is highly regarded as a hallmark of quality in China, as is borne out by an ongoing project in the town of Ürümqi.
An entrepreneur has established a showroom there with a dozen or more weaving machines to show how raw textile materials are turned into fabrics for an enormous variety of applications.
