Great Interest in Stäubli’s SAFIR PRO S67 Automatic Drawing-in Machine at ITM 2024
Fritz Legler, Global Head of Marketing, Sales and Service at Stäubli Textile said; “Obviously, we are very proud to be in Turkey for the launch of our new technology SAFIR PRO S67. Our new automation technology attracted great interest at ITM 2024.”
Stäubli, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of weaving solutions, launched the SAFIR PRO S67 automatic drawing-in machine sold to its Turkish customer Lutuf Mensucat A.Ş. at ITM 2024. The company, which hosted many visitors during the exhibition, was satisfied with the intense interest shown to its products. As Tekstil Teknoloji magazine, we interviewed with Fritz Legler, Global Head of Marketing, Sales and Service of Staubli Textile.
Can you explain how the SAFIR PRO S67 automatic drawing-in machine increases productivity, adaptability to different weaving types and quality control in weaving preparation processes?
Today’s fast-paced and competitive fabric production demands perfect warp beams, which are automatically carded by the SAFIR PRO S67. This optimises the weaving process and reduces warp-related machine downtimes. This ultimately increases the weaving efficiency, productivity and quality output of premium fabrics. With AWC 2.0 (Active Warp Control 2.0) using the latest optics, sensors and algorithms, the SAFIR PRO S67 has new and improved features that offer advantages to the user with high-tech features that enable quick recognition of yarn colours, yarn characteristics and repetitions that need to be taken into account in weaving. Furthermore, the SAFIR PRO S67 can be delivered with the ICS – Initial Condition setting, which facilitates quick start-up of the drawing-in process via predefined machine parameters. In remote control of the SAFIR PRO S67, the machine can be connected to our safe and secure data cloud and thus offers APC – Active Productivity and Drawing Control. The SAFIR PRO S67 guarantees high productivity as it speeds up processes by drawing 200 wires per minute.
Can we monitor and regulate various parameters such as warp tension, weft insertion, loom speed and fabric quality?
With SAFIR automatic drawing-in machines, you can perfectly monitor the different status information during the drawing-in process and easily adapt the machine presets to different yarn types. We even offer ready-made sets for specific varieties such as wool and fancy yarns. Here, hardware and software adaptations ensure a quick start-up of the drawing-in.
You cannot monitor fabric quality during the weaving process, but with the SAFIR PRO S67, fabric quality can be controlled even before weaving with the automatic production of the warp beams. With the Stäubli Active Warp Control 2.0 technology, you can perfectly guarantee the quality of your final product after drawing-in with the drawn-in weaving set. The better the quality of this weaving set, the better the quality of the fabric you will obtain in the subsequent weaving steps. This is because misaligned yarns, which cause the weaving machine to stop and produce second quality woven fabric, will be avoided.
How will the SAFIR PRO S67 change the weaving industry?
In the textile and weaving industry, the need for labour is low. The functional capability, extreme ease of use, the availability of software options for controlling colours, yarn characteristics, yarn twists, etc. and the opportunities for pre-setting applications are renewing the use of the SAFIR PRO S67 technology. Digitalisation solutions (e.g. APC – Active Productivity and Drawing Control via our safe and secure Stäubli cloud) make machine operation, remote control and output monitoring even easier. Innovations using this technology also bring economic benefits. Basically, it reduces many of the existing pain points in warp preparation or weaving.
What can you say about Lutuf Mensucat’s investment in SAFIR PRO S67?
Founded in 1987, the weaving company Lutuf Mensucat A.S. is one of our important customers in Turkey. The company currently operates 248 weaving machines and produces mainly cotton and cotton blended fabrics such as cotton Tencel, cotton Modal or cotton linen. These fabrics are used for applications such as women’s and men’s shirts, trousers, jackets, coats, women’s trousers, skirts, jackets. The average daily production is 50.000 metres. The company always invests in first-class, high-performance and high-speed machines to meet the various market demands.
What can you say about the position of the Turkish textile industry in the world?
Turkey has always had a very strong position when it comes to fabric production. Competitiveness has perhaps been lost to some extent. There is high inflation, costs are increasing, there is competition with neighbouring countries. But still Turkey has always managed to be very innovative, very agile and has always found a way to stay competitive and have a strong market position.
How was ITM 2024 for you? Did ITM 2024 meet your expectations?
We had quality visitors who wanted to get the latest information about our drawing-in machines, lacing machines, dobbies, jacquard machines and carpet weaving machines. So we had a lot of visitor traffic with really good and fruitful discussions.
