“Our Biggest Motivation to Innovate are Turkish Customers”
Interview:Dilek Hayırlı
James C.C. Wang, Chairman and CEO of Pailung said; “Turkey is one of the key markets for us and is among the top five countries to which we export the most. Turkish customers are both smart and like to strive for innovation. They try to do their best even in the most difficult situation.”
Pailung company, which participated in the ITMA 2023 with its latest technologies, attracted great interest from the visitors. As Tekstil Teknoloji magazine, we interview with James C.C. Wang, Chairman and CEO of Pailung. Wang; made evaluations about the latest technologies, the Turkish market and the year 2023.
Could you tell us about the products you featured at ITMA? What will be the biggest advantages and benefits these products provide to users and the industry?
As Pailung, we exhibited our innovations in knitting machines at the ITMA 2023. One of them is MES- Manufacturing Execution System. This system; instead of manually changing the knitting parameters of the machines, it allows the machines to be adjusted via computers. Thus, it provides both consistent knitting quality and put production into order. We also exhibited our six new high-speed circular knitting machines at the exhibition. These machines; It provides more production capacity with less energy consumption, effectively increasing the efficiency of textile manufacturers while reducing their costs.
Another innovation that came to the fore at the Pailung booth was our ‘High Pile fabric technology’ and the ‘Cozy Collection’ consisting of clothes produced with this technology. This technology eliminates adhesives in the production process by knitting the layers of fabric together. The entire high pile fabric is recyclable, provided that each layer is recyclable. These knitted High Pile fabrics feature a high-density structure, and double-sided applications, with different colors and hair lengths. They’re environmentally friendly, lightweight, warm, windproof, and they offer the wearer a full range of movement. The process of knitting Pailung’s 3-layer high pile fabric is much less labor-intensive than traditional processes, which require at least one lamination step, followed by two further knitting steps. Instead, Pailung’s High Pile fabric requires just the knitting steps. Not only does it save manpower; it also saves time and reduces power consumption.
You also exhibited your latest fabric technology, AlterKnit, and your fabric samples knitted with this technology at the ITMA. What distinguishes this technology from its competitors?
AlterKnit is an upgraded version of inverse plating. It allows textile designers and manufacturers to produce modern and luxurious fabrics, eliminating the need for post-production printing or dyeing. The process is performed on circular knitting machines, whereby yarns of different color or composition can be knitted together within the same row. The technology yields crisp patterns with sharp borders – a noticeable step up from standard inverse plating. AlterKnit fabric is also reversible, producing 2 inverted versions of the same design (with up to 6 colors) on either side. In terms of texture, the fabric has a smooth, even surface, making it comfortable to wear, as it fits snugly against the body. Unlike traditional printing, the designs seen on AlterKnit fabrics are knitted into the fabric’s structure. This prevents the designs, along with any chemicals used during production, from rubbing off or leaking into the surrounding environment. Overall, the long-lasting nature of AlterKnit increases the lifespan of finished garments, preventing them from being quickly discarded, sent to a landfill or incinerated.
“Customer Satisfaction Is More Valuable to Us”
ITMA focused on automation, digital future, sustainability/circularity and innovative technologies. Which of these is the most important for Pailung and what kind of work do you do about it?
Industry 4.0 in the textile sector has gained importance in the last 5-6 years. As Pailung company, we had this idea 27 years ago and started to use the system we call Pailung Online Monitoring System (POMS). This system; It works in 27 countries, including Europe. Allowing the technician to control more than one knitting machine from a single computer, POMS performs all workflows from production to order planning remotely using this central system.
We also have a Knitting Fabric Management System (KFMS). This system; It stores an archive of knitting detail resources. Every fabric produced by a Pailung knitting machine is recorded in this database. All fabrics registered in KFMS can be accessed via POMS with their relevant parameters. The technician selects fabric from here, plans the production and monitors the progress of each knitting machine on the display panel on the computer.
KFMS and POMS can be further integrated with the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), which we launched in 2019. Data from the KFMS and POMS informs the MES, which uses the fabric parameters to automatically set up each knitting machine. This saves the time it takes for a technician to manually set them one by one. It can change all parameters automatically. This makes it possible to save significant manpower and time. MES constantly monitors each knitting machine’s performance, and reports any abnormality back to the POMS.
One of the most important innovations we highlighted at the ITMA was the Fabric Defect Detection (FDD) system. We also call it ‘Watch Dog’. FDD system where you can control fabric defects 24 hours a day; it uses computer vision to inspect the fabric for imperfections and can spot any imperfections instantly. Knitting machines can be shut down immediately, whenever a fabric defect gets detected. This minimizes the amount of defective fabric that goes to waste, reducing the manufacturer’s losses, and the environmental impact of textile manufacturing.
For example, you are a knitter and a world-famous brand has ordered 10 thousand kilos of fabric from you. You need to run at least 15 machines for this. Even if you have highly skilled technicians, you need to devote at least 30 minutes for each machine to check all the parameters and adjust the machines. However, the artificial intelligence we have developed records knitting parameters including machine type, yarn type, yarn length and weight, and setting parameters such as knitting needle, tension, angle and timing separately for each fabric. It controls all parameters in as little as 6 seconds. In addition, since it is very difficult to detect fabric defects with the human eye, this means loss of manpower, time, energy and more costs. Our digital solutions not only save manpower and time, but also guarantee a higher level of accuracy. We want to win over our customers and add value to their products with our smart systems. Customer satisfaction is of paramount importance to us.
Did ITMA 2023 meet your expectations?
I can say that ITMA Milano is one of the best fairs we have attended so far. Although it is the 5th day, our visitors are quite high. We hosted our customers from all over the world. We heard that many visitors from countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and even Turkey could not come to the fair due to visa problems. If there was no visa problem, we could host many more visitors.
“Turkey is Among the Top 5 Countries We Export the Most”
Which are Pailung’s most demanded products in the Turkish market? What are your predictions for the Turkish market in the near future?
KF3B Plus is one of our most demanded products in Turkey. This machine produces 3-end fleece with an average capacity increase of 19% compared to the previous model. Turkish knitters also prefer our jersey machines. In addition, we received many orders from our Turkish customers for our AlterKnit fabric technology. Turkey is one of our main markets and is among the top five countries to which we export the most. Despite many problems such as energy crisis, exchange rate problem, inflation, I think that Turkey is still progressing. I have been coming to Turkey for more than 30 years since 1992 and I have a personal interest in it. I really admire Turkish customers, especially Turkish knitters, because they are both smart and like to strive for innovation. They do their best even in difficult times. They motivate us to develop new technology. If we don’t get this inspiration from customers, we lose our motivation. That’s why I say this clearly; Turkish customers are our biggest motivation to innovate.
How has 2023 been for your company so far? Can you evaluate your orders in terms of your production volume and export markets?
As Pailung, we export 95% of our production. We allocate 5% of our turnover to R&D. The first period of 2023 was a little quiet due to problems such as inflation, exchange rate problems and energy crisis. But as of May, our orders and sales started to recover gradually. ITMA 2023 will positively affect our figures this year because we received a lot of demand during the fair and even finalized some of our orders. I predict that 2023 will be much better than last year.
