Smartex Will Introduce Its New Technology to Turkey Market with Erko

Ana Tavares, Head of Communications & Partnerships

 

Erko General Manager Roland Kunze-Concewitz said the following about the Smartex cooperation: “As the third generation in Erko, our goal and mission is to develop our long-established company. These ethics have been passed on to the fourth generation, who also have an active role in the company. Our aim has always been, and will continue to be, to contribute to the development of our textile industry by identifying new technologies in a forward-looking and proactive manner. When I met two young, dynamic and visionary founders of Smartex, I was very excited. We offer the solutions of tomorrow to our industrialists of today with the Smartex system on the basis of artificial intelligence, which increases the added value and reduces the costs in textile production. Just as ‘sustainability’ has taken an on an important role in the textile production chain, digitalization has become just as crucial. Thanks to Smartex, the quality control process in circular knitting plants is completed at the same time as the fabric being produced. Due to artificial intelligence, the system both increases the quality standard and efficiency of the enterprise and reduces its cost. I believe that in the near future, thanks to the Smartex system, just as cotton yarn quality standards exist, garments will demand fabric in “Smartex Standard” for circular knitting fabrics. Our customers will therefore be able to add value to their production through the “Smartex Standard”.

Smartex has developed a unique patented technology for the knitting industry automation, digitization, transparency and sustainability. The system guarantees automated 100 percent inspection in circular knitting machines, reducing production costs. It detects and prevents defects during the production stage, even if the defects are not perceived by the human eye, at a rate close to 0 percent. The company brought together the Smartex system to Turkey market through the of Erko.

We interviewed with Ana Tavares, Head of Communications&Partnerships who came to Turkey for the promotion of new technology and talked about the features of the new product, its benefits to the circular knitting industry and the details of their cooperation with Erko.

First of all, could you inform us briefly about Smartex? In what year were you founded? In which areas do you operate ?

Smartex was officially established in 2018. There are many areas within the textile industry and our focus at the moment is on the; circular knitting machines. We have developed an automated camera system used to detect defects that may occur during knitted fabric production. This new system consists of two parts, hardware and software. The System includes cameras & lasers for advanced automated inspection inside Circular Knitting Machines. Our software is based on artificial intelligence. The main benefits of the system are the prevention of defective production as well as 100% inspection and full traceabilitiy of the production. As soon as we set up the system, we can see a great benefit in the customer within a month.

Smartex Technology Sees All Defects that the Human Eye Cannot See

Can you talk about the major functional improvements you recently made for knitting sector, and how this will benefit the textile industry?

The textile industry has focused specifically on sustainability and digitalization over the past few years. Not only because the companies want to change but also because the the fashion brands are willing to push their suppliers to a more responsible production process and consumers are also looking for this kind of products, responsable made.

The Smartex technology we have developed combines sustainability and digitalization. First of all, we avoid the textile waste. We also offer traceability. As you might know the textile industry supply chain is very complex and global. Thanks to this technology, we guarantee the traceability of textile production.

When the defects begin to be produced, they continue to be produced until someone intervenes. Many defects are smaller than 1 millimeter and almost invisible to the human eye. So these defects proceed onto the next stage of production. For example; When you produce a roll of fabric it becomes like a black box because nobody knows what is inside and then when it goes to the next stage dyeing, finishing and printing and so on, you lose the trace many times and the final garment can be produced from defective fabric. Final garments are thrown away because of these knitting defects. Thanks to the Smartex technology, you can see the digital map of the fabric roll.

All of these companies have inspection processes in an attempt to minimize defects and losses. Many inspections are done by people, working day and night to spot defects. This is a difficult task for a person because most defects are impossible to be detected by the eye. Manual inspection is expensive and often fails to catch defects.

Smartex solves this problem by identifying production defects at its earliest stage with a system of integrated cameras. By using Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision to detect all defects and irregularities in real-time, it learns complex textile patterns and recognizes all the defects. When a defect is detected, it alerts workers in real-time to intervene and prevent further faults. Many of the companies we work with believe that the Smartex technology will fully meet the requirements of the market right now.

When did you introduce this system to the market?

After 2018, we officially established the company and started to work with the Portuguese market. This did not happened by chance, Portugal is a small country and within 1 hour by car you reach every textile factory in the North of the country. Many companies were willing to set up our system there. We did some pilot applications in 2019. Then we started making sales to bigger clients, such as Italy and Turkey.

Could you tell us about your worldwide sales and support network and the countries you export? What are your expansion plans?

As I mentioned before, we first started to work with the Portuguese market, where we reached different clients. After that we expanded to Italy and then we decided to come to Turkey which is our biggest market and we focused our efforts here. Every country with strong textile production means a suitable market for us.

“Erko Has Been The Right Choice For Us With Its Experience And Vision”

Why did you choose Erko as your representative? Can we listen to the details of your collaboration with Erko?

Erko has been in the Turkish market for a long time. As soon as we wanted to come to Turkey we decided to look for companies that were already established here and with the very serious and stronger relationships with the clients. We found out Erko was the right one. Not only because of its experience but also because of the vision of the company. So we see that we have the same thoughts about the evolution of the textile market. We believe that they are the right partner for us to be here in Turkey. And also because Erko already represents brands of machines and accessories for circular knitting. It also has a good technical team. We took this into consideration when choosing Erko. Because we have to do the installations here, and it is very important for us to have experienced technicians.

“Turkey will soon prove to be a major player in the world market”

Turkey, especially in pandemic process has become an important supply point for Europe again. How do you assess the importance of Turkey’s textile sector? What are your expectations from Turkey market as a company?

I see that Turkey has been evolving a lot in the last years. We have seen the evolution in Portugal and Italy as well but Turkey has different production capacities that other countries in Europe don’t have. The Turkish manufacturers have bigger volumes, have flexibility of orders and the time to market is very fast. Besides that Turkey has a direct connection to Asia.

 Turkey will soon prove to be a major player in the world market.

The knitting industry performed very successfully in Turkey, especially during the pandemic period. How do you evaluate the performance of Turkish knitters in this process?

As I mentioned before, I think the performance of companies in general is very good. The Turkish manufacturers are focused on investing in new equipment and technologies which will very much influence even a stronger position within the textile industry supply chain. As Smartex we will help companies on this transition to a more effective, traceable and responsible production.

As Smartex, what are your expectations from 2021? Do you have new product and investment plans?

Of course, we will continue our work in the field of circular knitting. We have different projects within the textile industry and we will soon be working on other industries. As I said, we have ongoing projects regarding new markets. Not only Europe, but  any country all over the world where we can find textiles, is our market. We already have hundreds of pre-sold systemes for the coming months, so 2021 will be a very important year of expansion for us.

 

Interview: Dilek HAYIRLI, Z. Seda Demirdelen,