“Turkey’s Proximity to Europe Provided Major Advantages in This Period”

 Jonas Beisel, Monforts Technologist for Dyeing

Monforts, headquartered in Germany is among the market’s leading companies in textile finishing solutions. The latest Montex Stenter machine developed by the company provides many advantages in terms of production volume, energy efficiency and savings. While prioritizing digitalization for a more efficient production in the future, Monforts aims to launch environmentally friendly innovations for textile finishing.

We interviewed with Thomas Päffgen, Monforts Area Sales Manager for Turkey and Jonas Beisel, Monforts Technologist for Dyeing for the ‘Dyeing and Finishing Technologies Special Issue’.

Monforts is one of the market leaders in solutions for finishing. What are the key features of Monforts products that distinguish them from their competitors? 

Thomas Päffgen: Monforts products allow our customers to give value addition to their end products through cutting-edge technologies. Monforts Montex stenters, for example, with the TwinAir principle of independent airflow regulation and a special chamber insulation – for processes such as drying, stretching, heat-setting and coating – are the industry standard for the fabric finishing industry, providing a number of advantages in terms of production throughput and especially in energy efficiency and savings. With our versatile Montex^®Coat unit – being a Monforts original part – we can offer perfect, tailor made solutions to our customers.

We have also enjoyed particular success with our well proven sustainably solutions like our Thermex continuous dyeing systems and the EcoLine concept for denim. And – by the way – we have been doing this for more than 135 years.

“Our customers were gravitated to reduce water, chemical and energy consumption”

What are the key trends you see emerging at the moment in the finishing machinery sector? Which kind of innovations and progress is expected in upcoming years in finishing machines?

Jonas Beisel: We see the demand on the market shifting towards more resource saving processes and we are glad that we can already provide leading technology for our customers in this regard. We have gained many years of experience in the optimisation of processes through working with our customers, both at their own plants and in our Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) in Mönchengladbach.

In dyeing we see that our customers are increasingly looking at shorter production runs and a more economical use of dyestuff, as well as reducing water, chemical and energy consumption. Thermex universal hotflues for continuous dyeing, condensing and thermosoling – such as the ranges recently installed in Turkey at Arta Tekstil and Hamle in Çorlu, İlay Textile in Bursa and Istanbul Boyahanesi in Çerkezköy, for example – are reliable even at high fabric speeds, making them efficient for dyeing both large and small batches of woven fabrics.

The Econtrol^® process* for reactive dyestuffs now has an impressive number of references in Turkey and other major manufacturing countries, as a quick and economical one-pass pad-dry and wash off process.

The benefits are in the reproducibility of all colours, improved dye penetration on difficult fabrics and no risk of the browning of cotton or other cellulose fibres due to a low fixation temperature. This really is the ideal process for fast change technology and operational savings.

Of course, we don’t want to stop here, and we are striving to bring ecological innovations for textile finishing to the market in the future, while also emphasising  digitalisation for a more efficient production.

What are your major markets? Where do you see the potential for your product offerings growing?

Jonas Beisel: Monforts is active all over the world, especially in the major textile producing regions of Turkey and across Asia and South America, as well as in Europe, where the emphasis is more on technologies for technical textiles.

Turkey’s close proximity to Europe has always been major advantage, but more so than ever before because brands and retailers are increasingly looking to shorten their supply chains.

 “We continued to assist our customers during this difficult period”

How was your company’s reaction to Pandemic? As Monforts, what kind of preparations do you make for the post-pandemic period?

Thomas Päffgen: For the leading textile manufacturers, adapting quickly to changing and highly uncertain market conditions has long been a necessity. The need for flexibility has only been intensified since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Monforts has been able to assist its existing customers all along the way through this difficult period, not least with its MORE – Monforts Original Replacement Equipment – programme.

The Monforts commitment to customer service is based on four principles – helpful, accurate, fast and reliable and alongside this is a contantly-expanding worldwide service network. In Turkey, the contribution of our regional representative Neotek has been invaluable in ensuring the successful installation and commissioning of many lines .

Covid- 19 shows us we should rely more on sustainability and green products, how we can improve sustainability in the textile and finishing industry? What is Monforts sustainability policy?

Jonas Beisel: Monforts machines are known for their robustness and long service life.

Achieving energy savings with Monforts installations has been a key focus for our designers and engineers in Germany for many years, but major advances in digital technology mean that there are also now significant gains to be made in the retrofitting of the latest automatic drives and sensor and control systems to machines already in operation, as well as on new production lines.

* Econtrol^® is a registered mark of DyStar Colours Distribution GmbH, Germany.

Interview: Dilek Hayırlı