25 and 26 June 2018
Chemnitz and Hohenstein-Ernstthal
General Assembly
The general meeting was opened around 9.00 am with 25 members present.
The chairman, Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Reinhard Helbig welcomes the members of our National Section and guests from the Swiss Section. He thanks the Saxon Textile Research Institute for allowing us to hold our conference in their modern lecture room.
Prof. Schäch explains the membership movement since the last conference. Five terminations are matched by five new admissions. The regional section has a total of 96 members as of 25.6.2018.
Willy Knecht, senior student councilor, presented the detailed cash report for the past year 2017. Income and expenditure were roughly in balance, so that the membership fee can be left as it has been since 2002.
The auditor Mr. Rieger has checked the Ksse and found it to be in order and proposes to the meeting that the entire board be discharged en bloc for the year 2017. The meeting unanimously discharged the executive committee in an open vote.
The International Secretary of the IFWS, Prof. Dr. - Ing. Weber, gave an overview of the status of preparations for the 49th International Congress of the IFWS from 2 - 4 October 2018 in Lodz.
The general meeting 2019 with conference will take place in September 2019 in the Reutlingen/Neckar-Alb area.
Lectures and visits
The future is textile
Portrait of the Saxon Textile Research Institute (STFI) Chemnitz
The STFI has been in existence for a quarter of a century and has developed into a centre of excellence for technical textiles, nonwovens and lightweight construction. In the 25 years of its existence, turnover has quintupled to 15 million euros and the number of employees has risen from 60 to 150. 100 research and development projects are currently underway. The STFI has broadened its top management team and with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Yves-Simon Goy, a renowned expert in the fields of mechanical engineering, weaving and "Industry 4.0", has been won for the position of Managing Director. He presented the institute and its activities. It is active in the fields of materials and substances, people and health, technology and processes, mobility, energy and environment, and digitisation.
R & D work is concentrated in the "Centre for Lightweight Textile Construction", the Competence Centre for Nonwovens and the Innovation Centre for Technical Textiles. The certification bodies for protective clothing and geosynthetics are affiliated to the Institute.
Impulses for the industry
The Managing Director of the Association of the North-East German Textile and Clothing Industry, Dr.-Ing. Jenz Otto, presented the association, its structure and fields of activity: vocational training and further training, environment and energy industry, financing as well as business development, collective bargaining and social policy, deer work, public relations and lobbying.
Sensors and actuators in knitted fabrics
Dr. Heike Illing-Gunther. head of research at STFI, gave an overview of functionalisation in technical textiles. These can be linear or act as yarn-like sensors and actuators, optical fibers and wires. They can be incorporated into various textile fabrics during the manufacturing process (weaving, knitting, knitting, embroidery).
Applications include composite structures with safety function, cut protection, detection of conditions on buildings, lighting of concrete components or moisture measurement in old and new buildings.
Medium-sized companies - networked competence center
Frizzi Seltmann, Competence Centre FutureTEX, reported on the new Textile Competence Centre, in which research and industry work on joint projects. This is based on product innovations, efficient technologies and modern forms of organisation in the age of digitalisation. Everything takes place with cross-industry characteristics in order to achieve the goals in the areas of technical textiles and textile machinery construction. Partners include DITTF Denkendorf, ITA Aachen, STFI Chemnitz, Fraunhofer Institutes and others.
3D knitwear with different properties
Heike Herfert, University of Applied Sciences Hof, Campus Münchberg, reports on the behaviour of spacer textiles as fillings for duvets in her presentation "Experimental investigations of the unsteady heat and material transfer through 3D knitwear", which examined the climate in the "sleeping cave" and the change of humidity and temperature over time. In 50 trials, spacer fabrics of different consistencies and non-woven fillings were compared. All knitted fabrics have a better moisture permeability than comparable ceilings with fillings.
Innovations in flat knitting technology
Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Martin Legner , H. Stoll AG & Co. KG, Reutlingen, described innovations in flat knitting technology. The knitting machine manufacturer has noticed a sharp rise in the world market for simple flat knitting machines with one or two systems which can be easily assembled from components in modular design. This will obviously replace the last hand knitting machines still in operation.
The need to produce knitted fabrics for technical applications at low cost has accelerated the development of knitting machines into high-tech machines. Today, direct yarn infeed from above and the individual drive of the yarn guides are standard.
The production of shoe uppers since 2012 (Nike, Adidas) has led to a strong increase in machine sales. Form knitting reduces the working process by 50%. The processing of combination yarns of thermoplastic materials, partial weft insertion and plating serve to stiffen and secure zones with different openings. There is also a trend towards the production of seamless shoes.
Other applications for these high-tech flat knitting machines include gloves, tennis rackets, car seats, bags, textile coverings for electronics and lampshades.
Company visits
Terrot GmbH, Chemnitz
The managing partner, Andreas von Bismarck, welcomed the participants to the new technology center and Hermann Schmodde, head of application, introduced the company. The foundations were laid in 1851 by G. Hilscher at the Chemnitz site. Terrot was founded in Stuttgart in 1862, making it the oldest existing circular knitting machine factory in Europe. Terrot GmbH was economically re-established in 2006 in Chemnitz in the former VEB Strickmaschinenbau, Kombinat Textima. Since then the number of employees has risen from 130 to 310. The export amounts to almost 100 %. The mechanically and electronically controlled circular knitting machines are produced with a high manufacturing density.
In 2014, the Italian company Pilotelli was taken over and is now known as Terrot Italy. Today Terrot has three subsidiaries: Chemnitz, Italy, China.
In December 2017, the work of the new technology center began, which enables users to view and test the new machines before purchasing them. Terrrot currently builds eight different types of machines. The newly developed model UCC 572-TRE3 as a transfer relief model was specially designed for the production of innovative shoe uppers. The knitted hole pattern structure gives the shoe a good wearing comfort and an ideal fit.
With the new Corizon spinning-knitting technology, an innovative solution for combining the spinning and knitting processes immediately prior to stitch formation, the knitting machine manufacturer has surprised the experts in 2015.
Strumpfwerk Lindner GmbH, Hohenstein-Ernstthal
The managing partner, Thomas Lindner, welcomed the participants and introduced the company. The family business in Hohenstein-Ernstthal has existed since 1890 and was reprivatised after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990. The products are divided into the groups LINDNER socks, LINDNER medical and LINDNER sports. The range includes high-quality men's and women's socks, diabetic, anti tick, silver and compression socks and stockings.
During the tour of the factory, a large number of modern, mainly Italian small circular knitting machines could be inspected in operation. The stockings are ejected completely finished from the machine by means of compressed air and are only steamed.
Pinkert machines UG & Co. KG, Hohenstein-Ernstthal
The company owner, Christian Pinkert, looks back on 45 years of development, construction and experience of warp knitting machines and reported on the activities of his company.
The focus was on the manufacture, maintenance and conversion/modernization of knitting and warp knitting machines according to customer requirements. These included flat warp knitting machines with their own selvedge trimmer, warp knitting and Raschel machines as well as flat knitting machines. The longstanding know-how of the company owner in the field of mesh technology enables the technological realisation of numerous user requirements.
In 2010, the company took over the 4 - 6 metre wide stitch-bonding machines of the Malimo, Kunit, Multinit and Maliwatt types from Karl Mayer GmbH, developed them further, modified them to meet special customer requirements and extended the product range by the working widths 2, 3 and 4.5 metres.
The company still builds and reconstructs numerous machines of the former Kombinat Textima on customer requests. For example, in 1992 the production of the flat knitting machine Model Comnit was stopped (100 machines built). The company continued this business until 1998. The company has full order books and will be represented at ITMA 2019 with a new Malimo stitch-bonding machine.
literature
/1/ Herfert, H., Braun, M., Hantsch, A.: Kettenwirkpraxis (2018) 2, 24 -26
/2/ Terrot: Melliand textile reports 67 (2016) 189 - 190
