Business

Schlafhorst Achieves Landmark After Its 2.5-Millionth Autoconer Unit Is Installed

Schlafhorst has achieved a landmark after its 2.5-millionth Autoconer winding unit was presented to the Indian textile company Kanchan India Ltd recently.

"Spinning mills have chosen an Autoconer winding unit 2.5 million times. The productivity potential allows process production of more than 100 million ring spinning spindles. This unique trust is a major incentive for us to continue to sustainably shape the technical progress in the package winding sector with pioneering innovations in future," Schlafhorst Product Manager Peter Gölden.

In fact, the German textile machinery manufacturer has determined the technical and technological progress in package winding with the Autoconer, for 55 years. With mass production of the Autoconer in 1962, the era of automatic package winding began.

The benefits of the Autoconer 107 compared to a manual winding machine spoke for themselves. The manual effort per kilogram was reduced to ¼ of the previous expenditure that was required even as production increased fourfold. Manufacturing costs per kilogram of yarn (for example Nm 34) decreased by 40%.

The Autoconer 107 was produced for over 15 years. Its successor, the Autoconer 138, astounded the textile world in 1976 with its separate mechanical, electric and pneumatic functions. In 1978, the innovative splicer mechanism revolutionised yarn joining: the splice replaced knots for the first time. In doing so, quality for subsequent processes was re-defined. While knots were three to four times thicker than the yarn and often led to yarn breaks in knitting and weaving, the splice by Schlafhorst was practically similar to the yarn.

In 1987, Schlafhorst introduced the Autoconer 238, the first winding machine with single winding unit drive. This led to increased flexibility and quality in the spinning mills. In the 1980s and 1990s, the increase in profitability in spinning mills was closely linked with the increasing automation of the process cycles. In 1991, Schlafhorst went on to develop the revolutionary caddy transport system to market readiness. Spinning mills were able to use it to implement more efficient material flow and automation strategies.

The next product generation, the Autoconer 338, with new drives and sensors went into production in 1997, while the starting pistol also sounded for the development of intelligent FX technologies. This made Schlafhorst the trailblazer for innovations in textile technology. Autotense FX, the first online yarn tension control, is still the undisputed industry benchmark today.

In 2007, Schlafhorst introduced the textile industry to the world of digital yarn displacement for processing bobbins. The Autoconer 5 revolutionised the production of process-optimised packages with its drumless yarn displacement system PreciFX.

Two years later, Schlafhorst was once again at the cutting edge of the automation trend with the Autoconer X5. Intelligent material flow technologies, smart package handling with the X-Change doffer and flexible process optimisation with the Autoconer types RM, D, T and V allowed each spinning mill to have an individual automation concept.

In 2015, Schlafhorst presented the Autoconer 6 automatic package winder with self-optimised process cycles. Maximum productivity, the greatest possible energy efficiency and the absolute best quality are possible, practically at the touch of a button. As a result, the newest product generation is E³ certified because it gives spinning mills the world over threefold added value in the fields of energy, economics and ergonomics.