The textiles industry in “Old Europe” continues to go from strength to strength and makes no compromises when it comes to quality. The same is also true of the products and materials used in the manufacture of textiles from this region. In this article we take a close look at three leading textile companies: The first two, SR-Webatex in Bayreuth and Feiler Frottier in Hohenberg an der Eger, are located in the textile stronghold of eastern Upper Franconia, Germany, whilst the third, Jenny Fabrics, is located in Ziegelbrücke, Switzerland.

We begin our textile tour in the historic town of Bayreuth, located approximately 70 km southeast from Kaeser‘s headquarters in Coburg ...

SR-Webatex GmbHThe SR-Webatex weaving mill is situ-ated in the heart of Bayreuth, within a stone‘s throw of the Upper Franconian capital‘s main railway station. The state-of-the-art manufacturing complex houses everything under a single roof and provides optimum production transparency. Gunther Ramming, the Director of Quality Management and Assurance at SR-Webatex, oversees all aspects of textile production, of which there are many: For example, the raw thread has to first pass through

The origins of the Bayreuth weaving mill go back to the establishment of “The Bayreuth Mechanical Wool Spin-nery and Weaving mill AG” (Mecha-nische Baumwoll-Spinnerei und We-berei Bayreuth AG) in 1853. The company has been part of Daun & Cie. AG – Germany‘s largest textile group – since 1979 and was merged with “Reutlingen Silk Weavers” (Seidenwe-berei Reutlingen: SR) in 2006 to form SR-Webatex GmbH. As described in the company brochure, the two loca-tions were “woven together to form a single efficient unit”. With 45 air-pow-ered looms comes a corresponding “thirst” for compressed air: The facility‘s peak load compressed air requirement of 85 m³/min is only slightly higher than

numerous highly specialised process-es to prepare it for the subsequent weaving marathon, whereupon 45 compressed air looms and 52 projectile looms then produce material of the very highest quality. SR-Webatex‘s ex-tensive product range not only includes everyday textiles for use in motorcycle protective clothing, trekking footwear and tents, for example, but also in-cludes materials for the manufacture of protective clothing for sporting activi-ties (fencing attire) and professional applications (industrial safety, military use). The company also produces sound- and sun-protective material, ar-tificial suede, material for landfill cov-ers, parachutes and balloons to name just a few additional product solutions.

Kaeser Kompressoren and the textiles industry

SR-Webatex GmbH

the 75 m³/min needed for base load consumption. Compressed air is need-ed at all times, as the plant operates around the clock over three shifts. Therefore, the phrase “Idling is money” is seldom applicable when it comes to discussing compressed air at SR-We-batex. Operation of the Kaeser rotary screw compressors (two CSD 122 (75 kW), two DS 241 (132 kW) and an ESD 351 (200 kW)) is co-ordinated and precisely controlled via a Sigma Air

Manager (SAM) compressed air man-agement system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The SAM also monitors and controls the air treatment systems (2 x TE 141 and 2 x TE 570 refrigeration dryers, an AK 1000 activated carbon adsorber, as well as numerous filters). The compressed air also has to meet strict quality requirements: It has to be exceptionally clean and dry in order to reliably feed the filling threads on the Dornier air-powered loom across the

3.80 metre width of the machine. In fact this has to be done reliably AND fast, as this procedure is carried out more than 700 times per minute at peak load and at speeds of approximately 160 km/h (100 mph). This interplay between maximum mechanical and pneumatic precision is therefore nothing short of amazing. This is especially true in the production halls of the next company on our tour ...

Weaving with Air

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A world full of colour:The thread store at Feiler Frottier

Ernst Feiler GmbH is located directly on the German border with the Czech Republic in the town of Hohenberg an der Eger and, as Dieter Schwedt (Com-pany Director and grandson of founder Ernst Feiler) explains, is the only weav-ing mill in Europe that produces che-nille. But what is chenille? Dieter Schwedt describes it as “a gem of a material” and talks us through each step of the production process during a tour of the company.The distinctive look of chenille starts in

the thread store: rolls of wool thread in every colour of the spectrum wait to be fed into the air-powered looms, which produce the initial product. The colour sequences of these first-stage materi-als determine how the finished chenille material will look. However, this initial product first has to be cut: this process is carried out in several stages whereby the material is cut into ever-narrower strips until they are approximately 3 mm wide. Using highly specialised equipment powered by compressed

air, these strips are then entwined to form “caterpillar thread” – a soft fibre that has the fleecy feel of the end product. In the next stage, fixed looms produce the chenille itself weft for weft and operate significantly slower than their compressed air powered counter-parts on the ground floor. By this stage, the material has taken on its distinctive characteristic of being identical on both sides.Feiler‘s chenille products are much sought-after in Japan, where the brand

Ernst Feiler GmbHTowelling and Chenille Weaving Mill

The highly complex production of Chenille at Feiler Frottier starts with manufacture of the initial material on Dornier compressed air powered looms

enjoys true cult status – approximately 230,000 of Feiler‘s 30 x 30 cm face towels leave the Hohenberg production plant each month.Together with a wide range of other chenille and towelling products – in-cluding hand towels, bath towels and bathrobes – the family-owned company has grown continuously over the years and has relied on Kaeser Kompres-soren for its compressed air supply for the last 40 years. To meet the compa-ny‘s base load requirement of

10.5 m³/min and its 13 m³/min peak load demand, the compressed air in-stallation currently comprises three Kaeser rotary screw compressors: an AS 35 for reserve capacity, a CS 76 and a CS 91. The system provides air for weft insertion into the air-powered looms and also powers the facility‘s automatic stitching equipment. Need-less to say, the air has to be completely dry and oil-free. This is made possible via appropriate filtration and separa-tion systems, as well as a refrigeration

dryer. The entire system is monitored and controlled by a “Sigma Air Manag-er” compressed air management sys-tem (SAM) to ensure optimum efficien-cy and performance.The last stop on our tour takes us to Jenny Fabrics AG, in Ziegelbrücke, Switzerland, where a SAM is also used to provide maximum compressed air availability for this highly successful weaving company …

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Fridolin Jenny started operations in 1834 with a 15,000-spindle spinning works in the town of Ziegelbrücke, situ-ated in the Swiss canton of Glarus. A company was subsequently formed in 1836 under the name Enderlin and Jenny and in 1851 acquired a spinning works in the nearby town of Nieder- urnen, which today is home to Jenny Fabrics AG. By mid 1860 the company had 54,000 spindles and 520 staff, making it the largest spinning mill in the

Situated in the Swiss town of Ziegelbrücke, Jenny Fabrics manufactures premium quality, specialised fabrics

canton. Trading under the name Fritz + Caspar Jenny from 1894, the company continued to expand until the 1980s, but growth then slowed as capacity shifted to eastern Europe and Asia. Established as Fritz + Caspar Jenny AG in 1986, the company restructured and demerged the business entities of Spinnerei Ziegelbrücke AG and Jenny Fabrics AG in 1997. The Ziegelbrücke spinning works was subsequently closed at the end of 2001, but signifi-

cant investment has been made in ma-chinery at the Jenny Fabrics weaving plant to ensure a prosperous and suc-cessful future for the company. A total of approximately 140 employees (located at the Niederurnen plant and in partner companies in the Czech Re-public) produce 12 million m² of grey fabric for use in special applications each year. The product range is divided into three areas, namely: clothing ma-terials (material for shirts / blouses and

Jenny Fabrics AG

male/female outerwear), home textiles (furniture cov-erings, bed clothes, furnish-ing and curtain fabrics) and technical textiles (support materials, materials for pro-tection against electromag-netic pollution etc.). Prod-ucts in all categories ensure the very best in quality and performance, as they are developed and tested in Switzerland in accord-ance with the strictest quality stand-ards.As well as 68 Sulzer- and 17 Dornier-rapier weaving machines, the Swiss weaving plant‘s versatile range of machinery includes 22 Dornier-com-pressed air looms, which consume between 25 and 35 m³ of compressed air per minute according to demand. Three Kaeser rotary screw compres-sors provide the necessary supply of

compressed air: two DSD 171 units and a DSD 241 unit. Compressed air treatment is carried out by two TH 371 refrigeration dryers and three FE 798 D micro-filters. A SAM (4/4) compressed air management sys-tem controls the entire compressed air system and ensures efficient op-eration, whilst the Sigma Air Control Plus visualisation software provides outstanding operational data and cost transparency.

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Author: Klaus Dieter BätzContact: klaus-dieter.baetz@kaeser.com

also available with drive powers up to 350 kW and feature cost-effective air-cooling (see page 18). This not only minimises installation costs, but also ensures significantly reduced operat-ing costs over the long term. In addi-tion, Kaeser‘s all-in-one master con-troller and web server, the “Sigma Air Manager” (SAM), combines unrivalled compressed air availability with maxi-mum system efficiency and enables full system control for up to 16 com-pressors. The SAM‘s “Sigma Air Con-trol (plus)“ analysis tool also allows the user to monitor compressed air costs like never before.

A brief history of ITMACEMATEX, the European Textile Ma-chinery Manufacturer‘s Association, was founded on the 20th October 1952 with the aim of enabling its members to

Significant energy savingsAll three textile companies also benefit from significant energy savings as a re-sult of heat recovery systems, which allow energy that would be otherwise wasted to be used for space heating during the colder months of the year. This not only reduces energy costs, but

the textile industry. Production of com-pressed air required for powering air-jet looms often accounts for up to 85 per-cent of total system costs. Furthermore, investment in Asia, and especially in China, continues to increasingly shift towards air-jet loom technology.Consequently KAESER KOMPRES-SOREN‘s presentation at ITMA (Hall B4, Stand 103) is focussing on all as-pects encompassed by the company‘s motto “More air, More savings…”. This of course will take place with the key areas essential for the textile industry in mind, such as air system reliability and compressed air quality, to name just two important aspects. Particular emphasis will be placed on compressed air supplies for air-hungry applications such as compressed air powered looms. For example, Kaeser‘s FSD se-ries rotary screw compressors are now

also reduces consumption of natural resources and minimises harmful emis-sions. Moreover, these companies are dedicated to manufacturing products of the very highest quality and recognise that increased productivity is essential to ensure continued success. There-fore, they are true believers in Kaeser‘s

motto when it comes to the key source of energy for fast air-powered looms: “More air, More Savings…”

KAESER at ITMA:In hardly any other business sector is the energy efficiency of compressed air systems more noticeable than it is in

Hall B4 – Stand 103exhibit their products at a single trade-show location. The inception of CEMA-TEX was preceded by the first attempt to establish an international textile ma-chine exhibition, which took place in Lille, France, in 1951. The first true CEMATEX-ITMA exhibition took place 4 years later in Brussels and had 453 exhibitors covering a total exhibition area of 20,000 m². ITMA has been held every four years ever since in alternat-ing European locations. 2007 will be the first time the show has been held in Munich, which boasts one of the world‘s most impressive exhibition grounds: Nearly 1400 exhibitors in 16 halls will be demonstrating the latest products and innovations to visitors from all around the world.

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A view across the weaving hall at SR Webatex, Bayreuth