With an overwhelming attendance of European, Turkish, Indian, South American and Asian customers visiting, for Stäubli the ITMA 2007 was a great success. The Stäubli booth was definitely very popular in the weaving section. Interested customers could discover innovations such as the UNIVAL technology for jacquard, carpet and narrow fabric weaving, as well as the new carpet weaving machine ALPHA 400, the MAGMA tying machine and the SAFIR drawing-in installation.
 
The wide range of textile machinery offered by Stäubli was on displayed on a exhibition floor measuring almost 1000 m2.  All Stäubli Textile sectors received large numbers of customers from all over the world. The visitors seemed eager to learn about the Stäubli product range and of course to see the latest developments. A major attraction and a world premier at the same time was undoubtedly the UNIVAL 200: Stäubli’s first weaving machine for narrow fabrics using the UNIVAL technology.

UNIVAL 200 technology for unrestrained creativity
The innovative shed system UNIVAL 200 provides a positive Jacquard control system rather than using a conventional harness. Each individual warp thread is controlled by its own actor at every weaving position. Weft insertion, weft density, warp density, and warp let off are all electronically controlled and thus variable even during weaving. Narrow fabric weavers can now enjoy unrestrained creativity, design options without limitations in application areas that were inaccessible until now.

During ITMA UNIVAL 200 wove elastic straps with variable widths and densities featuring the text “Stäubli - ITMA 2007 - UNIVAL 200” on the ribbons used as a holder for the access cards.

Terry towels, ties, upholstery and other delicate creations came from the jacquard corner
The jacquard corner of the Stäubli booth featured four weaving machines with jacquard machines:

• the UNIVAL 100 single-end-control electronic jacquard machine mounted over a rapier weaving machine producing silk fabric with a harness of 6084 ends
• the LX 1602 with 5120 hooks installed on a rapier weaving machine producing terry towels
• the LX 3202 also running on a rapier weaving machine producing wide upholstery fabric
• the DX 110 with 2688 hooks is installed on a rapier weaving machine producing a highly

 

Wave of innovation in Weaving Preparation
Weaving Preparation Systems presented SAFIR – the new automatic drawing-in machine for demanding requirements. SAFIR incorporates new technologies for safer and more convenient drawing-in. The new machine allows the drawing-in of harness elements from multiple warp sheets and checks the size and the colour of each thread before drawing-in - a function that prevents double threads in the harness and eliminates faults in the repetition of drawn-in patterns.

MAGMA – a new warp-tying machine for coarse yarn
The second WPS novelty was the new MAGMA tying machine for course to medium yarn counts. The machine ideally compliments the proven TOPMATIC models. Its yarn separation system, which separates the yarns from the lease, works without a yarn-specific separation needle. An optical system checks the separation process thread by thread, making sure no double ends will be tied.

The WPS product range present at ITMA was completed by the well proven TOPMATIC 201 PC warp-tying machine with its broad application range. And finally the OPAL multilayer leasing machine reading-in a 1:1 lease into a warp consisting of two layers, a grey and a fancy layer.

Frame weaving applications
Frame weaving applications and machines were on display on three weaving machines, such as, the 2881 electronic dobby with 20 CARBO SPEED T6100 heald frames producing menswear, including two CX 180 jacquard machines for the selvedges.

A shed system consisting of the 2881 dobby drove 16 CARBO SPEED T6100 heald frames to produce shirt fabrics at high speed.

Pure wool fabrics for menswear was produced on an installation with an 2861 electronic dobby with 20 lifting units and two CX 172 jacquard machines with 80 hooks each for lettering the selvedge.

The 1781 cam motion was demonstrated with 10 CARBO SPEED T6100 heald frames on a stand-alone frame. And another 2881 electronic dobby for use on air-jet looms was displayed with 13 CARBO SPEED T6200 heald frames. The deeper profiles of carbon and glass-fibre fabric allow frame widths up to 380cm wide without the need for centre braces.

Schönherr carpet weaving introduces the ALPHA 400
In the carpet weaving sector Schönherr showed its new ALPHA 400 INNOVATION. The ALPHA 400 produces carpets in excellent qualities and any kind of patterns at outstanding production rates.

The ALPHA 400 series machines will be configured to the customers’ requirements built in five different versions: the ALPHA 400 EASYSYSTEM for the production of low- and middle-density carpets, the ALPHA 400 UNIVERSAL for high-quality and high-density carpets, the ALPHA 400 SINGLELOOP for single-side production of loop and sisal carpets, and the ALPHA 400 LEANTEC for weaving a wide range of technical fabrics – a new application area for ALPHA.

The UNIVAL 500 which was shown as a prototype 4 years ago at ITMA 2003 in Birmingham, was now installed on the ALPHA 400 in its configuration 500T for carpet weaving application. The machine offers enhanced flexibility in shedding and shaft weaving. The ALPHA 400 can produce over 650 weave-structure combinations of pile and ground weave. The UNIVAL 500T is operated from the control panel of the ALPHA 400 that allows most convenient adjustments and storage of weaving parameters.
> link to Schönherr carpet weaving website

ITMA 2007 – more international than ever
The internationalisation and globalisation of the textile industry was impressively reflected at ITMA 2007 in Munich. This 15th International Exhibition of Textile Machinery, running from 13 to 20 September, attracted 118,000 trade visitors from 149 countries to the new Munich Trade Fair Centre. Never before have visitors from so many different countries attended the ITMA. After Germany, the other top-ten countries in terms of visitor numbers were: Italy, India, Turkey, Brazil, France, Switzerland, Spain, Iran and Belgium. Interest from the countries of Central and South America was with around 12’000 visitors particularly strong.

1,451 companies from 38 countries presented the latest developments and technical innovations for the entire textile chain to visitors and competitors, in a display covering 102,000 square metres of exhibition space.

Final official report from the ITMA.