Service partnership for growing performance and sustainable success

Textile technologies are becoming ever more efficient and flexible, opening up great opportunities especially in the manmade fibre markets to enhance competitiveness. At the same time however, this progress accelerates the race in the market. Anyone wishing to keep up with and respond quickly to changing market situations, should always utilise, sustain and expand his technical capabilities well. This way he exploits his plant investments to the full, maintaining the necessary technological lead to secure his future and maximum success.

To this purpose the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment offers a trusting service partnership with its brands Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag. "In close contact the strengths of our technologies can be optimally recognised and utilised for individual customer goals. Such intensive support is increasingly being requested by customers", says Marcel Bornheim, Head of Customer Services. On the basis of this knowledge highly qualified service experts advise and accompany fibre producers along the entire value chain: with start-up services for the building or relocating of plants in all textile regions; with a unique global network and technical support 24 hours a day; with highly modern services for maintenance and repair, performance enhancement and employee training. Innovative offers meet the needs of the customer and the market challenges of today and tomorrow:

Upgrades and modernisations: reaching new objectives and keeping fit for the future
Anyone wishing to target new markets and gain a greater market share can upgrade his machine platform with a variety of upgrades, adapting the product range in the shortest of time, raising yarn qualities, increasing throughput or achieving operating and cost benefits. In order to respond to the desire for manageable, worthwhile investments in further technical developments, Oerlikon Manmade Fibers also develops modernisation solutions in cooperation with fibre manufacturers for older machines and technology generations, also as a replacement for components which are no longer available. This helps to stay future-oriented and to maintain a high performance level as well as to improve quality, processes and productivity. For example, upgrades or modernisations with rotating RoTac tangling units from Oerlikon Neumag increase energy efficiency of the S+ and Sytec One installations in the production of BCF carpet yarn by up to 50 percent. In the production of POY, FDY or IDY the modernisation with the EvoQuench quenching system from Oerlikon Barmag reduces air consumption by around 65 percent and energy consumption by at least half compared to conventional cross flow quenching systems.

Customised life cycle management for your success capital: the machines
Only a regular servicing regime secures the technical reliability of machines and extends their life cycle. So as to be able to cater for customer requirements, Oerlikon Manmade Fibers offers individual maintenance and repair contracts with many design possibilities for the entire life cycle management of plants (also third-party equipment). The offer includes flexible maintenance intervals (weekly, monthly, several months, annual) and contractual periods (up to 5 years), scheduled maintenance programme at various performance levels as well as fitting original parts for repairs. The maintenance and production performance is measured and documented on the basis of key performance indicators (KPI), reports and checklists. Support is provided by service stations close to the customer, but also by on-site workshops with full maintenance personnel at the customer's plant, in which case fixed costs and outlay for the customer's own workers and their qualification are saved.

Operational efficiency: systematic process optimisation
To maximise performance and productivity, develop reliable and future-oriented plant concepts, exploit cost-reduction potentials – the attainment of maximum efficiency decides more and more frequently over commercial success. Optimum operating and production processes are the basis for this. As an OEM Oerlikon Manmade Fibers enjoys decades of knowledge of machines and markets and provides special services to systematically analyse and optimise important key factors for the best possible interaction of business processes. This includes the regular inspection of machine components to reduce the risk of sudden technical failures often linked with high downstream costs. Service technicians check the technical condition of the components, the correct settings and efficiency. They analyse potential fault sources and probabilities of default and offer advice on necessary replacement parts or repair services. The performance check is a new optimisation instrument, already in strong demand. Based on customer-specific aims and requirements, the check comprises a plant analysis of machines and processes over several days, interviews with operating personnel and plant management as well as processing of the collected data with presentation of the results, recommendations and discussion of the options for action. As a result of such a check a top manufacturer of polyester yarn could for example improve his work processes and save 50 percent on waste and time expenditure alone in the cleaning process. Another textile manufacturer will save a significant six-digit sum in euros within two years and for each further year due to his optimisation. "These examples emphasise the overall objective of our Customer Services: we want to make our customers' production increasingly efficient and productive, and their business increasingly competitive and profitable. To this aim we, as technology leaders, constantly strive for top performance. The success of our customers is the yardstick for our own performance", summarises Bornheim.