January 10, 2018 Source: Textile Machinery

It is worthy of recognition that in recent years, China's textile industry has achieved gratifying results in smart manufacturing. With the completion of digital and intelligent spinning workshops of well-known domestic textile enterprises such as Jiangsu Dasheng, Ningxia Ruyi, Shandong Huaxing, Weiqiao Group and Tianhong Textile, automated spinning has gradually entered the daily production of textile people. Intelligent equipment not only saves labor and improves production efficiency, but also wins a more competitive market for enterprises with reliable and stable product quality.

More importantly, the automation and intelligent equipment on the tall and the high has changed the status quo of the backward production mode of textile enterprises, turning the textile industry into a member of the high-tech industry, and further attracting talents for the industry and solving recruitment difficulties. Bottlenecks and other issues provide a more effective solution.

The trend of intelligent manufacturing

With the continuous increase of labor costs, the flow rate of skilled workers is accelerating, and textile enterprises are increasingly demanding the automation and intelligence level of equipment. In this context, smart manufacturing is becoming a breakthrough and focus of the industry's new round of transformation and upgrading.

From the 2016 China International Textile Machinery Exhibition and ITMA Asia Exhibition (ITMA ASIA+CITME 2016), it can be seen that the exhibiting equipment has made great progress in automation and intelligence. For example, the sizing machines exhibited at the 2016 Textile Machinery Exhibition have applied a large number of technologies such as Internet technology, cloud technology, and information processing to improve the intelligence level of equipment. In addition to exhibiting automated single machines, Tsudakoma Japan has also demonstrated three-dimensional animation simulations of intelligent weaving workshops for sizing and weaving processes. For example, the automatic wear-through equipment that has received much attention from everyone, in addition to a large number of non-contact optical detection technologies, realizes the automatic pick-up of the untwisted yarn, and also adapts to the requirements of complex technology such as color yarn management and warp-piercing; At the same time, the human-machine interface and management software have been improved, which provides a good equipment foundation for the modern production and management of the weaving workshop.

Lin Ziwu, a professor at Wuhan Textile University who visited the 2016 Textile Machinery Exhibition, said that he can see from the exhibition that the future development trend of spinning equipment is clearer, that is, the process is shorter and the structure is modular. With more and more intelligent equipment, less maneuvering and unmanned equipment, the cotton spinning production line has achieved an integrated connection in addition to the parallel.

Yan Dinghua, senior engineer of the Suzhou Textile Engineering Society, shares the same feelings. He believes that refined, intelligent, automated, low-energy, low-carbon, environmentally-friendly, resource-saving production methods and sustainable quality, quality, brand and variety are sustainable. The mode of operation will become the general trend of the future development of textile machinery. He said that from the textile machinery exhibition, the speed of the spinning equipment is very fast, which shows the characteristics of “three noes”, “one company”, “four” and “two lows”. Specifically, “three nos” means “no roll, no joint, no shuttle”; “one company” is continuous single machine; four is “automation, intelligent, high speed, networked”; “two low” means “ Low energy consumption and low failure."

Intelligentization is changing traditional production

In fact, smart technology is transforming the traditional textile industry, and some companies have begun to try to intelligentize part of the manufacturing process. For example, on July 13, the 30,000-pound full-process intelligent project of Changji Esquel Textile Co., Ltd. with a total investment of US$56 million was completed and put into operation in Changji. Esquel Textile Co., Ltd. modern cotton spinning production workshop, relying on the most advanced intelligent transmission system, realizes the whole process automation production from raw materials to semi-products to finished yarns, which not only reduces the productivity of the production workshop by 2/3, but also the production efficiency. It has also been improved by 3 times, and the stability of product quality has also been significantly improved.

The intelligent host equipment, workshop environment intelligent monitoring system, intelligent logistics system and Jingwei E system of Jiangsu Dasheng “cotton spinning digital workshop” have also received high attention from peers in the industry. On the basis of the digital workshop, the company has increased investment in research and development and strives to realize the "black light factory" at night.

For example, Ningxia Ruyi valued carmakers can use the iPad to see 10 cars. In the past, workers had to move around, watch the yarn ingots, find broken ends, and connect broken ends, which was labor intensive. Workers are tired of backache every day. Now with this car, all the data can be transmitted to the ipad in real time. The driver can complete the joints while sitting in the car. It is very easy, and the workshop work has been reduced from 2,000 to 180 in the past. .

Although some enterprises do not have large-scale replacement or new automation equipment, they have significantly improved product quality and production efficiency through equipment upgrades at key points. Wang Enqing, fabric design technician of Shandong Nanshan Textile Apparel Co., Ltd., said that the company's existing stand-alone automation level is relatively high. In recent years, the company has not purchased large quantities of conventional equipment, mainly introducing some key equipment that restricts the improvement of production efficiency. For example, in the weaving department, the key process that restricts the overall efficiency is the whole axis, the efficiency of the whole shaft is improved, and the efficiency of the weaving department will be very obvious. At the same time, the weaving preparation process is also constrained by the development of enterprises due to factors such as low labor efficiency and difficulty in recruiting workers. Therefore, in recent years, the company has mainly introduced several automated warping machines and piercing machines. These devices not only solve the problem of lack of labor, but also improve production efficiency and ensure product quality.

The advancement and thinking of intelligent manufacturing

To a certain extent, the intelligentization of equipment has solved the problem of insufficient labor and improved the competitiveness of China's textile industry. However, in the process of developing intelligence, there are still certain problems that deserve our consideration and discussion.

On the one hand, many entrepreneurs believe that the current simple machine substitution in the textile industry is not intelligent manufacturing. In the true sense, intelligent manufacturing is based on the accurate calculation and judgment of big data to replace the human brain decision-making. Whether the industry is worthwhile is worth discussing. A series of costs such as machine investment, maintenance and upgrade are not low. Whether textile enterprises can digest such expensive investment is also a problem that cannot be ignored.

On the other hand, as a labor-intensive industry, intelligence can stimulate local investment and promote industrial upgrading. On the other hand, it means that a large number of workers may lose their jobs. How to solve the contradiction between the two is worth further discussion.

For intelligence, the current government-level guidance direction includes the following four points: establishing demonstration zones; improving smart manufacturing standards; promoting smart manufacturing supplier alliances; and developing Internet+, big data and artificial intelligence. At present, the intelligence of the textile industry has achieved some gratifying results. At the level of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, between 2015 and 2017, a total of 12 items were included in the “Smart Manufacturing Pilot Demonstration Project”; in 2016-2017, a total of 6 items were included in the intelligence Manufacturing comprehensive standardization projects; 10 items were included in the new model application project of intelligent manufacturing. The six intelligent production demonstration lines for spinning, chemical fiber, printing and dyeing, non-woven, knitting and garments proposed by the textile machinery industry have already taken shape, laying a solid foundation for the final realization of the "13th Five-Year Plan".

It is undeniable that intelligence has become a trend and an irreversible trend. We believe that at the China International Textile Machinery Exhibition and ITMA Asia Exhibition (ITMA ASIA+CITME 2018) in 2018, there will be more intelligent equipment exhibitions that are advancing with the times, and will surely bring greater transformation and upgrading to the industry. power. I believe that by then, the needs of enterprise development, the industry's forward questions will find the answer at the exhibition.