Picanol exhibits weaving innovations at ITM – Picanol grabbed great interest with its newly launched rapier and airjet technology and aims to boost its power in Turkish market. The company emphasizes high speed, maximum efficiency and ease usage in new machines.
Among leading brands of rapier and airjet weaving technologies, Picanol participated in ITM 2016 in Hall 2, Booth 218 and displayed three weaving machines as online for visitors. The rapier model for denim weaving OptiMax-i (4 – R – 190), the TerryMax-i (8 – R – 260) machines for towel weaving and airjet model OMNIplus Summum (6 – R – 190) for shirt fabric weaving. Picanol Marketing Communication Manager Erwin Devloo reminded that they first launched those products during ITMA 2015 after upgrading them last year, while they are exhibited for the Turkish market for the first time. New TerryMax-i rapier was developed for terry cloth production and the direct electronic drive of the cloth fell mechanism guarantees a perfect pile formation. The OMNIplus Summum is Picanol’s latest generation in airjet weaving machines. It succeeds in combining the latest available technology with over thirty years of experience in airjet weaving.
Devloo pointed to many installations of Picanol machines in Turkey, adding that they were pleased with attention from visitors during ITMA Fair. About advantages of their products for Turkish textile manufacturers, he stated, “We always focus on achieving 15% more than our competitors as a principle. Thus, we focus on technology. This theme does not only include faster machines but also ensure that our machines are ergonomic, easy to use, energy efficient and they are developed to reveal less waste. This issue is quite important for weavers. At the same time, we made a very significant investment in our organization in Turkey. We have our own sales and service team in order to provide faster and high quality products for our customers in Turkey. Picanol has offices located in İstanbul and Bursa.”
R&D Dominates Today and Future
As weaving machines refer to serious investments which resulted in heavy installation process in the past, reminded Devloo, saying that Picanol machines are outstanding with user-friendliness. All settings are done through the microprocessors, which eliminates tough manual installation settings out of sight. Devloo mentioned, “In addition to fast and easy-settings; automatic tuning causes less pulse and keyboard usage which directly affects weaving quality
More than 100 employees are working at Picanol’s Research&Development department, while studies do not only focus on future but also today’s products. “We are constantly focusing on innovations,” Devloo said; adding that they are working to upgrade their existing machines to match with innovations. Applying innovations on existing machines prolongs their lives; while existing customers also enjoy a more profitable investment via developing their machines.
Last year was an “ITMA Year” as many innovations were displayed for the market which sustained constant growth. Devloo commented that they achieved quite good results during the first half of 2016 in Turkey; while the company showed up in conventional textile regions such as Bursa, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş and Çorlu via investments.
Picanol Exhibits Weaving Innovations at ITM
“The order book is well-filled for the first half of 2016 thanks to the increasing demand for quality and technology; and this is supported by the success of new weaving machines and the favorable exchange rate of the euro. Based on the outlook of Weaving Machines, Industries also predominantly aims at further growth in 2016; albeit differentiated across the various markets.” Devloo added. For the full year 2016 the Picanol Group expects to realize a turnover in line with the turnover of 2013; which was the best year in the history of the group. The Picanol Group is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2016.
Picanol is working with leading companies in Turkey’s textile market, Devloo mentioned. He concluded, “Many customers of ours sign incredibly high quality and creative weavings. Quality is not cheap or random. You obtain high quality fabrics if you focus on quality in your machines and production process. As Picanol, in line with our marketing campaign ‘Let’s grow together’ means we are growing with our customers. Sales has a very small share in this partnership, while after sales support is very crucial. We are focusing to improve each other constantly.”