Knitting machinery industry enters deep cultivation stage

In recent years, the demand for knitwear has continued to increase, driving the rapid development of knitting equipment. At the same time, the knitted machinery and equipment industry continues to absorb the latest achievements in the world's science and technology. The level of technology has developed rapidly and the characteristics of technology-intensive are even more pronounced. It can be said that after years of rapid development of the knitting equipment industry in China, the scale effect of the industry has become apparent. At present, under the leadership of a group of leading companies such as Cixing, the industry has entered the stage of deep research and development of independent technologies and building famous brands. The status of domestic knitting equipment in the international community is also increasingly important. At the 16th Shanghai International Textile Industry Exhibition recently held, many knitting equipment companies exhibited and talked about the progress of the industry, as well as the problems encountered.

Intense competition forces high-end products

The rapid development of the knitting equipment industry, the rapid expansion of industrial scale, brought higher cost-effective products to the domestic downstream market, and effectively responded to the impact of foreign products on the domestic market. At the same time, the previous market expansion also contributed to the subsequent upgrade of capital and experience. At present, the industry is highly competitive, and companies are full of hardships. The person in charge of the Fujian Taifan Industrial Co., Ltd. said that currently the pressure of competition in the industry is too great, especially last year when the market was in a downturn. Companies have thought many ways to reduce costs.

On the one hand, the cost reduction is the improvement of the equipment production process by the knitting machinery manufacturers and the energy saving on the production line. On the other hand, it helps the downstream enterprises to reduce their management and operating costs. The most important manifestation of this is the introduction of smarter equipment to help downstream companies. Solve the problem of high labor costs. However, the practice of reducing the cost of some enterprises has hurt the good momentum of the healthy development of the industry. The person in charge of Quanzhou Fine Magnesium Machinery Co., Ltd. said that the current intense competition in the industry has caused some companies to cut sales prices and disturbed the order of the industry. At the same time as reducing prices, it used low-quality accessories to protect profits, which was detrimental to the industry. longterm development.

For the practice of vicious competition, people in the industry pointed out that the reason behind this is the irrational industrial structure. It is understood that at present, the knitting machinery market competition has squeezed the profits of low-grade products. A company representative stated that the profit of low-end knitted textile machines is only about 10%, and even lower; and the profit of high-end knitting machinery can reach more than 30%. The technical threshold of high-end products is high and the technological advantages are obvious. However, many key technologies in the industry have been mastered by major companies at home and abroad and many have established technical barriers in the form of patents. Large-scale enterprises, especially foreign ones, generally have a long operating history. They have accumulated many years of technical experience in mechanical manufacturing, knit technology research, and electronic control system development. Newly-entered enterprises can hardly fully grasp the industries involved in the short term. Technology, through higher technical thresholds.

In response to this situation, domestic companies have their own initiatives. For example, Ningbo Cixing Co., Ltd. wholly acquired the Swiss company Tange Group, the world’s third largest computerized flat knitting machine manufacturer, and developed a research and development base in Switzerland as a new product research and development platform. The successful products were first produced in Shanghai in small batch production. After the technology matures, it will be transferred to Ningbo for large-scale production. Quanzhou Fine Magnesium Machinery Co., Ltd., formerly a Taiwanese-owned company, has been acquired by Italian Santoni Holdings. Using Italian technology, enterprise products are more refined and stable.

Refined development is still elbow

Knitting companies need knitting machines to operate for a long time, stably and efficiently, and have high requirements for product accuracy, stability and reliability. The precision of knitting machine parts is an important factor affecting product quality. The person in charge of Quanzhou Fine Magnesium Machinery Co., Ltd. said that the knitting needles used by the company are generally imported. Domestic knitting needles are not congenitally deficient in strength and life, and the precision of the processing technology is not sufficient. A person in charge of the company even stated that using domestic knitting needles will only hinder the mechanical performance.

According to the company's introduction, knitting needles generally used abroad can be used for 6 months, while domestic good knitting can barely be used for 3 months. According to industry insiders, the reason behind the fact that small knitting needles have become shortcomings in the industry is that the production scale of needle knitting companies in China is generally small, the research and development capabilities are weak, the equipment precision is low, and the heat treatment level is not high. improve. However, some models of individual companies have made progress in their products and have touched foreign products, causing their domestic sales prices to decline. The status of the assets of the knitting needle manufacturing companies is also uneven. Larger corporate assets may exceed 10 million yuan, and smaller ones may only have several hundred thousand yuan. Since most companies have limited capacity for independent development, domestic production needle equipment has a low technological content, and the processing precision can not meet the requirements of high-grade knitting needles. The products are mainly made up of middle and low-grade knitting needles; weaving with well-known foreign companies There is still a big gap between needle products.

As a well-known manufacturer of knitting needles abroad, the person in charge of the company's Samsung Precision Knitting Needle said that the main reason why their knitting needles are popular in China is quality and stability. The customers of Samsung Knitting Needles have already included major domestic flat knitting machine manufacturers, such as Cixing Flat Knitting Machine and Flying Tiger Flat Knitting Machine. It is understood that there are a large number of non-standard parts in knitted machinery enterprises that need to be produced. In the industry, the use of external processing methods is commonly used to obtain parts and components. Due to factors such as the precision of parts processing and technical confidentiality, the core parts suppliers have established a long-term and stable cooperative relationship with the existing large-scale enterprises in the industry. With the advancement of technology, the processing technology of parts suppliers and knitting machinery enterprises have developed together, and the processing precision has rapidly increased. The mature parts processing technology has become one of the major barriers for new entry companies.

Intelligence is the trend of development

From the point of view of the market demand and technological development of different types of knitting equipment, the degree of computerization of knitting machinery has been increasing year by year. Computer control technologies, including electronic needle selection, electronic line adjustment, electronic automatic bending, etc., have been universally applied, and the level has been continuously improved. Increasing the maximum speed of the circular knitting machine under steady working conditions is an important way to increase production efficiency. Italian Santoni Company and Taiwan Bump Company have introduced high-speed models in recent years. Computerized jacquard knitting machines are limited in speed due to the limitation of the needle selection frequency of the electronic needle selector. However, the speed of computerized jacquard knitting machines is also increasing through the improvement of manufacturing, cooperation, and control accuracy.

Dianyang Knitting Machinery Co., Ltd. at the exhibition mainly brought computer double-sided round needle machine, computer jacquard round needle machine and other machinery, and on the double-sided computer jacquard knitting machine series with a three-position full-jacquard needle selection system ( Full needle, half needle, flat needle), stable operation. The machine adopts a computer system that is easy to learn, easy to input, and can read standard image files via a jacquard controller. The time is short and the efficiency is high. This machine uses a CF memory card for easy storage and access to image data.

In addition to the computerization of the circular knitting machine, the flat knitting machine has become more intelligent. Rongrong Feihu (Dongguan) Machinery Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. exhibited the WW-252SC/WW-252SCM series of computerized horizontal knitting machines. Through the control of computerized needle selection, full-featured weaving and forming organizations can be executed. The independent sinker system can also be easily woven for special tissues that lack tension. The machine adopts a touch screen, which can easily change the set value of the machine, saving labor and time. The company’s general manager of sales, Wen Weijun, said that smart knit machinery can help customers save the cost of personnel training, but also save manpower, and is welcomed by downstream customers.

Zhejiang Luosuo Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer specialized in producing cotton socks and stockings. They also apply computer technology to the stocking machine. The company launched ROSSO-04MJ, ROSSO-12 stockings machine is a computer single needle socks machine, can produce more lines and patterns such as stockings, flowers, twill and bikini. According to the person in charge of the company, computer-operated equipment can produce more flower-shaped products more quickly, ensuring that customers can keep up with market trends and enhance customers' competitiveness. Moreover, compared with foreign machines of the same type, there is not much difference between the types of socks produced by the machinery and the quality, and domestic machines can be 40% cheaper.