Spinning technology still represents our core business
Marzoli has been designing and manufacturing textile machines since 1851. Today, it represents the textile division of Camozzi Group that combines the historical competence on fibres preparation and spinning process with the most advanced technologies. It is a unique partner for the manufacturing of the complete line of machines for the opening, preparation and spinning of natural, man-made, technical and blending fibres. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Marzoli General Manager Cristian Locatelli talks about textile machinery and innovations.
Has the textile machinery market revived post pandemic?
2019 was a difficult year for the entire textile machinery sector, due to a marked slowdown in demand in the main markets, mainly due to widespread geopolitical tensions. The sudden advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in the subsequent year worsened an already difficult situation, leading to a sharp slowdown in consumption and a consequent further decline in exports. However, since the beginning of 2021, we are witnessing a recovery in demand. In 2021, Marzoli recorded 300 per cent increase in orders income compared to the same period of the previous year.
How would you describe the current demand for textile machinery, especially in the spinning sector?
From order intake point of view, H1 2022 has been positive, and in line with pre-COVID era. Since June, however, we have seen a sharp drop in demand in almost all major markets. We expect a slight recovery in the last quarter of 2022.
Do you see any impact of ‘China plus one’, reshoring and near-shoring in your order book?
The main impact has been registered in Vietnam. Important investments in spinning sector have continued uninterrupted over the last few years.
What new innovations are you working towards at Marzoli?
At Marzoli, we are focused on the development and creation of exclusives concept dedicated to four different and complementary areas: Spinning technology, Digital textile, Nonwoven solutions, and Circular technologies.
Nonwovens and circular economy are two areas of constant innovation and investment for us. We are developing new projects and cutting-edge technologies, always focused on the specific requirements of our customers, with special attention to the emerging trends such as the adoption of sustainable practices.
The experience gained in 10 years of research and development dedicated to circularity of fabrics allows us to have an extended competence on processing 28 different types of fibres and related blends.
Customers can rely on Marzoli experience for the implementation of different types of nonwoven lines to create a wide range of products: wipes, medical/surgical, disposable and filtration.
Being one of the leading manufacturers in Europe of complete line, the spinning technology still represents our core business. The latest technical innovation introduced in the market by Marzoli is CMX, the new state-of-the-art 10 heads combing technology that, with a capacity of up to 115 kg/hour, guarantees a level of productivity that is 25 per cent higher than the previous model, along with an extended energy savings of 20 per cent.
Further, continuous improvement and special focus in our leading-edge roving frame technology (FT) is pushing the limits of the performance: wide flexibility, high productivity, quality, space savings, power savings, full integration into any kind of spinning sections. It also results in high degree of automation and digital integration.
A mandatory topic, especially in this historical period, is addressing energy consumption and the related cost. The R&D activities of the last 30 years has allowed Marzoli to halve the energy consumption (-47 per cent) with the adoption of innovative power-saving technologies.
The digital solutions offered by Marzoli improve the energy efficiency by optimising the process parameters in a continuous and proactive way. With Marzoli Brain Box, it is possible to increase productivity (+ 5.5 pe cent) and efficiency (+8 per cent).
What is the next big thing in the spinning industry?
The history of innovation and engineering in textile has anticipated and driven the global history of industrial and social innovation during the last three centuries. The macro trends we are monitoring, understanding and envisioning for production processes and textile products will result in progressive improvements of the B2B and B2C dynamics as well as the emerging disruptive and completely new concepts.
Concerning production processes, the main trends are digitalisation, AI, cognitive applications and augmented reality (AR), and automation and robotics, while circularity and sustainability remain fundamental.
With regards to the textile products, the main trends are sustainability (development of new and eco-friendly fibres and materials as well as the design of products with lower energy use and extended lifetime), lifecycle management (circularity), end to end traceability, development of new materials, and special treatments to enable textile and clothing products to tackle the climate change. In addition, there are new customer approaches that combine physical and virtual experiences through the adoption of AR tools, cognitive applications, etc.
Marzoli, as a textile engineering company, wants to intercept these trends and opportunities in order to work closer with the customers, supporting them to create value, and providing the know-how to guide the customers through all phases of the process: from feasibility and preliminary studies to plant construction, line start-up, optimisation, management and subsequent commissioning. In addition, we also want to help customers in staff training and organisation of maintenance activities, turnkey solutions and support in financing activities, business plan development, automation level analysis, and project management.
What trends do you foresee in kinds of yarns in the future?
Consumers are becoming more and more conscious about sustainability, especially the new generations. Millennials are influencing every day the choices of textile industry. This awareness is growing continuously and rapidly, especially since the last 15 months. This, therefore, leads yarn producers and, consequently, textile machinery manufacturers, to develop new solutions that best match these needs.
What are the long-term goals at Marzoli? Any plans of capacity expansions?
We are increasing our production capacity for the whole product portfolio. By the end of 2023, we will be able to reach the full increased capacity of 40 per cent (over the existing capacity).
We have developed local warehouses, and dedicated logistics and supply chain for improving spare parts services, reliability and reducing delivery time.
During the COVID period, we increased by 15 per cent the number of field engineers and project managers dedicated to installation, service and technological support. We are investing in recruiting and training activities. We want to further increase our employee strength by another 10 per cent in the coming year, to have local professionals growing with us in the market.
Ensuring a global presence with local service will help us to shorten the delivery times of our latest technologies. Thanks to the new branches we established in Turkey and Uzbekistan in 2021, we are in a position to better serve our customers in an effective and timely way.
Published on: 17/10/2022
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
