OBERTSHAUSEN, Germany — February 13, 2023 — The combination of new technologies such as additive manufacturing with the traditional procedures used in the textile industry offers numerous potentials for product development and hence new market opportunities. The KARL MAYER GROUP has recognized this and has developed a technological solution for combining warp knitted textile manufacturing with 3D printing. The innovation combines the warp knitting machine with the 3D printing system in a homogenous process according to the roll-to-roll principle. The result is maximum flexibility and efficiency in manufacturing customized products.

“3D printing allows us to completely rethink our whole approach to textile product design. The world of sportswear is already showing us what is possible. Mass-produced articles complete with 3D-printed branding and functional elements are already firmly established in this domain,” noted Michael Kieren from Karl Mayer’s New Business Development team. In addition, the carbon footprint of newly developed products is good, since savings are made on material and energy-intensive working steps.

The new 3D inline printer really makes the most of its advantages, particularly when manufacturing prototypes and equipping of textile products with reinforced areas as well as design or function elements for additional benefits.

Flowing process management

With the new 3D printing solution, the textile is printed directly after it has been manufactured on the warp knitting machine. This involves the machine directly communicating with the printer’s pattern system to enable targeted control. The inline printing head can be moved quickly to every necessary manufacturing position. It is mounted on an H-gantry and can be moved in all directions in space at a speed of 5 meters per second. A camera system and a pattern recognition software ensure highest precision during positioning of the printing head on the 2×1 meter printing field.

The current printer version processes polyurethane and silicone without heat. The materials generally used in textile finishing are applied at a printing speed equivalent to a textile production of 85 square meters per hour with a warp knitting machine working width of 138 inches.

Particularly advantages for the sports, shoes and automotive sectors

The new 3D printing system from Karl Mayer combines the high productivity of warp knitting machines with the outstanding flexibility of additive manufacturing, thus offering the opportunity to cut production steps. The complexity of the machine handling is also reduced through a simple pattern system.

Thanks to these advantages, the innovation is particularly suitable for customizing products. Through direct printing onto the fabric, large quantities of textile articles can be decorated with logos, brand designations or team names. Above all, the far greater flexibility in terms of design opens up completely new opportunities for successfully responding to increasing customer needs for individualization.

In the sport sector, where high demands are placed on product performance, the new 3D printing system is once again ahead of the field. For instance, partial reinforcements such as kinesio tapes or support areas for muscles and for stabilizing movement can easily be integrated in functional sport outfits. Shoes also benefit from the opportunity of being designed to be wear-resistant in areas which are under the most stress. Other opportunities are customized designs right through to 4D-printed shoes cloths — for instance through 3D-printed spacer textiles — and efficient production “on demand”.

The automotive sector, known for its high production efficiency, is likely to be particularly interested in Karl Mayer’s efficient 3D printing system because of the few working steps required, for example, to integrate reinforcements into door panels, roof liners and seats. Designs, team logos and company names can be applied easily and accurately for use in automotive interiors. Apart from these conventional uses, future-oriented implementations are also conceivable, such as the integration of switches in textile structures, the use of textiles for control purposes and protective covers for electronic components.

Putting into practice

KARL MAYER has already tested the new 3D printing table with its development partner, Bielefeld University of Applied Science, for the production of shoe cloths. “Here, even more than in other areas, a very wide variety of applications is required. The 3D printing table is ideal for this,” Kieren concluded.

The prototype is now ready and was presented at the Techtextil 2022 trade fair in Frankfurt am Main. The innovation was also a highlight at the 5th Additive Manufacturing Meeting, which was held in November 2022 on the Karl Mayer company premises. The organiser of the annual meeting of experts is the Textilforschungsinstitut Thüringen-Vogtland e.V. (Thüringen-Vogtland Textile Research Institute) (TITV Greiz). “We are now trying to establish the procedure in practice together with potential users,” Kieren said, explaining the next steps being taken.

Posted: February 13, 2023

Source: KARL MAYER GROUP

LEONBERG, Germany — February 13, 2023 — The 100-percent Irish-owned company was founded in 1918 by Charles O’Neill to produce Gaelic footballs. Today the family-run company employs more than 900 people across Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and beyond, and is the biggest sportswear producer in Ireland. With its own knitting mill and dyeing factory, as well as printing and sewing machines, it is able to react rapidly to changing market requirements and create its own new designs. Articles with customized logos and de-signs are a daily occurrence and make the work exciting and versatile. This flexibility provides a big competitive edge for the company.

Today, many leading sports clubs have tricots made by O’NEILLS, from soccer to rugby to boxing, basketball, hockey and many other types of sports. The quality of the products is very important and is anchored deeply in the company’s history. This requires of course high-quality production machines and in this aspect BRÜCKNER could clearly convince O’NEILLS of the performance of the BRÜCKNER lines.

The family-run German company BRÜCKNER develops since more than 70 years drying and finishing lines for the textile industry and for technical products which are based on textiles or nonwovens. The lines are completely produced in Germany, tests and developments can be made together with customers in BRÜCKNER’s own Technology Center. The line supplied to O’NEILLS has also been developed in cooperation with the customer and is tailor-made to the customer’s needs. Special attention was paid to a tensionless fabric transport and improved dimensional stability of the product with the highest possible energy efficiency. In addition, O’NEILLS produces often small lots with heavy nonwovens which leads to an increased formation of fiber fluffs. Therefore, the dryer access has been adapted to simplify and accelerate the cleaning.

The BÜCKNER POWER-FRAME stenter features a web guider system in the entry to ensure proper decurling as well as accurate centric web running into the padder with minimum liquor pad trough. The machine has a vertically moving chain system and is built with alternating arrangement of the heating units/fans and nozzles. The side of the heating and circulating air elements alternates thus every 1.5 meters which leads to a perfectly homogeneous air impingement over the complete fabric width.

The extended cooling zone at the end of the dryer improves the heat-setting results further. At the same time the fabric is led in the exit area over a special transport belt to finish the very delicate and elastic articles perfectly. This is essential for the high quality of O’NEILLS

After several years of operation, O’NEILLS recently ordered maintenance and optimization of the line together with BRÜCKNER’s technologists. John Towell, maintenance manager with O’NEILLS, said: “We have been using BRÜCKNER machines for almost 20 years, and have found them to be reliable, flexible and efficient. BRÜCKNER have helped us to find consistency with drying and heat-setting a varied range of our fabrics. We’ve also found them excellent to work with regarding repair and maintenance issues that have occurred over time. We hope to continue this strong relationship into the future, and would highly recommend them.

We were also very happy with the thorough inspection of the machine and the detailed analysis that followed. The report that we received post service was very informative and will help us going forward to keep our machine running as efficiently as possible and to keep it maintained for the future. We found the BRÜCKNER engineers to be extremely helpful and adaptive to our specific needs on the machine.”

Posted: February 13, 2023

Source: Brückner Textile Technologies GmbH & Co. KG