Spinning mills that want to succeed among the competition need innovative spinning technology – but not only in the here and now.  As one of the most inventive and traditional technology providers for spinning mills, Schlafhorst ensures that the installed machines remain innovative for their whole lifetime. As a result, many technological developments are also available as retrofit models for existing systems.

Anyone who acquires a new spinning machine from Schlafhorst gets the latest state-of-the-art technology, guaranteeing the highest quality and productivity. This ought to go without saying, of course, because Schlafhorst is a market and innovation leader for ring spinning, compact spinning, winding and rotor spinning for staple fibre yarns.

But what will it look like in some years' time when innovations at Schlafhorst have added even greater quality to and placed even higher benchmarks on the next or subsequent generations of machines? How will a spinning machine, that up until now has been highly productive, prove itself if the market suddenly starts demanding other yarn qualities? Will the machinery remain profitable if the competitive conditions change? Will the company and its existing machinery be able to react flexibly to new requirements in the textile world?

Sooner or later, every textile company faces a new investment decision. Is it necessary to purchase new machines in order to remain competitive? Or can the existing machinery be modernised cost-effectively and without long interruptions in production?

Strengthening of innovation for the whole lifetime of a machine

Thanks to a comprehensive innovation philosophy, Schlafhorst customers are able to address investment decisions in a much more flexible manner. This is because the Schlafhorst development engineers can always claim that it is possible to integrate their innovations into existing machines. Technological progress at Schlafhorst is not only incorporated into new generations, but also into machines already installed in the spinning mills. Schlafhorst customers are therefore always able to bring their machines up to the latest series standard as needed with a comparatively low investment and short return on investment.

"Anyone who buys Schlafhorst machines is ensuring themselves an economic innovation path into the future," says Thomas Arter, Vice President Customer Service. "Our technological innovations are designed to be backward compatible so that they can be retrofitted to existing machinery. In this way we take responsibility for innovation throughout the entire product life cycle."

Economic efficiency and consumer benefits in focus

Twenty service and three technology centres advise customers throughout the world with regard to productivity, quality and innovation management. Over 450 service personnel - around 20 per cent of the workforce - ensure that customers with older machine generations can benefit from technological innovations. They advise their customers not only in technical matters, but create detailed profitability calculations. New purchase or modernisation? When will the company achieve the better return on investment in the current market conditions? The Schlafhorst Service Team supports this central business decision with its unique expertise in the textile sector.

"The modernisation of existing machines, in other words, the implementation of state-of-the-art technology, is in many cases the economically optimal decision," says Thomas Arter, "and this is no coincidence, but result of our innovation philosophy. Our customers are not only buying a machine, they are also benefiting from a life-cycle partnership, which guarantees them a continuous strengthening of innovation in the ongoing production operation."

Modular innovation upgrades: Modernisation kits and technology kits

Schlafhorst implements this life-cycle partnership among other things with tailor-made modernisation and technology kits. This enables the simple and fast retrofitting of design improvements to individual parts and spinning components or whole sub-assemblies all the way up to the extension of machines or their conversion to another spinning process.

Better than the original: current original parts with built-in innovation

The technology company's overarching claim to innovation also extends to the original parts which undergo continual improvement.

"Original parts from Schlafhorst not only guarantee original quality, they are also part of our innovation pipeline," says Thomas Arter. "We help our customers manage innovation in a flexible way. They can thus continuously increase their profitability and improve their market position."

Making innovations backward compatible poses a great challenge for the Schlafhorst development engineers. "We have taken this difficult path to offer our customers unique benefits," Thomas Arter concludes. "Our innovations do not come into being at the desk, but from being in close contact with our customers. We see it as our task to help our customers on their way to success. This is how we measure the quality of innovations."

More than 5,700 active customers in over 120 countries can testify that Schlafhorst, with its customer-centric product development, impresses even the most demanding textile companies day after day.