Highsun and KARL MAYER – a successful team in the direct warping sector
Highsun has made a name for itself as one of the world’s largest company groups specialising in the polymerisation and spinning of polyamide and in the production of spandex. The Chinese group focuses on high-quality products and on new innovations. Providing effective support for its end customers in the polyamide and elastane fibre production chain is also important for this synthetic fibre specialist.
The Highsun Group is a modern conglomerate, which combines business operations in synthetic fibres, real estate and financial services under a single umbrella.
The synthetic fibre operation employs roughly 5,000 people. The core products include Nylon and spandex yarns, as well as polyamide 6 polymer chips. Highsun also offers one-stop solutions for the textile industry. These include supplying caprolactam as the starting material for the production of polyamide 6, polyamide itself, and spandex, as well as spinning, yarn texturing, direct warping and, last but not least, dyeing and finishing. 40 billion RMB were invested in its subsidiary, Shengyuan New Materials, as a high-end facility for producing caprolactam. This company covers an area of roughly 549,000 m². Its planned annual output is 1 million tonnes and the machinery for producing the first 400,000 t was successfully installed and launched into production in July 2017.
Environmental protection is a top priority for Highsun in all its business operations. Its products are certified in accordance with the OEKO-TEX® Standard 100. They are sold on the domestic market but are also well established globally. Among its customers are textile companies in 30 countries, mainly in Asia, Europe and North and South America.
Experience and expertise in warping
Alongside Shengyuan New Materials, Highsun Warping plays an important part in complementing the range of products for producing polyamide and spandex, i.e. in the processing chain. This arm of the group supplies sectional warp beams of the highest quality to improve the product quality in warp knitting. This is achieved by using high-speed machines and having extensive knowledge and expertise.
Highsun relies on many years of experience in direct warping. An early subsidiary of the company, the GuiFuRen Company, began warping spandex in 1994 using one of the first elastane warping machines supplied by KARL MAYER. In the years that followed, Highsun continuously expanded its research and development operations and improved its product quality. With its high-end, innovative products, Highsun won many customers and set up a number of long-lasting partnerships.
Managers in warp knitting companies were increasingly coming to the conclusion that high-quality warp beams could have a clear, positive influence on their production, but they also knew that extensive experience, technical knowledge and innovative machines were needed. Many warp knitting companies could not meet these requirements, which restricted the development of their businesses.
For this reason, in 2011, Highsun invested in a large number of KARL MAYER’s warping machines for processing warp beams with elastane yarns, and set up its own warp knitting and warping department. Its customers could obtain high-quality warp beams for warp knitting direct from Highsun. Warp knitting companies were keen to exploit this facility, which consequently promoted the expansion of the Highsun Group.
A machine with an impressive performance
20 of KARL MAYER’s elastane warping machines, types DSE HH and DSE 21/21 EC, are currently running in Highsun’s factories. Yarns having counts of from 18 to 640 den can be processed on these warp preparation machines, and beams carrying between 30 and 1,090 warp yarns can be warped. The company also invested in a number of DS 50/32 DNC direct warping machines at the end of 2017 to enable it to produce super-sized beams.
With its flexible and modern warping operations, Highsun can meet the needs of its customers most effectively. Deliveries within the area can be made in less than 24 hours after the order has been placed. This exceptional service and high warp beam quality have impressed many brand names, including Carvico. This well-known warp knitting specialist has been working with Highsun since 2017. The spandex beams are exported directly to Carvico’s factory in Italy and fully meet the stringent requirements of the company’s own quality assurance specifications.
Cooperation that benefits the customer
This Chinese company intends to continue cooperating with KARL MAYER in the future in order to fulfil its obligations as a reliable partner. “Highsun will strengthen and consolidate its strategic cooperation with KARL MAYER in the future. Our company group will continue to concentrate on the production of and research into top-quality polyamide and spandex, as well as high-end products to put us at the forefront of healthy development within the sector,” says Mei Zhen, the General Manager of Highsun Synthetic Fiber Technologies Co. Ltd, one of the companies in the Highsun Group.
As part of this partnership, Highsun employees and their warp knitting customers can attend courses held by the KARL MAYER Academy China. During these training courses, instructors and service specialists at KARL MAYER (CHINA) provide the customers of both companies with useful information on setting up, operating and maintaining warp knitting machines. On 7 May 2018, a four-day course was again held in Highsun Synthetic Fiber Technologies Co., Ltd. Alongside of the warp knitting introduction given by KARL MAYER instructors, the Head of the warp preparation section there, Wang Wenyong, provided additional information by speaking about how to improve the warp quality and on the relationship existing between warp beam quality and warp knitting efficiency. “There is every reason to take part in the courses to enable us to promote the success of our mutual customers,” says Wang Wenyong.
Warping elastane on KARL MAYER’s DSE machines
The DSE HH and the DSE 21/21 EC produce warp beams from elastane and deliver an exceptional level of performance. Their vertical process management system enables even very fine yarns to be processed gently, the freely running yarn permits the machines to be operated easily, and the machines are extremely flexible in terms of the stretching conditions. Stretching of the warp yarns on the beam can be selected from between 15 and 100% and is adjusted in three stretching zones. In the pre-stretching zone, the yarn coming from the creel is stretched by between 50 and 210%. Following this, the yarns pass via a positively driven overrun roller system in an intermediate zone, where they can contract again. In the final stretching zone, the yarn is given its final stretch up to the winding point, and this may be between 15 and 100%.
A camera monitoring system interrupts the machine operation in the event of any yarn breakages. If the machine is stopped at full speed, a sophisticated system for synchronising the brakes guarantees reliable control of the yarn sheet. A computer-based circumference control system ensures that all the beams in a set are absolutely identical.
Fig.: The Warp knitting department of Highsun (© Highsun)
