Historical Milestones

Oerlikon Barmag has expanded its product portfolio by new equipment: manufacturing lines for resin. Now, Oerlikon Barmag is in the position to provide to its customer the complete polyester chain, starting from producing the resin up to the manufacturing of yarn. Additionally, also polycondensation lines for the production of bottle grade chips are integral part of the range of products.

The new modular friction texturing machine eFK combines well approved components with new and efficient units. This machine replaces the FK6, which had been manufactured and constantly optimized since 1973.

The newest Oerlikon Barmag winder generation WINGS, the compact Polyester POY winding machine, captures the world market.

At the beginning of 2007 the swiss high-tech group OC Oerlikon acquired Saurer AG. The Oerlikon group now consists of five segments, including the new business units from Saurer. The textile division of Saurer becomes the segment Oerlikon Textile, Barmag becomes Oerlikon Barmag and forms one of the five business units in the textile segment.

With over 19 000 employees at 170 locations in 35 countries, Oerlikon is now a global player in the high-tech market.

W. Schlafhorst AG & Co. as principal shareholder intends to bring a resolution at the ordinary general meeting of Barmag AG on 2 June 2003 for the shares of the other shareholders to be transferred to W. Schlafhorst AG &Co. in return for the granting of money compensation of 13.70 per share. The supervisory board of Barmag AG was today informed by W. Schlafhorst AG &Co. as to the amount of the money compensation.

The necessary company valuation of Barmag AG was carried out by the board of management of Schlafhorst AG the personally liable partner of W. Schlafhorst AG & Co. with the support of the auditing company KPMG Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft. The auditing company Deloitte &Touche GmbH, which was appointed to examine the adequacy of the money compensation by decision of Düsseldorf Regional Court on 25 February 2003, has confirmed that the amount of the money compensation fixed at 13.70 per share is reasonable.

Since April, 2000, the majority of Barmag has belonged to the Swiss SaurerGroup and is hence part of the world’s largest textile machine manufacturer.

In August, 94.9% of the shares in Neumag GmbH, Neumünstersche Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, GmbH, were purchased by the Babcock Borsig Group.

In 1990, the – at the time – majority shareholder, AGIV, assumed the Barmag shares from Akzo. In 1991, Barmag AG floated with around one-quarter of its capital stock.

In 1984, Barmag – against Japanese competitors – became the preferred partner for providing machines for setting up the Chinese manmade fiber industry. Through cooperation agreements with the machine construction companies, Shanghai No.2, for the construction of spinning machines for polyester yarn (POY), and Wuxi as well as Jingwei, for the construction of texturing machines, this objective was achieved. Today, joint ventures are operating with the local partners in Shanghai and Wuxi under the auspices of Barmag.

Barmag also assumed a prominent role in the emergence of the Indian manmade fiber industry. In 1988, Lakshmi Synthetic Machinery Manufacturers Ltd., in the southern Indian city of Coimbatore, was founded as a joint venture, including Barmag with a 30-percent share. Barmag India in Mumbai is responsible for marketing and sales. Services are provided by a separate service station in northern Indian town of Baroda.

Barmag manufactures the first high speed winders of the SW series. This new winder technology turned the manmade fiber industry upside down. High speed spinning of polyester and polyamide becomes possible. More than 45,000 winders of the SW4 and SW6 series have been sold worldwide.

Even more important proved to be the synergy effect, as the extrusion technology could also be used for the melt preparation for producing synthetic fibers and which replaced the – at the time standard – grid spinning process.

Today, Barmag spinning extruders are used throughout the world for the high-speed spinning of filaments, which are endless yarns from a single bundle of individual threads. These filaments are wound at speeds of up to 8,000 m/min. In total, more than 2,000 tons of polymers are processed per hour using Barmag extruders and extrusion systems throughout the world.

The company’s decision towards the end of the 1950s to offer Barmag manmade fiber machines on the world markets resulted in a growth in exports and hence in the company itself.

In order to be present in the – for its customers – most important markets, Barmag founded a series of subsidiaries; such as American Barmag Corporation in Charlotte N.C., USA in 1965. Since then, ABC’s objective was, and still is, to strengthen and expand Barmag’s position as a machine supplier for the American market with customer services, technical liaison and maintenance.

In 1973, what is today Barmag do Brasil was founded in São Leopoldo, Brazil. The incentive for founding this company was the Brazilian import restrictions.

The constant development of the markets in the Far East made it necessary to increasingly exploit this region on site and to comprehensively care for, and expand, customer contact. To this end, the Asian region has been cared for by Barmag Far East Ltd. in Hong Kong since 1973. Over the past few years, the countries within this region, particularly Taiwan, South Korea and China, have built up an exemplarily successful manmade fiber and plastics industry, which today is one of the most prominent in the world.

For textile application, the majority of the smooth spun filaments are textured to give them a soft handling and favorable wearing properties. Barmag has been building machines for this purpose since 1954.

At the time, texturing machines achieved take-up speeds of up to 100 m/min. Today, Barmag texturing machines have a mechanical speed potential of 1,500 m/min.

The outcome of the Second World War – the construction of textile machines was only limited from 1939 onwards – meant a new beginning under difficult conditions. It was only at the end of 1947 that Barmag was granted military permission to start manufacturing machines again.

In the subsequent stormy economic developments, the main focus was above all on bridging the technical gap that had opened up. For the manmade fiber industry, this meant comprehensive measures for rationalizing the production methods and improving the quality of the goods manufactured. Barmag supplied a large part of the necessary equipment.

This period also marked the beginning of the production of endless yarns made from thermoplastics, initially from polyamides, known by the brand names “Nylon” and “Perlon”, and later from polyester.

Barmag – correctly anticipating the tasks it would face and the, in future, increasing share of internal development and research work – prepared itself for these technical developments.

A technically important step for Barmag was the construction of the first double-twisting machines for rayon tire cord in 1935. The principle of integrating two twists into the thread for each spindle rotation had been known since the middle of the previous century, but it was only with the invention of the storage disc which Barmag patented in 1930 that it was possible for double-twisting machines to be used on an industrial basis. This development has had a decisive impact on twisting technology throughout the world to this very day.

The young company developed so quickly that the production facilities in Barmen soon became too small. For this reason, Barmag acquired a larger, free-standing production and administration building in Lennep in 1925, which was expanded by constructing additional new buildings. At the same time, the company moved its headquarters to Lennep.

The history of Barmag began on March 27, 1922, when Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken AG and N. V. Nederlandse Kunstzijde Unie Enka, founded “Barmer Maschinenfabrik Aktiengesellschaft” in Wuppertal – today Oerlikon Barmag with its headquarters in Remscheid-Lennep.

As a Glanzstoff specialist machine factory, the corporate objective was to design and construct a machine for the rapidly growing manmade fiber industry. Hence, Barmag was one of the world’s first machine factories that took up the development of its own machine construction for the nascent manmade fiber industry.

The company’s production initially basically comprised spinning machines and spinning pumps for viscose silk and copper silk, which was then followed by twisting machines, hank-winding machines and winding machines.