Observation: The production environment reflects the progress of textile machinery and points towards becoming a textile machinery powerhouse.

Recently, I came across a set of data which mentioned that China's total fiber processing volume and synthetic fiber output account for over 70% of the world's total, and the number of spinning frames accounts for 47.9% of the world's total scale. The ownership of synthetic fiber equipment, spinning frames and looms is also the highest in the world. The net foreign exchange earnings from exports rank first among all industries in the country, making China a truly major producer and consumer of the textile industry.

With the development of technology, the production environment of the textile industry has also changed. Many people are aware that in the past, the machinery and equipment in textile factories were outdated. Multiple machines relied on "wind pulleys" for collective transmission, which was very unsafe. The dust in the spinning workshop, the noise in the weaving workshop, and the high temperatures in the dyeing factory were all unbearable.

Nowadays, the production environment of textile enterprises has undergone tremendous changes. The factory buildings of textile factories have transformed from the previous zigzag style to a large-span, closed, fully air-conditioned form. The machinery and equipment have achieved single-machine automation. The textile factory uses automatic bag-picking machines for carding, blending, and then enters the cleaning and spinning combined machine, the combing and twisting combined machine, the coarse and fine yarn combined machine, and the fine yarn after which the yarn is collectively dropped onto the fine twisting combined machine. After the automatic formation of the yarn tube, it can be automatically inspected and packaged. The automatic connection between processes reduces labor intensity and saves labor. In the past, 300 people were needed for every 10,000 spindles, while now only 30 people are needed. In the large-span, fully enclosed textile workshop, measures such as negative pressure suction for dust removal are adopted, reducing dust and improving the environment.

In the dyeing factory, the past situation of open ventilation and water flowing everywhere, as well as bare-handed operation by many workers, has no longer been seen. Now, with the use of short-process, efficient and steam-powered drying machines along with insulation measures, the temperature in the workshop has been significantly reduced.

The improvement in the conditions of the viscose spinning workshop is even more remarkable. After adopting large-capacity spinning process technology equipment, the environment has completely changed. Especially after using the continuous spinning process technology of viscose filament, the spinning, solidification, drawing, oiling, drying and winding are integrated into one process, reducing the time for the 10-12 spinning forming procedures from the past over 90 hours to just a few minutes. Moreover, it saves over 90% of water compared to the original process, and the working conditions and environment have completely transformed.

The emerging industry of industrial textiles has undergone greater changes. With the development of advanced materials such as island fibers and carbon fibers, the industry of industrial textiles has been promoted. Currently, the bonding technology, thermal separation technology, hot rolling technology, water injection technology, needle punching technology, spunbonding technology and direct pulp spinning technology for non-woven fabrics are all well-equipped, which has facilitated the development of this emerging industry. In 2014, the output of industrial textiles in China reached 22.3 million tons, accounting for approximately 24% of the total fiber processing volume.

The development of the textile machinery industry also occurred gradually after it transitioned from a single planned economic system to a market economy system over the years. Currently, there are 724 large-scale enterprises across the country engaged in the production of textile machinery, capable of manufacturing over 3,000 different products. The textile industry requires a wide range of textile machinery products, with complete categories, varieties, and specifications. These products are not only supplied domestically but also exported to countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Based on self-reliance, China's textile machinery has undergone significant changes through the introduction of technologies, digestion and absorption, and regeneration, becoming a major producer in the world. After the spinning machinery achieved continuous and automated operation, the labor intensity decreased and the working environment improved. The automatic connection of the previous and subsequent processes, with the long beam of the spinning machine reaching 1800 spindles, the automatic shedding, automatic jointing, automatic tube insertion and automatic head insertion have greatly changed the production environment. The annual output of the four shuttleless looms is as high as tens of thousands of units, naturally replacing the high-noise and low-efficiency shuttle looms. The shuttleless looms can be automatically controlled, and the weavers can operate through computers. After networking, the managers of the weaving workshop can direct each loom from their desks.

At the same time, we are well aware that although China's textile machinery industry is a major producer, it is not yet a strong one. There are still many shortcomings at present, such as the lack of many fundamental research, insufficient R&D capabilities, and poor product quality. Therefore, it is still a long and arduous journey to move towards a textile machinery powerhouse.