This information was Archived April 28, 2008
60th Meeting of the TI Swiss Section
All in all, 16 members and friends of the TI Swiss Section participated at the 60th semi annual meeting in Lichtensteig, Kanton Sankt Gallen. For this jubilee a special programme was organized: a visit to "Fredys Mechanical Music Museum" and to the well-known producer of embroidery "Leemann Stickerei AG".
Traditionally a visit to a textile enterprise is on the agenda of the Switzerland Section of the Textile Institute for the summer meeting. The Leeman Stickerei AG, Lichtensteig, hosted the textile part of this event. Mr. Thomas Leemann, Director of the company, welcomed the participants and gave a brief outline on the history and the embroidery produced on the premises. In 2004 Leeman Stickerei AG celebrated its 100th jubilee. A variety of embroidery machines, supplied exclusively by Saurer Arbon Ltd. are installed. Next to pretty "ancient" machinery, NV dated back to 1912, or even older, and equipped today with Soutache, and the legendary 1S and 2S-machines, also up-to-date machinery is in full operation. The new Epoca, built by Saurer, is equipped with the first Laser (2006) integrated in an embroidery machine and with a modern CAD/CAM system. On all the machines installed in Switzerland, as well as on the ones at the second location in China, lingerie for leading American and European brands is produced.
This was the first time ever event that the TI Swiss Section paid a visit to an embroidery manufacturer. Judging by the time spent taking a closer look at the embroidery machines and their technology as well as asking questions, the visit to Leemann Stickerei AG was interesting for everybody. Andreas Weber, Chairman of the TI Swiss Section, expressed in his closing speech his best wishes to the company and thanks for the professional factory tour led by the Leemann associates and for having had the possibility to see behind the scene of this successful embroidery producer.
For the special occasion of the 60th TI Swiss Section Meeting, additionally the committee organized a tour of Fredys Mechanical Music Museum, also in Lichtentsteig. The excursion to see music machines, such as mechanical street organs, musical boxes with barrels or perforated sheets, orchestrions and more, took the participants back to a past period from 1780 to 1946. The professional demonstration of these rare and well maintained music machines was a sheer pleasure and a further highlight of the meeting. Following this musical presentation of a time before juke boxes, record and MP3 players, the committee invited all attendees to drinks and snacks in the party room of Fredys Mechanical Music Museum. This was well received, giving everyone the possibility to discuss the day's interesting impressions and to network.
The committee members of the TI Swiss Section relocated after this jubilee event to Wattwil for the committee meeting. The committee with:
Andreas Weber, Chairman
Dr. Roland Seidl, Honorary Treasurer
Andreas Hellwig, Secretary
Othmar Forster, Deputy Treasurer
Uwe Nick, Committee Member
discussed the day's event. Even though the jubilee occasion as such has been well received by the 16 participants, including 4 committee members, the number of attendees was rather disappointing. The number of participants has been decreasing lately from meeting to meeting. Therefore, the decision was taken to carry out a survey with the TI Swiss Section members and friends to judge whether it is necessary to find a new schedule, different programme and form, or other ways of promoting these events.
Nevertheless, the next event, the 29th Annual General Meeting (61st TI Swiss Section Meeting), is already scheduled for the 23rd January 2008. It is planned that this upcoming meeting is held at an enterprise producing technical textiles.
For the TI Swiss Section Committee
Uwe Nick
Committee member
Find out more about Leemann Stickerei AG and Fredys Mechanical Music Museum under following links:
www.union-ag.com
www.fredys-mech-musikmuseum.ch
Leemann Welcome
Leemann Sample
Leeman Demo Lingerie
Leemann Check1912
Fredys Music Straesser
Fredys Music Machine
28th Annual General Meeting of the Swiss Section of the Textile Institute January 24 th 2007
The 28th Annual General Meetingtook place at the offices of Munzinger AG in Olten. The Chairman, Andreas Weber, welcomed 20 participants inspite of the snow.
He started with a review of the events of the previous year:
The 27th Annual General Meeting (or the 57th meeting) took place on the 25th January 2006 at the offices of Christian Eschler AG in Bühler ( www.eschler.com). And the 58th meeting was held at Jakob AG in Trubschachen on the 7th June 2006 ( www.jakob.ch). Both hosts were thanked by letter in the name of the committee by Andreas Weber. A short report can be found on website www.textileinstitute.org/SwissSection.asp.
Committee meetings were held on 25th January 2006 in Bühler and on 7th June 2006 in Trubschachen.
On 31 December 2006 the membership of the Swiss Section stood at 35 (40) individual and 2 (4) patron members (Rieter und Sultex) and has thereby reduced by 5 and 2 members respectively within a year. On the 31 December 2006 the membership of the German Section consisted of 18 individual members and 1 patron member (Trützschler).
In the meantime invitations by email are sent by the Swiss Section to 23 Swiss and 14 German members. Furthermore a total of 166 invitations (of which 40 by email) are sent for each meeting in Switzerland and each time to a total of 41 non-members in Germany (of which 33 by email). The Chairman also gave an overview of the changes to the membership of the Textile Institute worldwide.
The accounts of the Swiss Section for the year 2006 were approved after they had been checked by the auditor, Dr. Herbert Stalder, who was thanked for this service. Furthermore the Chairman presented a report about various committee activities in the area of finance.
At the 27th Annual General Meetingthe Chairman had to report the resignation of Andreas Bodmer as a committee member. So it is with great relief that he was able to introduce to those present at this year’s Annual General Meeting a worthy candidate in the person of Uwe Nick. The career of Uwe Nick is characterised by various, interesting stages. For example, he decided to follow his apprenticeship as a fitter by studying for his university entrance examinations at night school, in order then to grasp the opportunity of full-time studies as a textile engineer at the Fachhochschule Reutlingen. His first industrial experience as a freshly graduated textile engineer was gained at Sulzer Rüti AG in Rüti, followed by an engagement overseas for Sulzer Textile Inc. in USA. After returning to Switzerland Uwe Nick fulfilled various duties at Sultex AG (formerly Sulzer Textil AG) until in 2005 he moved to Rieter AG in Winterthur, where he is still employed today.
The following were proposed, seconded and confirmed as Committee Members of the Swiss Section for 2007:
- Othmar Forster 1 st seat; Deputy Treasurer
- Andreas Hellwig Secretary
- Uwe Nick 2 nd seat (new)
- Dr. Roland Seidl Honorary Treasurer
- Andreas Weber Chairman
Andreas Weber proposed that again this year both a summer and a winter meeting would be held on the following dates:
- 60th meeting: 6th June 2007, when a visit to an undertaking of the knitting industry will be organised.
- 29th Annual General Meeting and 61st meeting: 23rd January 2008, whereby the place and object of the visit remains open.
Andreas Weber also pointed out that the forthcoming 85th Annual World Conference of the Textile Institute will take place from 1st – 3rd March 2007 in Sri Lanka and that no-one from the committee of the Swiss Section is planning to attend. He suggested that those members of the Swiss Section, who enjoy the wanderlust, possibly could use this opportunity to make a unique visit to this far away country.
In conclusion the Chairman thanked all for their work, performed mostly during their leisure time. The Swiss Section receives welcome support for the carrying out of certain administrative duties, thanks to Susann Züst, the secretary of Othmar Forster. For this support Andreas Weber passed on his heartfelt thanks to Sefar AG (www.sefar.ch) in general and to Susann Züst in particular as well as to all committee members.
After the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting, Mr Knödler, CEO of Munzinger AG (www.heimbach.com) introduced its company. The works visit that followed demonstrated the really extraordinary breadth of the manufacture of paper-making felts: 10 m wide woven fabrics are woven in a double circular weave and subsequently needled and finished. In this connection special thanks are again due to Karl Gutzwiler, who took the photographs during the afternoon. The photos that follow give an impression of a very interesting works visit. Andreas Weber thanked Mr Knödler heartily for the access right that the Swiss Section is permitted to enjoy at Munzinger and passed on to him and to his other involved colleagues, who guided the participants with much commitment through the works, a small, typical gift from Toggenburg, namely a Mandelfisch.
A. Weber
Chairman
Meeting Minutes Posted
58 th Meeting of the Textile Institute Swiss Section at Jakob Ltd. on June 7, 2006
This year’s summer meeting took place at Jakob Ltd., Dorfstrasse 34, CH-3555 Trubschachen, a special wire rope manufacturer, which started its business in manufacturing hand crafted jute ropes for farmers. The company is located in the very picturesque country side of the Swiss Emmenthal area 40 km east of Berne. Trubschachen is not only the home base of Jakob® but also the village where the well famous Swiss biscuit manufacturer Kambly is producing its delicacy. Some of the Swiss Section’s visitors took therefore the opportunity to pay a visit to Kambly’s outlet store.
Mr Jakob, the CEO and owner of the company, warmly welcomed the unusual small group of only 10 visitors together with his Technical Director Mr Schneider. Jakob® has built a sophisticated new site in Trubschachen where they realised many construction details by using their special wire rope products. As a result of this the building looks light, modern and very attractive. A tour to the factory showed impressively how the special wire ropes are being manufactured. Textile know how is widely used and applied for this kind of production. The large product range of Jakob® is distributed on wire ropes, cable assemblies, inox ropes, chains, belts, fibre ropes and protective nets. The majority of these products is made out of steel but Jakob® is also offering in the range of belts, fibre ropes and protective nets products out of polyester and polypropylene filament yarns. Jakob®, a global player, exports its products in to more than 60 markets worldwide. Through a close cooperation with clients throughout the world Jakob® acts fast and efficiently on different market needs. Well educated and modern, well adapted production facilities secures the high quality of the products and fast supply on demand (see pictures attached). A visit in to the company’s museum, where traditional rope manufacturing machines are located, complemented this interesting visit. Mr Schneider showed us with great skill how traditional farmer’s rope were manufactured. For further details please contact the home page of Jakob® as follows: www.jakob.ch.
Please note the 59 th respectively 27 th Annual General Meeting is scheduled for January 24, 2007. A detailed program will follow as usual on time.
Textile Institute, Swiss Section
Andreas Weber
Chairman
Elgg, June 24, 200
ARCHIVE MINUTES:
57 th Meeting of the Textile Institute Swiss Section 25th of January 2006
On this occasion the 27 th Annual General Meeting of the Swiss Section of the Textile Institute took place first. The Chairman could welcome approx. 30 persons to this meeting, members and non members of the Textile Institute as well as friends of the Swiss Section. Click here to read the complete minutes.
The 56th meeting of the Swiss section was held at Brennet/Germany
on 14 th of June 2005 . The minutes are posted on the website.
Click to read them.
The 26th Annual General Meeting of the Swiss Section of the Textile Institute was held on January 26, 2005. Minutes of that meeting are available by clikcing
