CUSTOMER MAGAZINE OF LINDAUER DORNIER GMBH No. 17 | December 2 010 Back into the Future – DORNIER and Carbon Fibres A time journey through the new Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen From Vision to Reality From CLS comes A1 and P1 Tradition meets Technology Finest wool from Johnstons of Elgin, Scotland Editorial Contents SRF Ltd., India, relies on technology “Made in Germany” Dear readers, dear friends of Global Player in Precision Films and Lindauer DORNIER GmbH, Technical Textiles LiDO celebrates its 60th birthday duce “Made in Germany”, and it is SRF is – like DORNIER – a business professionally lead by the founding family. Both companies this year. Founded by my father, characteristic of our company that originate from a long tradition, building its strength Peter Dornier, as the first industrial it seeks its success first of all on different products in different industries. activity of the Dornier works fol- through technical progress. lowing the 2nd World War, it has in New and interesting developments 3 – 5 the meantime established a good in the field of textile technology name for itself throughout the plus a new generation of weaving 80th year of silk weaving – world with its equipment for the machines stand ready for you in Les Tissages Perrin, France textile and plastics industry. We are our technology center in Lindau. On the Trail of the Silkroad extremely happy and proud to have The Dornier Museum, opened only What, according to the legend around 5,000 years been shown such great trust and last year in Fried richshafen – a ago was revealed is still today one of the most confidence by so many for such a mere 20 km away – enables you to desirable materials – silk. long time. From this we feel an ob- make an inspiring journey in time 6 – 7 ligation and are motivated to con- through 100 years of pioneering tinue our search for new solutions spirit and innovative lightweight A time journey through the new Dornier Museum and new products, whilst making construction. Here you will be able in Friedrichshafen our production methods better and to see the chronological develop- Back into the Future – more efficient. ment from the first all-metal aero- DORNIER and Carbon Fibres We contrast durable high quality plane in 1916 through to the first From the first large all-metal aluminium aircraft to products, whose useful lives of 20 mass-produced aircraft with carbon the first serial built speedbrake made from carbon to 30 years are by no means a rarity, fibre components in 1973, along- fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP). with our fast-moving lives today. side many other pioneering innova- 8 – 10 Unsparing in terms of innovation, tions. our investment in research and de- Come and visit us – we look for- Finest wool from Johnstons of Elgin, Scotland velopment in the last 10 years has ward to welcoming you at beautiful Tradition meets Technology amounted to some 200 million Lake Constance! Euros. New buildings and more ef- Scottish weaving mills have enjoyed an excellent reputation for quality through many centuries. ficient production lines, and, par- Yours faithfully Johnstons of Elgin has continuously invested in the ticularly, our highly qualified work- most modern DORNIER technology. force, create the conditions for a Peter D. Dornier thoroughly optimistic view of the 11 – 12 future. As one of the few in our sec- From CLS comes A1 and P1 tor, we are proud to exclusively pro- From Vision to Reality The highlight of ITMA 2007 in Munich is now in practical use. With the forward-looking, patented drive and control concept, over 300 DORNIER weaving machines with FT control have been in daily use. 13 – 15 Front and backside cover pictures: Aerobatic squadrons with Dornier/Dassault Alpha Jets The Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen, opened in 2009 (article page 8) SRF Ltd., India, relies on technology “Made in Germany” GLOBAL PLAYER IN PRECISION FILMS AND TECHNICAL TEXTILES SRF is – like DORNIER – a business professionally led by the founding family. Both companies originate from a long tradition, building its strength with different products in different industries. Take-up unit of a DORNIER film stretching machine at the SRF factory in Indore Group history Company profile in India and also enjoys global leader- SRF Ltd. traces its origin to the lineage of SRF was originally established in 1970, ship leadership in others. the famous Lala Shri Ram, who not only under the name of “Shri Ram Fibres”, by The company prides itself to be equipped ranked among one of the country’s lead- its parent company DCM to manufacture with state-of-the-art R&D facilities, for ing business visionaries of all times, but is mainly nylon tire cords. Over the years the process innovations and product develop- also the founder of the reputed Shri Ram company diversified and eventually the ment. It was the first tire cord company Group of companies. The Group’s exist- name “Shri Ram Fibres” was changed to outside Japan to win the prestigious ence spans more than a century, starting SRF in 1990. Today, its business portfolio “Deming Award”, for adopting TQM way back in 1889 when its parent company covers technical textiles, chemicals, pack- as a management strategy. SRF remains Delhi Cloth Mill, now known as DCM aging films and engineering plastics. In committed to creating a culture of excel- Group, was founded. In the ensuing pe- technical terms SRF could be described as a lence through personnel development and riod, the DCM Group expanded its busi- multi-business entity engaged in the manu- an employee friendly approach. Through ness interests into a very diverse product facture of chemical based industrial inter- its social wing, the SRF Foundation, the portfolio comprising sugar, automobiles, mediates. However, common language company strives to make meaningful con- finance, fertilizers, fine chemicals, rayon, tells that SRF is in the business of making tributions to its community on a sustain- tire cord and textiles etc. Respected as an people’s daily lives both safer and more able basis. ethical company, the group is known for comfortable with its products. its contribution to art, culture and edu- Technical textiles cation. In particular, the group is also Headquartered in Gurgaon, India, the 550 Building on its dominant position in the known for establishing some of the most million $ company, with a global workforce domestic market, SRF also enjoys a signifi- famous academic institutes of the country of around 4,000, has operations in three cant presence in the global market for all such as “The Lady Shri Ram College”. other countries, United Arab Emi rates, three product lines within its “Techni- Thailand and South Africa. SRF is the mar- cal Textile Business”. This business unit ket leader in most of its businesses sectors manu factures nylon tire cord, conveyor 3 spending power, along with changing de- mographics and changing lifestyles. Mr. Chatrath of SRF states: “We think that demand for polyester film will see robust growth in Asian economies, especially in India and China. As for Europe and the USA around 2% growth is expected an- nually with an increasing demand for speciali ty products”. The final applications of the PET film pro- duced on the DORNIER line are prima- rily packaging applications for food such as confectionery. Other applications are per- sonal care products and detergents, cosmet- ics as well as some electronics applications such as capacitor films. Some important customers’ brands are Unilever, Lux, Surf, Dove, Head & Shoulders and Pantene. The PET film portfolio of SRF is more DORNIER tire cord weaving plant of SRF focussed towards international customers and into smaller sized packages. 50% of the belting and coated fabrics. The tire cord was done in 2005. Now a great number of sales are exported. is used worldwide as reinforcement for all DORNIER weaving machines are in oper- kinds of tires, ranging from the humble bi- ation at SRF with plans for further expan- Close connection to DORNIER cycle to the heavy commercial trucks and sion in the years to come. In the past, SRF had only seen DORNIER even aeroplanes. Coated and laminated as a very well-known leading global manu- fabrics have found their end use in prod- Packaging films facturer of weaving machines. However, the ucts such as awnings, tarpaulins and cano- The packaging films business of SRF company had been delivering film stretch- pies for boats, trucks and car covers. Other manu-factures Bi-axially Oriented Poly- ing machines since 1960 to companies such end uses include fabrics to cover cricket ethylene Terephthalate (BOPET) or Poly- as Agfa-Gevaert, ICI, Kodak, Celanese and pitches, tennis courts and sports fields as ester (PET) Film, which is predominantly Fuji as well as Toray and Teijin and had well as fabrics for so called “shamianas”, used in flexible packaging applications for become a global technological leader in tents used for wedding parties. SRF is the the conservation and protection of a wide this business sector also. SRF approached second largest manufacturer of conveyor range of products. DORNIER in 2002 for the first time for belting and nylon-6 tire cord fabrics in In 2009, the packaging film business an upgrade of an existing TDO (transverse the world. doubled its capacity by adding a new direction orientation) line at their Kashipur DORNIER film stretching plant. With an plant. Just one year later, as a result of this In 1987, SRF purchased their first output of 3.9 tons per hour the new plant successful upgrade, DORNIER received DORNIER weaving machines for the produces packaging film of 8 to 50 mi- another order for the supply of a complete production of conveyor belting and have crons.