150 years of innovation in the Textile printing & coating industry

Textile Today Innovation Hub (TTIH) – the globally leading collaborative platform that brings together textile industry stakeholders, including researchers, designers, manufacturers, and technology providers, to drive innovation and promote sustainable best practices in the sector.

Recently Textile Today Innovation Hub’s European Bureau Chief, Md. Muddassir Rashid visited Zimmer’s state-of-the-art plant located in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt.

In this latest episode of TTIH's Factory Tales, our European Bureau Chief brings you an exclusive look inside the Zimmer Maschinenbau GmbH plant,  one of Europe's leading textile machine manufacturers for screen & digital printing, coating, drying, steaming, and finishing processes.

Founded in 1874 in Warnsdorf / Czechia, Zimmer Austria has become the benchmark for dependable high-class machines in the textile printing industry. In 2024, Zimmer celebrated its 150th anniversary.

After the dark times of W.W. II, the Zimmer Family restarted the great company in Austria. And ever since, the company has exceeded expectations.

Over the years, the plant in Klagenfurt has undergone unparalleled modernization. The company has become the benchmark for dependable high-class machines in the textile printing industry.

 Zimmer's Managing Director, Horst Ros, and Rupert Lerchner, Head of Engineering at the Klagenfurt plant, gave Md. Muddassir Rashid a tour of the   facility.

  Zimmer Austria’s Strategy for Staying Ahead in a Rapidly Shifting Market

 Zimmer has long been focusing on developing flatbed and rotary printing machines. Later on, moved to the coating machine industry.

This unparalleled success in all the specialized technology can only be achieved with a solid technical team, witnesses Textile Today Innovation Hub’s European Bureau Chief. The Klagenfurt competence or R&D center has about 150 highly skilled, experienced, and dedicated employees and workers.

The company’s vast experience complements the company in delivering top-notch technology in the various fields of textile, non-woven, glass fiber and paper industries. This enables Zimmer to take the know-how of multiple industries, apply the knowledge across the fields of textiles, and provide tailor-made high-quality solutions for printing, coating and the finishing process.

Highlighting the aspect of Zimmer’s legacy of highly trained manpower, Horst Ros said, “Our team members have been well trained over the years and gained an enormous amount of experience. We also proudly train apprentices onboard. Zimmer has a special department that trains newcomers in mechanical and electrical aspects. In addition, in combination with the sales team – who also have a technical background – Zimmer strongly believes that this is the successful way of manufacturing and selling these kinds of special machines on the world market.”

Zimmer's Strong Presence in the Global and Bangladesh Market

Zimmer Austria has shaped the global market with pioneering innovations and revolutionary technologies through digitization and Industry 4.0. Thus operating in almost all the international markets. Most importantly, as the leading textile manufacturing country, Zimmer has a very strong presence in Bangladesh.

Regarding progress in the Bangladesh textile market, Horst Ros shared, “Zimmer Austria is present in most international markets across many industries, especially in textile printing – owing to a strong and well-developed partner network. The company has a prominent presence around the world’s 90% of industrial markets. In addition, the company enjoys a very good presence and market share in the Bangladesh textile printing industry. We have around 175 textile printing machines in the country. Bangladesh market is very strong in knit garments and there are a lot print houses. The country’s new focus is to achieve $100 billion in apparel exports. So, hopefully will get the courage and push to achieve the target. And Zimmer will remain a strong printing machine partner for the country.”

Regarding the recent disruption in Bangladesh, Horst Ros said, “I hope very soon the situation will be normal in the country. We stay beside our friends in Bangladesh and we will certainly continue our service and support to our partners in the country.”

Similarly, other leading markets in Asia are growing at a significant rate for Zimmer. In the European market, Zimmer’s technology plays a big part in the coating, military textile printing, and finishing business.

In terms of involving customers in the innovation process to ensure Zimmer’s products meet their needs, Rupert Lerchner said, “To meet the market needs for new developments, we have a full engineering team – around 15 mechanical and electrical engineers – at the Klagenfurt plant. We do the whole design of the machine in-house, engineer it, we do the application test in our R&D department together with our customers. We develop the process, manufacture the parts in-house, we assemble them, and go to the start-up site with customers. Most importantly we supply the whole product lifecycle, and we provide after-sales service.”

Driving Innovation: Zimmer’s Cutting-Edge Technological Advancements

As the benchmark for dependable high-class machines, Zimmer Austria is a worldwide invention and innovation leader in textile printing & coating machinery. For more than a century, many pioneering innovations for the textile printing industry have been made by the company constantly endeavoring to offer the highest quality.

Take advantage of Zimmer’s pioneering technologies like the world-famous Zimmer Magnet System Plus, which guarantees a 100% uniform application for any kind of coatings. All coating machines and lines are adapted, designed, and manufactured according to our individual customer’s needs. Zimmer ensures the highest quality results by providing pre-designed and ready for assembly lines as well as tailored solutions.

Rupert Lerchner said, “Zimmer is famous for its Magnet Technology. In that field, we offer our well renowned “Magnoroll” machine. It is equipped with a Magnetic Roller. With this machine, we can use it for diverse possibilities and applications to use for coating purposes. When it comes to the coating of the knife of a gap, then we also can include that in this machine. We simply put a high-precision roller after the Magnetic Roller – this enables us a diverse array of coating applications. So, customers can buy the whole equipment for their installations or they can add some applications later on.”

Zimmer is always known for innovation in textile finishing and printing. The latest invention or innovation – especially in the coating sector – Zimmer has developed a ‘magnet coating’ system in combination with a high-precision counter roller coating device. This gives the customer the flexibility of wet-in-wet or changing the system quickly from one system to another.

“Our European customers are using this coating technology with great success and they are enjoying the advantages,” Horst Ros added.

As for innovation in the textile printing section, Horst Ros said, “There is a constant innovation in printing heads because of the market demand of endless demand of higher precision. The same goes for our Air Dryers. This constant innovation keeps Zimmer ahead in the competition. On top of that, we have started making Loop Steamer machine – as we offer complete printing and finishing packages.”

Zimmer's Commitment to Ensuring Sustainability in Every Step

In the global textile printing industry, sustainability is becoming increasingly important. Sustainability is also a key consideration for Zimmer’s regular innovation. It serves the market needs with cost-effective, and energy-saving machinery.

Rupert Lerchner said, “When it comes to sustainability, we mainly focus on two main aspects of producing machines for our customers. The first key aspect is saving energy. For instance, our highly efficient dryer machine consumes very little energy in the water evaporation process. The second sustainability aspect is water and environmental pollution. We have come up with a system, for cleaning the color pipes – we call it an Eco Cleaning System. In this system, we are using pressurized air with water in an automated system to clean the color pipes. With this technology, we can save up to 70% water compared to conventional machines.”

As for in-house sustainability measures, Rupert Lerchner added that the Klagenfurt plant installed around 500 kWp photovoltaic power on the plant’s rooftop.”

Customer Success Focused R&D to Fuel Innovation

The Klagenfurt plant's R&D center serves as the driving force behind Zimmer's product development, equipped with the latest technology. Every year the company invests a major percentage of its turnover in research and development (R&D), to always be one step ahead.

Rupert Lerchner said, “In this plant’s R&D center, we have two complete coating lines, where we do tests together with our customers and develop products. Here customers can send us their fabric, chemistry, etc. with their engineers. And together we develop the best machine lines that are adapted, designed and manufactured according to our customer’s individual needs.”

In addition, the R&D center consists of a combination of all application methods and machinery that Zimmer supplies to the coating markets. Which ensures that the best process is singled out through research for the final product for customers.

Rupert elaborated on the R&D department process line, “In addition, our customers' whole product development can be done here at the Klagenfurt plant’s R&D facility. The benefit is that they do not have to stop their production lines in the process. They can bring their whole equipment here. We are working together with chemistry suppliers, universities and sometimes customers bring their contacts – together we do all the tests at the Klagenfurt plant.”

How the Zimmer team reacts to the key challenges

The textile industry is continuously evolving and so are the new challenges facing the textile printing & coating industry. To tackle the changes and challenges in consumer behavior, technology, and global market dynamics, the Klagenfurt Center invests a substantial percentage of its turnover in R&D, to always be one step ahead.

Talking about this crucial issue, Horst Ros said, “In our R&D and test center, we can find leads of our future challenges. There is constant innovation in textiles. With the R&D center and capable technicians, Zimmer can encounter these new challenges. We are equipped with outstanding technology and still work constantly on new developments.

Ensuring client ROI: Zimmer Austria's proven strategies

In terms of RoI optimization, Rupert Lerchner said, “When it comes to optimization of RoI for our customers, there are many competitive advantages of Zimmer machines.  Our high-efficiency dryers are optimized for water evaporation and can cut down energy costs to a remarkable extent. On the other hand, our multi-purpose coating machine can handle diverse kinds of coating methods on the same machine. And customers can produce products for a wide range of markets.”

Klagenfurt plant enables Zimmer all elements of – complete lines, high-quality and reliable control systems as well as software, complete process, and application know-how, service, and support. Offering the total solution out of one hand by providing the most efficient machines to ensure the highest possible results. Therefore, Zimmer Austria is the ideal and most competent partner for the total printing, drying, coating and finishing process.