Unitex is increasing its production capacity by a further 36,000 tons per year with a new filament yarn manufacturing plant in Trang Bang. For this investment, the Vietnamese company is once again relying on solutions from Barmag. The new plant, commissioned at the end of January in Trang Bang, has been fully digitalized using the atmos.io digitalization platform. The implemented solutions include digital recording and networking of the entire material flow, and each individual package unit is customized and documented together with its properties.
Within the system, using artificial intelligence tools, deviations in the production process are detected at an early stage, enabling operators to react immediately. Corrections in the material flow can be implemented in real time. The laboratory, which is digitally integrated into the process, safeguards interventions in the material flow by verifying their validity and impact on process parameters. As a result, atmos.io is intended to increase shop floor efficiency and improve process quality, and therefore the quality of the final product.
The atmos.io platform as a coherent production environment
The use of the digitalization platform is aimed at bringing the entire technological line together in a single, coherent environment. As the Unitex management emphasizes, this solution is important not only for ongoing process control, but also for the analysis of operating data and stabilization of efficiency indicators. Jack Dang, CEO of Unitex, explains the choice of the system as follows:
"With the atmos.io digitalization platform, we create a holistic solution that unifies the entire production process. This not only enables us to achieve consistently high overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), but also supports fast, well-informed decision-making and flexible adaptation to individual customer environments."
In the new plant, atmos.io serves as the central platform for production data, linking individual process stages and enabling tracking of production at the level of each package. The system allows documentation of the characteristics of every lot, which is important for quality control, traceability and assessment of compliance of process parameters with customer requirements.
Automation integration and tracking from melt to warehouse
At the Unitex plant, atmos.io covers not only the equipment supplied by Barmag. Extensive third-party automation is widely integrated into the platform to ensure data continuity and a consistent view of the process from raw material preparation through to storage of the finished product. As explained by Jörg Groß, Lead of Digital Product Development at Barmag:
"Atmos.io is the platform for the smart factory. We don't stop at connecting our scope of supply, as that would not help our customers. Our aim is comprehensive tracking from the melt to the stored package."
The machine manufacturer from Remscheid, a solution provider for manmade fiber production, has equipped the new Unitex plant with hardware for all process stages. This includes chip preparation, extrusion, spinning and texturing, as well as utilities. As a result, the entire technological line, together with third-party automation, can be incorporated into a single digital platform, which supports process transparency and facilitates supervision of filament yarn and specialty yarn production.
Unitex business profile in the yarn market
Unitex is a subsidiary of Century Corporation and is one of Vietnam's leading suppliers of high-quality specialty yarns and recycled DTY. The expansion of the Trang Bang plant and the implementation of the atmos.io digital platform are part of the company's development in technologically advanced solutions for manmade fiber production and in strengthening its position in the yarn market, including product ranges with a recycling component.
The new Unitex plant in Trang Bang, fully digitalized using Barmag atmos.io.
