The development situation of the global textile industry

The clothing industry occupies an important position in the global economy, accounting for about 2% of the global GDP. According to Frost&Sullivan statistics, in 2018, the total retail sales of the global apparel retail industry reached US$1.4382 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% from 2014 to 2018.

In 2018, the global export trade scale of textiles (SITC 65) and clothing (SITC 84) reached 315 billion U.S. dollars and 505 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 6.4% and 11.1% year-on-year.

1. Global textile export analysis: China, the European Union, and India are still the main exporters

In 2018, China, the European Union (28 countries) and India were still the top three textile exports in the world. The textile export trade volume was 118.5 billion U.S. dollars, 74 billion U.S. dollars and 18.1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 66.9% of the global textile export market. New high since 2011.

Among them, China and the European Union's textile exports have grown rapidly. In 2018, textile exports increased by 7.9% and 6.9% respectively, both higher than the global average growth rate.

The United States remains the fourth largest exporter of textiles, accounting for 4.4% of the global market share, down from 4.6% in 2017.（Click to share to LinkedIn）

2. Global apparel export analysis: China's apparel exports are declining, but its market position is still difficult to shake

In the apparel export market, China, the European Union (28 countries), Bangladesh and Vietnam ranked top four in the world in apparel exports in 2018, accounting for 72.3% of the world apparel trade market share, down from 75.8% in 2017. This is mainly because China's apparel export market share declined in 2018 as a result.

Although Vietnam and Bangladesh's garment exports have achieved significant growth in 2018, with garment exports increasing by 13.4% and 11.1% respectively, their market share has been limited. In 2018, Vietnam and Bangladesh accounted for the global garment export market. The rates were 6.2% and 6.4%, and the total market share was 12.7%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from 12.3% in 2017.（Click to share to Facebook）

This result shows that no country can become the next "China" due to capacity constraints.

3. Global textile import analysis: the import market is becoming increasingly diversified

In 2018, the European Union (28 countries), the United States and China were still the top three importing countries, accounting for 37.5% of the total global textile imports, compared with 37.7% in the previous year and much lower than the 52.4% in 2000. It shows that with the transformation of the world's clothing production and export patterns, the textile import market is becoming increasingly diversified.

In 2020, the new crown pneumonia epidemic invaded the world, and most regions stopped production and business. However, China was the first to emerge from the epidemic and resume work at the earliest. A large number of textile orders entered China, which indirectly stimulated the development of China's textile industry and established China's position in the global textile industry.

Intelligent transformation of the textile industry is imperative

The global textile industry is facing practical problems such as the disappearance of the demographic dividend, rising raw material prices, increasing environmental pressures, and shrinking exports. In the face of development difficulties, the textile industry is actively seeking change, speeding up the conversion of new and old kinetic energy, and using intelligent manufacturing as a means to promote the textile industry to high-end development.

The Chinese textile industry is committed to the transformation and development from "big" to "big and strong", seeking to achieve breakthroughs in some areas and lead the world. Leveraging on "Made in China 2025" and "Internet +", it has become a general trend to accelerate the innovative development of a new generation of information technology and the integration of the textile industry. Combined with continuous technological innovation, promote the textile industry to green, low-carbon, digital, intelligent and flexible Development in the same direction is the only way to achieve this great change.

The textile industry needs to achieve efficiency improvements from production to logistics and warehousing, and textile machinery is a breakthrough to help the development of the textile industry. Intelligent textile production machinery and logistics warehousing equipment are undergoing technological innovation. With 50 years of technical precipitation and design experience, Suntech is committed to the intelligent research of textile machinery. It develops and produces intelligent textile inspection machines, cloth inspection packaging lines, axle warehouses, AGVs and other intelligent textiles. Machinery, world-renowned, with a burst of reputation, helps the textile industry to flourish.（try Suntech AGV）

What is AGV?

The full name of AGV is AutomatedGuidedVehicle. At present, the most common application is: AGV handling robot or AGV trolley. The main function is concentrated in automatic logistics transfer. The AGV handling robot automatically transports items to designated locations through special landmark navigation. The most common guidance method is magnetism. Strip guide, laser guide, RFID guide, etc.

Magnetic stripe guidance is the most commonly used and the lowest cost method, but the site setting has certain limitations and has a certain impact on the decoration style of the venue; the laser guidance cost is the highest, and the requirements for the venue are relatively high; the RFID guidance cost is moderate, and its advantages are The guidance accuracy is high and the site setting is more convenient, which can meet the most complex site layout, and has no impact on the overall decoration environment of the place. Secondly, the high security and stability of RFID is also not available in the magnetic stripe navigation and laser navigation methods.

Why do companies need AGV handling robots?

In the traditional warehouse and factory goods transportation, it often consumes a lot of manpower, is inefficient, and often makes mistakes. AGV vehicles ensure the efficient and accurate operation of cargo loading and unloading. It does not require existing equipment, other hardware equipment or conveyors, and will not damage any products and equipment.

The storage industry is the earliest application field of AGV. Currently, there are approximately 20,000 different types of AGVs in 2,100 warehouses of various sizes. AGV plays an important role in the manufacturing line. They can transport materials efficiently, accurately and flexibly, and can be composed of multiple AGVs to form a flexible logistics processing system.

With the adjustment of the production process, the loading and unloading routes are adjusted in time, so that one production line can produce more than 10 kinds of products, which greatly improves the flexibility of production and the competitiveness of enterprises.

Application scenarios of AGV

In post offices, libraries, docks, and airports, there are large volume changes, strong dynamics, frequent adjustments of work processes, and cargo transportation with a single process characteristic. AGV has the characteristics of parallel operation, automation, intelligence, flexibility, etc., which can well meet the processing requirements in these scenarios.

AGV is widely used in tobacco, medicine, food, chemical and other industries to meet the requirements of clean, safe, and pollution-free loading and unloading operations. Many well-known cigarette companies will use laser-guided AGV to complete the loading and unloading of trays.

In terms of military affairs, AGV autonomous navigation is the basis for integrating other battlefield mine clearance and position reconnaissance detection and disassembly equipment. In steel plants, AGV is used for load transfer, reducing the labor intensity of workers.

When nuclear power plants and radiation are used for new storage, AGVs are used for cargo transportation, avoiding dangerous radiation. In the film and film warehouse, AGV can accurately and reliably deliver materials and semi-finished products in a dark environment.

Advantages of AGV

In the transportation of materials in traditional production workshops, it is often necessary to hire a lot of workers, and large-scale operations are likely to cause injuries to workers, which will cause serious corporate burdens and physical and mental harm to workers. Therefore, more and more production workshops are now beginning to use AGV for material transportation, which can load and unload goods anytime and anywhere without being restricted by site and manpower. This solves the problem of manual up and down loading and unloading, and improves work efficiency. AGV has begun to be widely accepted by manufacturing industries in different industries. AGV has the following advantages in the application of material transportation in the production workshop:

1. High transportation efficiency

Compared with labor, AGV automatic pallet trucks have higher transportation efficiency. Ten people are hired on site to transport goods, and each person can carry up to one or two hundred catties, even if it reaches the limit. However, transport vehicles are different. If you choose a heavy-duty AGV automatic transport vehicle, you can move up to several tons of goods at one time. The efficient transportation efficiency can ensure the maximum speed of the goods into the warehouse. AGV is generally equipped with a loading and unloading mechanism, which can automatically interface with other logistics equipment to realize the automation of the whole process of loading, unloading and handling of goods and materials. The transportation efficiency has been fully verified in many industries.

2. Realize logistics automation and intelligent handling

Every procedure completed by logistics automation will bring about a drop in labor costs and an increase in work efficiency, and AGV has played a very important role in it. The use of AGV trolleys for express delivery sorting, accurate, efficient and rapid process, greatly saves the use time of each link, and promotes the automated development of express delivery.

In the e-commerce warehouse, the AGV robot automatically drives to the picker under the command of the system. After the picker confirms the goods he needs, the AGV robot automatically runs to the next picker. When the front side encounters an obstacle, or someone suddenly appears in the front, and in the e-commerce warehouse, the AGV trolley is suitable for placing the express box, and the warehouse handling robot automatically drives to the picker under the command of the system. After the picker confirms the goods he needs, the AGV robot automatically runs to the next picker. When an obstacle is encountered in front, or someone suddenly appears in front, the warehouse handling robot can freely plan a route, or stop suddenly, wait for the obstacle to move, and then drive forward.

Suntech AGV realizes point-to-point automatic access and handling operations, realizes refinement, flexibility, informationization, shortens logistics time, reduces product loss, and reduces construction investment costs, realizes zero transformation of the environment, quickly adapts to dynamic and complex environments, and can easily Deployment, higher positioning accuracy, and more suitable for flexible production lines, automated factories, and smart logistics applications.

What types of Suntech AGV are there?

1. Forklift AGV

The AGV is a forklift-type structure with light weight and large load. It adopts the latest electronic control system, which makes the whole vehicle more controllable and reliable in the whole series of processes of design, production, operation and maintenance.

2. Drum AGV

The AGV is mainly used in automated logistics conveyor lines in an industrial environment to complete the handling of goods between stations and stations, and between stations and warehouses. It is an important part of the future Industry 4.0 smart factory and can replace manual logistics. The complicated, difficult, dangerous and repetitive tasks encountered in the system.

The AGV is composed of a two-wheel differential sports chassis and a cargo business module. It is equipped with the latest hardware platform and software system, and realizes cargo handling based on autonomous navigation technology and sports chassis technology.

3. Two-way backpack AGV-1.5T

The AGV contains two parts: hardware and software. Main function: Realize the automatic docking and handling of materials in the automatic threading production line of the texturing workshop.

The AGV is a non-standard customized knapsack AGV. The automatic threading AGV part of the texturing workshop is composed of the AGV central management system and the non-standard customized unit loaded on the AGV. At the same time, the non-standard customized unit loaded on the AGV is composed of mechanical structure and electric The actuator, pneumatic actuator and other components.

4. Two-way backpack AGV-3.5T

The AGV contains two parts: hardware and software. Main function: to realize the automatic docking and handling of materials on the automatic silk production line in the texturing workshop.

The AGV is a non-standard customized backpack AGV. The automatic threading AGV part of the texturing workshop is composed of the AGV central management system and the non-standard customized unit mounted on the AGV. At the same time, the non-standard customized unit mounted on the AGV is composed of mechanical structure and electric The actuator, pneumatic actuator and other components.

Suntech has developed and produced AGVs with 50 years of technical precipitation and design experience with light weight and heavy load. It adopts intelligent electronic control system, interactive interface and safety system to keep abreast of AGV operation dynamics, automatically avoid obstacles, safe and controllable, lithium battery Power supply, online automatic fast charging, laser guidance, support for manual driving or wireless control, suitable for various transportation scenarios, please inquire for details.