Passion for innovation

The biggest surprise was the size, speed and sophistication. At Voith, you have machinery that you don’t normally see in textile engineering. While in most areas of textile production the weave looms are generally around 5 meters wide, when Klaschka joined Voith in 2004, Voith’s widest loom – in Düren, Germany – had a width of 32 meters. Today, the machines are generally a lot smaller, but also much more technologically advanced, as well as a whole lot faster. At the production site in Kunshan, China, the yarn is fed into the weave looms at 100 kilometers an hour. “It is like driving down the Autobahn,” says Klaschka. “Textiles on steroids is how I would describe it.”

Initially a tailor by training, Klaschka started out in the fashion industry, but she always knew she wanted to move on to a more challenging environment. She joined as a trainee, traveled the world via various Voith locations and built up an incredible network and expertise in press felt technology and usage. She helped design, create and launch the state-of-the-art Infinity family of press fabrics, as well as the production sites where the fabrics are manufactured.

The family keeps growing

The Infinity family is recognized worldwide as the very best in highly durable press fabrics for steady-state operation, used as seam and endless. Thanks to its stable and uniform characteristics, the seam is the number one on the US market. Recently, three new Infinity family members joined the portfolio: Infinity reloaded with cable, ToughLine and FineLine. As with the established members, these press felts are based on a modular concept and can also be tailored according to the requirements of the customer. Based on customer and machine specifications – including machine condition, speed, lifetime and performance – Voith application engineers make the most suitable recommendations. Thanks to Infinity, anything is possible.

“This is what we foster at Voith. It is important for the product life cycle that you want to be one of the innovators, not the copier,” says Klaschka. Together with her global team, she is definitely among the innovators. The Infinity family was first developed at the Voith US plant in Appleton. As the lead engineer, Klaschka was responsible for overseeing the development of new production methods and the implementation of the machine development. The new Infinity family required a complete overhaul of the manufacturing method, from conventional weaving to the modern high-tech fast manufacturing weave looms. “New technologies can be scary, because change is not loved by everyone, but at Voith we all saw the real potential. With the board completely behind us, we pushed through the changes within a year. That is incredibly fast for such a transformative shift.”

A global overhaul

Once the plant was on track in the US, Klaschka relocated to China, and supported the global team in the redesign of the production plant in Kunshan, which led to the doubling of the press felt production capacity within a few years. Seen from both an environmental and a production perspective, it was a most radical upgrade. It is also one of very few buildings in China to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (US certification program for green buildings)) Gold certified and has gained international acknowledgement for environmental best practices. The plant produces a much more stable base fabric, extremely uniform and repetitive, the ideal in press felts and fabrics.

“Repeatability is the goal and backbone of every production line,” says Klaschka. “Every piece we produce on our weave looms is exactly the same as any one before. This is what we have achieved with the new weave technique.” About the same time as the product launch in Asia- Pacific, Infinity was rolled out globally. Whatever customers need, wherever they are, they can order a tailor-made technical textile to the highest of standards. Depending on how the run goes, the applied design can be optimized according to the needs of the customer. It is a tailored operation.