Wuxi No.1 Cotton Mill: hundred-year-old factory develops with intelligent manufacturing

The workshops in Wuxi No.1 adopt automated production equipment with professional production and management. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/chinadaily.com.cn]

Wuxi No.1 Cotton Mill, located in Xishan district of Wuxi, was built in 1919, and has gained country-wide fame as a cotton-textile factory.

With a total of 600,000 spindles and 600 looms, Wuxi No.1 Cotton Mill can achieve an annual sales volume of 2 billion yuan ($0.3 billion). Its associated brand "TALAK" has been registered in 55 countries and regions in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Wuxi No.1 Cotton Mill is focused on developing intelligent manufacturing technologies to increase its level of automation instead of remaining a relatively labor-intensive factory.

In 2017, a total of 130 million yuan ($20 million) was used to initiate technical innovations in the mill's Changjiang workshop, which will be completed in the first half of this year.

The technical innovation will replace most labor operations with mechanization and automation. A manufacturing information capture system will be applied to every piece of equipment to create full-time monitoring of the quantity and quality of production.

The Yangzijiang work shop will carry out more technical innovation with a total investment of 180 million yuan in 2018. The number of workers will be reduced by half to 10 people for every 10,000 spindles.

As part of the Belt and Road initiative, Wuxi No.1 Cotton Mill signed to take part in a textile project with a total investment of $220 million in Dire Dawa Industrial Park, Ethiopia on Nov 2, 2017. The cornerstone ceremony was held on Jan 16, 2018.

Wuxi No.1 Cotton Mill will be glad to welcome its 100th anniversary in 2019 with an intelligent manufacturing system and international development.