The first presentation of the STOLL brand during an in-house KARL MAYER product show ended in great success on December 19 after a three-day run. In China, the current infection development allows face-to-face events again. Around 380 visitors from 170 companies took advantage of the opportunity to meet on site. Most of them travelled to KARL MAYER (CHINA) in Changzhou from the Great Shanghai area, and a few others came from the north of China, despite the exceptionally cold winter weather. Many of the guests came with the question of how the STOLL flat knitting machine business will continue after the acquisition by KARL MAYER, and left with increased confidence. „The first impression was great. Our high-tech production in Changzhou with the group-wide high quality standards, the excellent operational management, the just established STOLL development, our expertise, all this left a very good impression on our customers," says Liu Xuran, Chief of Sales & Product of the STOLL Business Unit.

The STOLL brand will continue to operate independently as part of KARL MAYER with the same contacts but with the support of the strong group of companies. It will guarantee customers successful business more than ever before. An exclusive selection of the innovations which will continue to ensure full order books in the flat knitting sector was on show in Changzhou. All the machines exhibited impressed with their excellent price/performance ratio and various automation solutions. They were the subject of numerous concrete investment inquiries and project discussions. Area Sales Manager Thomas Streicher and Simon Ma from regional partner Chemtax expressed their satisfaction with the feedback and the sales successes. „Some customers came twice to check the performance of the machines“, says Thomas Streicher.

Sophisticated automation solutions
A highlight of the machine show in Changzhou was the topic of knit & wear®. In the seamless knitting of sweaters, eliminating almost all downstream finishing processes, STOLL is setting standards in terms of patterning possibilities and price/performance, as demonstrated by the ADF 830-24 ki W knit & wear® and CMS 830 ki knit & wear®. The ADF model is designed for the high-level market segment and implements innovative fashion patterns with inverse plating and Intarsia among other things, which cannot be easily copied. With its production versatility and flexibility, the machine particularly impressed the brand manufacturers from the high-end segment in Changzhou. The CMS-version manufactures for the basic-level volume market and scores with an extremely good price/performance ratio. New to the in-house show was gauge E 10.2. The CMS 830 ki knit & wear® with the new gauge will allow customers to participate in the lucrative but highly competitive market of fine knit & and wear articles in the future.As a further contribution to automation, an ADF machine with a knitrobotic®-kit was presented for the first time in Asia. The robotic functions make it possible to integrate materials and parts into the knitted product without manual intervention. As one example, an everyday mask was produced during the in-house show, with the nose bracket inserted fully automatically. The performance show inspired numerous new application ideas.

Solutions for creatives
An innovation for the creative process was presented with the new Connective Pattern Software (STOLL-CPS®). The solution combines a full-featured, advanced programming system with an easy-to-learn user interface and significantly expands knitting possibilities. Features include an authentic fabric view, many smart tools and open interfaces that allow CPS to be perfectly embedded in upcoming digital workflows. Among the most important advantages of STOLL-CPS® is the reduction of time-to-market. With an integrated grading system, additional sizes or size approaches can be created quickly and changes can be made across all sizes and/or patterns in a project in the shortest possible time.
As an inspiration for designers and product developers, the current STOLL collection "FASTER from Concept to Store" showed which creations can be realized with knitelligence® software solutions and how complex designer pieces can be transformed into commercially producible goods for the mass market through small changes. The extravagant fashion items were a real crowd puller.