Farewell to the shuttle loom

On 22 January 1988 the last flying shuttle loom rolled off the assembly line; a CMC-U-MDC TC, tire cord of 176 cm – and it meant the end of an era. Over a 52 year period, Picanol had supplied over 170,000 flying shuttle machines worldwide. After being stuck for a long time on the quay, Picanol’s very last flying shuttle weaving machines were installed at the African Textile Mill, Uganda - between November 1989 and May 1990. Also in 1988, the first Chinese customer of Picanol, Nantong No. 3 Cotton Mill, paid a visit to Ieper. In 1979, Picanol had supplied 100 MDC weaving machines to this mill, which marked the breakthrough of Picanol in the Chinese market. In June 1988, aluminum was cast for the last time at Picanol. The aluminum foundry had been active for over thirty years, for example with the quality casting of plate models under low pressure.

Picanol rules the weaves in Paris

1987 was again an ITMA-year, for the second time in Paris after 1971. ITMA Paris attracted 160,000 visitors, five times the amount of the first ITMA in 1951. The first ITMA exhibition (Internationale Textilmaschinen Ausstellung) was launched by CEMATEX in 1951 and has taken place with great success every four years since then. Picanol was present as well. Around the "Parc des Expositions" several billboards appeared with Picanol posters reflecting the new image of customer satisfaction: Picanol Rules the Weaves! In 1987, Picañol changed the spelling of its name to Picanol (without tilde), and built the Picanol Service Center in Shanghai. Also during that year, modifications were made to the production facilities in Ieper. The company split the production division into smaller units, which meant that similar work pieces could be grouped together and finished in a specialized production cell. Picanol also published that year the first edition of its very own magazine Picanol News, which informs customers and prospects on a regular basis of new developments. The magazine is published in four languages: English, German, French and Chinese.

Launch of the Total Quality Management program

In 1984, Picañol launched the “Total Quality Management” program, for which it deployed new means of production with sophisticated CNC-machines (computer-controlled machine tools. )

In 1985, the investments in the production capacity rose sharply. Next to the depot for spare parts, a 4,000 m2 hall was built for all the CNC processing centers, which were previously dispersed all over the company facilities. In 1985 at the ATME-Greenville, Picañol introduced the PAT-airjet weaving machine with microprocessor technology. From a central computer, it became possible to communicate in two directions with the microprocessor of both machine types. We also received good news from Cameroon in 1985: field technician Joaquim Vieira stayed in Cameroon for three months to instruct the technicians of Cicam. The popularity of Picañol was proven by the establishment of a Picañol bar.