Sewing Robots Move From Showroom to Shop Floor as Textile Equipment Sector Seeks New Footing
On October 28, Jack Technology‘s subsidiary Aitu Tech unveiled the “Ani” sewing robot in Hangzhou. It carries the Tianyanhu AI vision system, the Jiunao Zhangyu sewing large model, and the Linghou Qiaoshou execution end. On stage, it completed public validations including anti-interference fabric grasping, fabric alignment, and human-machine sewing benchmarking. China pricing starts at 308,000 yuan. Eleven companies including Korea’s CIA, Hong Kong’s Luen Thai, Bosideng, and Peacebird signed single-machine strategic agreements, with six more signing for complete intelligent production lines. Jack Technology founder Ruan Jixiang said one thing at the launch that points to why the sewing equipment leader is pivoting: “You can buy what you lack. The only thing you can’t buy is thirty years of industry depth.”
Behind that pivot is a structural divergence unfolding across the textile equipment sector.
Data from the China Textile Machinery Association shows that in the first half of 2026, above-scale textile machinery enterprises grew revenue 11.30 percent year-on-year, but total profit rose only 4.77 percent. The operating profit margin stood at 5.70 percent, down 0.13 percentage points from a year earlier. The loss-making share reached 22.37 percent—more than one in five companies in the red. Accounts receivable grew 13.89 percent, adding collection pressure. Revenue is up. Profit is not keeping pace. In industry surveys, companies cited excessive price competition, rising production costs, and weak domestic demand as their top problems.
Exports show the same divergence. In the first three quarters, DTY machine exports fell 18 percent year-on-year, concentrated in Egypt, Vietnam, and Indonesia, which together accounted for over 80 percent. Spinning machine export volume edged up 2 percent, with Vietnam, India, and Pakistan taking about half. Air-jet loom exports rose 29 percent, while narrow-width water-jet looms fell 10 percent. The gap between categories says more about downstream investment direction than the aggregate number does.
Against this uneven backdrop, ITMA ASIA + CITME 2026, opening November 20, offers an observation window. The show covers 180,000 square meters, 10 percent larger than the previous edition, with over 1,800 exhibitors, nearly 90 percent from China. Organizers added dedicated zones for textile-reinforced composites, recycling technology, digital platforms and automation solutions, plus a research and innovation area showcasing embodied robots, intelligent inspection, and AI development platforms.
Among exhibitors, Karl Mayer‘s approach stands out. The warp knitting giant set up two booths in Shanghai, one for warp knitting and one for warp preparation, while hosting a product show at its Changzhou factory to launch multiple new machines. The new tricot generation emphasizes wider working widths, higher speeds, and finer gauges, targeting sportswear and innerwear. On the preparation side, it introduced a new sectional warping machine and smart sizing vat, aimed at reducing yarn waste in downstream processes. The booth-plus-factory layout reflects rising customer demand for equipment validation—seeing a sample machine on the show floor is no longer enough.
Saurer’s choice is to bet on intelligent new products and overseas markets. The company reported revenue of 2.759 billion yuan in the first three quarters, up 2.3 percent, with net loss nearly halved year-on-year and operating cash flow turning positive at 178 million yuan. Its new BD8SE rotor spinning machine will have its global premiere at ITMA ASIA, equipped with a dual-variety parallel system and intelligent splicing technology, cutting unit energy consumption by 15 to 20 percent. Overseas, the company exhibited its full product range with Ideal Group in Pakistan and operates a customer service center with repair stations and spare parts warehouse in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan’s textile exports grew 24.1 percent in the first half, and equipment demand in that market is releasing.
Digitalization in dyeing and finishing is moving with similar concreteness. CHTC Fong’s showcased a digital twin system at ITMA ASIA, connected in real time to displayed machines, allowing visitors to view operating parameters and remotely control equipment. Its AI assistant and remote operation system aim to shift after-sales service from reactive to proactive. Its SmartCentre central control system bridges data interfaces between Fong’s dyeing machines, Goller washing machines, and Monfongs stenters, compatible with ERP and MES. For dyehouses, data silos between different equipment brands are a long-standing pain point. The value of a unified control platform lies in reducing manual meter reading and experience-based judgment.
Back to Jack Technology. The Ani robot’s operating data at Shengtai Group’s shirt workshop is already out: under 20-hour operation, solid-color shirts reach 1,000 pieces per day. At equivalent capacity, a traditional line needs 40 people. The intelligent line needs 12. Fabric savings 5 percent, quality improvement 30 percent, lead time shortened 20 percent. Whether these numbers can be replicated in more factories depends on a simpler question: when styles change, can operators complete teaching in a reasonable time instead of waiting for engineers to rewrite code. Jack’s answer is “simple operator teaching,” but that needs repeated validation across different fabrics and processes.
The textile equipment sector is not simply booming or slumping. Revenue is rising while margins thin. Export totals are flat while categories diverge sharply. Traditional machines face fierce competition while intelligent products search for landing scenarios. Sewing robots, digital twins, and AI inspection point in clear directions. But the distance between a show-floor demo and stable line operation still has to be filled one specific working condition at a time.