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The company BTSR, whose name is an acronym for Best Technology Study Research, develops high-tech solutions for yarn tension control in highly-automated industrial processes, mainly in the textile sector. BTSR devices are designed to increase the efficiency of yarn management systems and the quality of the finished product.
Passion, innovation and technology are the bedrock of the development of this company that has always preferred not to relocate. Its headquarters and production centre are in fact located in Olgiate Olona, in the Italian province of Varese. The company is led by its visionary, forward-looking and passionate CEO, Tiziano Barea, who founded this jewel of Italian industry in 1979, and has gone on investing in, innovating and driving the growth of his company ever since. Bearing witness to all of this, the BTSR brand is now recognised by operators in the textile sector, and beyond, as a byword for reliability and innovation.
BTSR designs and produces electronic sensors and smart systems for monitoring yarn flow and feed tension, as well as the main quality parameters of all types of yarn: traditional, but also elastomer, glass fibre and carbon fibre yarns. The first patent dates back to 1981 and the company now has around 500 others registered worldwide: its aim is to confirm its leadership through the development of pioneering solutions capable of responding to and anticipating market needs.
BTSR is present all over the world thanks to its extensive international distribution network, and is able to guarantee expert assistance on all major markets: from Europe to North and South America, and the whole of the Far East.
BTSR is active in numerous industrial sectors: hosiery, knitwear, medical textiles, technical textiles, carpets, and denim, to name just a few.
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BTSR produces high-quality electronic devices and for this purpose uses a wide range of carefully selected engineering polymers. These materials can in fact always be relied upon to respond to the peculiar and complex needs of the most challenging industrial applications: first and foremost, in the textile industry, where the presence of electrostatic charges, dust and chemicals, as well as the particular working conditions, could otherwise compromise the performance and correct working of the devices.
The LATI Research & Development and Technical Support teams are always willing to contribute to the development of solutions tailored to the customer’s needs: this is how the partnership between BTSR and LATI first came about, way back in 1981.
BTSR sets out the problems, needs and requirements of its given product or customer, and LATI responds by identifying the material that is, without compromising on any aspect, the most efficient.
The materials chosen by BTSR are all compounds of the very highest technical level.
To ensure that the yarn feed control systems and various thread tension and break sensors continue to work properly, it is essential to shield the electronics in these machines from electromagnetic radiation. This is why BTSR uses only LATISHIELD steel fibre-reinforced compounds for the bodies and lids of its devices. The metallic microfibres contained in these materials ensure maximum EMI protection and uniform electrical conductivity of the polymer shell.
Instead, for applications needing structural rigidity as much as electrical conductivity, it opts for resins such as PPS and PEEK, or ones containing carbon fibres. In yarn processing, there can be no question of sacrificing the electrical conductivity of all the moving parts in relation to the yarn, because this would lead to the accumulation of electrostatic charges, and therefore dust. For this reason, BSTR prefers to opt for higher-performing carbon rather than traditional glass fibres. PPS and PEEK are polymers that can successfully be used whenever it is necessary to manage abrasion caused by the movement of the yarn, a challenge traditionally tackled by using sintered ceramics, but today overcome, in many fields, by adopting self-lubricating compounds.
In addition to mechanical strength, there can also be a need for resilience and robustness: in situations characterised by the possibility of impulsive stress, the reinforcing fibres are replaced by technical elastomers that toughen polymer resins, and allow impacts and vibrations to be absorbed without causing breaks.
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The partnership between BTSR and LATI is actually about far more than just technical and business matters. Indeed, it is rooted in shared values and ideas, first and foremost an interest in and commitment to sustainability, both social and environmental.
BTSR stands in a large park, which is tended by the company, whose concern for the environment is reflected in its close monitoring of energy consumption and its desire to produce independently, through the over-500-kWp photovoltaic system installed at its headquarters in Olgiate Olona, all the energy necessary for its processes.
The company manifests its social commitment through multiple initiatives in support of those most in need, and by promoting the education and development of children and young people.
One example of this is the BTSR Africa project that supports the work of a group of missionaries in Guinea-Bissau. The company has adopted one African child for each of its employees, built a kindergarten, a school, a multipurpose centre, and a medical clinic, and contributed to the purchase of two ambulances.
Finally, how can we fail to mention Generazione d’Industria, the project started up around a decade ago by several companies linked to the Varese manufacturers’ association (UNIVA) that were led, in this initiative by none other than Tiziano Barea, founder and CEO of BTSR? From the outset, the project’s aim was to spread business culture in schools, so that, in Barea’s words, “the best companies and the best students might meet”. Over the ten years since its launch, Generazione d’Industria has awarded scholarships to 500 students from 17 technical high schools in the Varese area and involved 63 industrial companies, including LATI, which participates actively in the project.
BTSR is therefore an enterprise that, alongside selected partners like LATI, plans to go on growing and innovating in an environmentally sustainable way, for the good of those who work for the company as well as the world in which we live.