Testex
| TESTEX AG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | September 22, 1846 |
| Seat | Zurich , Switzerland |
| management | Serge Rolle , CEO |
| Number of employees | > 200 (April 19, 2017) |
| Branch | Textile testing, certification |
| Website | www.testex.com |
| Status: 2017 | |
Testex (spelling TESTEX) is a globally active and independent Swiss testing and certification company with a focus on textile testing. Testex AG emerged from the Seidentrocknungsanstalt Zürich , which was founded in 1846, and today has over 20 branches worldwide.
Testex group
The group with headquarters in Zurich consists of Testex AG, ÖTI GmbH ( Austria ), PT. Testex ( Indonesia ), Swiss Textile-Testing Ltd. Hong Kong and Testex Textile Testing Co. Ltd. Beijing. Testex is the official representative of the Oeko-Tex Association in China (including Hong Kong ), Taiwan , Indonesia, South Korea , Australia , Canada , Malaysia , the Philippines and Switzerland .
Business areas
Analytical tests
Testex's analytical laboratory, which is accredited according to ISO 17025, carries out numerous analytical tests for harmful substances, residues and traces. Testing and auditing are also carried out according to the specifications of the Oeko-Tex Association. These include the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 , STeP , MADE IN GREEN , ECO PASSPORT and LEATHER by Oeko-Tex. The product range is continuously expanded and is based on current market requirements.
Textile physical and chemical tests
Testex leads textile physical and textile-chemical tests on fibers , yarns / twisted yarns , fabrics , knitted fabrics , nonwoven fabrics and finished products by. The services also include clothing physiological tests on fabrics, ready-made textiles and testing of the requirements according to ISO 17065 for personal protective equipment (PPE). This also includes various fire and soil tests.
history
The silk industry in Zurich
As early as 1237, raw silk was brought from Como to Zurich via Walenstadt . At that time, the freight was transported in primitive vehicles, over poorly paved roads, narrow mule tracks and dangerously swaying bridges. The transfer of the silk was much more laborious and dangerous at that time than it is now. It was necessary to overcome the Septimer-Pass and the old Reichsstrasse to get to Chur and finally Walenstadt. From then on, boatmen transported the goods directly to Zurich by sea. When they arrived in Zurich, the goods were loaded not far from the Helmhausbrücke and finally sold in a department store near Fraumünster.
The silk drying
In order to determine the “empty weight” of the silk , it must be dried completely. However, this depends heavily on the humidity. The material removes moisture from the air, absorbs itself fully and thereby gains weight. These properties make it difficult to determine the weight of the raw silk, which resulted in the need for an independent “weighing institute”. The independent institutions used the same methods to dry the silk of all traders, thus making a fair silk trade possible. The Seidentrocknungsanstalt is by definition: "A neutral body whose test results are recognized as binding by both contracting parties."
So it happened that the first silk drying facility opened its doors on April 8, 1724 in Turin . It remained the only one of its kind for a long time. It was not until 1779 that the Lyon merchant Rast-Maupas opened a counterpart with improved procedures in Lyon . During the French Revolution , the Rast-Maupas “Condition” was closed for around two years. During this time three competing institutes were founded in Lyon and fierce competition broke out. In 1805, Napoleon granted the Lyon Chamber of Commerce a monopoly on drying silk, after which a state institute was opened in 1814. Since the opening of the Turin, Lyon and Milan establishments, further establishments quickly followed in Elberfeld , Krefeld , Saint-Étienne , Vienna , the Swiss establishments and finally in New York , Yokohama , Kobe , Shanghai and Guangzhou .
The foundation
Around 1846 the silk trade and silk industry experienced a great boom. It was therefore obvious that they no longer wanted to be dependent on foreign drying companies. So it came about that a "provisional committee" decided to found a silk drying company in Zurich. On September 22, 1846, the constituted general assembly finally approved the statutes. Around 50 silk experts met in the “ Zunfthaus zum Zimmerleuten ” to appoint the board of directors for the newly founded institution. Colonel Heinrich von Muralt-Stockar was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Mr. Schwarzenbach-Imhof was appointed Director. The board of directors met for the first time three days later and operations began on June 1, 1847. At that time there was no experience in the field of silk drying.
Three people are primarily responsible for founding the silk drying company. They became aware of the silk drying system through stays abroad and wanted to establish it in Switzerland too, so that they would be less dependent on other countries. All those involved were politically active and known throughout the city.
Colonel Heinrich von Muralt-Stockar served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for 14 years and was the son of the then Mayor of Zurich, Hans Conrad von Muralt. At the age of 27, he took over his father's silk trading business Heinrich de Daniel Muralt and acted among other things as president of the building board and the steamship company.
Rittmeister Conrad Bürkli was close friends with von Muralt as the chief fire brigade commander. In addition, since 1811 he was the owner of the Johann Georg Bürkli brewery and part of the larger city council.
Johann Heinrich (Henry) Bodmer-Pestalozzi came from the Bodmer zur Arch family and was the owner of the silk manufacturing business of the same name. The company was one of the first to produce silk gauze in Switzerland.
Premises
In the years between 1846 and 1863, the silk drying company resided in the “outer Tiefenhof ”, where the Zürcher Kantonalbank's headquarters are today . It was around 5525 square feet in the middle of the center of Zurich. On October 1, 1849, a branch was opened in Basel , which in 1872 was separated from the Zurich parent company both organizationally and financially. Due to rapid growth and an acute shortage of space, the new premises, the “white bear” on the corner of Bärengasse and Talstrasse, were acquired around 1861. After two years of renovations and furnishings, the move took place in 1863. This location remained in operation until 1932 and was then replaced by the current company headquarters in Zurich Enge . This was officially inaugurated on April 14, 1932. Although an expansion of the business area was discussed as early as 1889, this could only be implemented with a delay due to the First World War .
The heyday of the Zurich silk industry
In the second half of the 19th century, free trade policy and technical advances, such as the telephone and the telegraph , heralded a heyday for the silk trade. The connection to the Gotthard Railway in 1882 and the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 also made international trade much easier. Due to the constant further development of silk drying techniques and the improved logistics and storage of silk, Zurich advanced to become the focal point of the international silk trade.
War and post-war years
This position also manifested itself during the First World War, even if the difficult conditions resulted in some interruptions and drops in earnings. Many banks and other businesses closed their counters when the war broke out. This created a cash shortage that soon made itself felt. The home countries of the institutions in Milan, Turin, Lyon, Krefeld and later Tokyo and New York were all at war. This benefited the silk industry in Zurich immensely and it achieved record sales between 1915 and 1917.
The second World War
The transition from a peace economy to a war economy went more smoothly in World War II than in World War I , but the war years were all the harder. As an economy, Switzerland was largely separated from foreign sales markets. The silk trade was exempt from rationing measures, but like all other textile industries it was subordinated to the Swiss Textile Syndicate. Only export was facilitated by the export guarantee issued by the Federal Council . From 1944 on, silk experienced a certain boom as wool and cotton became temporarily scarce. After the war ended, the silk business began to flourish again. Large stocks of Italian silk were exported to Switzerland, boosting the local economy.
present
Decline in the Swiss silk industry
With the advent of modern synthetic fibers , especially after the Second World War, less and less real silk was processed in the Zurich silk industry. As a result, the need for classic silk drying processes decreased significantly. In 1970 the company reacted to the changed framework conditions, turned to general textile testing and changed its name to Testex AG. This laid the foundation for the reorientation towards a modern testing facility. In 1993, the company joined the Oeko-Tex Association and thus began human-ecological textile tests.
Testex today
There is not much evidence of silk drying today. The silky times of Zurich are a thing of the past and the Swiss textile industry has long been in decline. However, the silk drying institute escaped destruction. Today Testex AG is one of the world's largest testing institutes for textiles. It has experienced great growth especially since the turn of the millennium. At the end of 2006, Testex AG still had 66 employees, in 2017 there were over 200 employees at over 20 locations worldwide.
literature
- Hans Jenny: One hundred years of silk drying institute in Zurich (1846–1946). Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946 [1]
- Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, Silk Memory: Testex
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ TESTEX AG: TESTEX branches. In: company website. TESTEX AG, April 25, 2017, accessed on April 25, 2017 (German, English, CN, Kanuri, &, Indonesian).
- ↑ a b Swiss Accreditation Service SAS: Search for accredited bodies SAS. Retrieved April 20, 2017 .
- ↑ EUROPA - European Commission - Growth - Regulatory policy - NANDO. Retrieved April 20, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 7 .
- ↑ Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 19 .
- ↑ a b c Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 24 .
- ↑ Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 22 .
- ↑ Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 28 .
- ↑ Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 29 .
- ↑ Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 31 .
- ↑ Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 33 .
- ↑ a b Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 77 .
- ↑ Dr. Hans Jenny: One Hundred Years of Seidentrocknungs-Anstalt Zurich, 1846–1946 . Orell Füssli AG, Zurich 1946, p. 65 .
- ↑ Liliane Mottu-Weber: silk. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . May 23, 2013 , accessed July 7, 2019 .
- ↑ Le Fil Rouge, anniversary edition for the 160th anniversary of the former silk drying facility in Zurich. TESTEX, accessed May 30, 2006 .
- ↑ Milestones TESTEX AG. TESTEX, accessed in 2016 .
- ↑ From "Sidetröckni" to high-tech operation - the Testex textile testing institute: Is the teddy bear resistant to saliva? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 29, 2006, ISSN 0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed April 27, 2017]).
- ↑ TESTEX Group. Retrieved April 27, 2017 .
