The Uster Tester turns 75

The Uster Tester is set to celebrate its 75th birthday. Since its invention, it has fundamentally changed the global quality environment of textile production and the textile trade. Today, the product from Uster Technologies in the canton of Zurich is familiar to every textile manufacturer. In fact, the word Uster is used by textile factories to describe both the textile uniformity test process as well as the device itself, further details of which can be found in a press release issued by the company.

Zellweger Uster, as Uster Technologies was called in the past, developed the first device for the objective and repeatable assessment of textile quality at the request of a group of Swiss spinners in 1948. Since this time, textile quality is reflected by a numerical value that is used to this day as the basis for trade, pricing and ultimately customer satisfaction. According to Uster Technologies, the Uster Tester has a place “in every serious textile laboratory”.

The Uster statistics, i.e. quality information on the basis of precise data from across the worldwide textile industry, have become essential for the industry as a whole. They form the framework for “meaningful fiber purchasing, yarn development and trading” activities.

The Uster Tester has been expanded over time to include specially developed sensors and software. It can also be combined with other Uster systems. According to information from the company itself, this connectivity at every stage of processing has created “a unique Quality Management Platform for the entire mill”. mm