Interiors

The French Textile Machinery Manufacturers Association (UCMTF) President Bruno Ameline and the Secretary General Evelyne Cholet report on the state of the French textile machinery manufacturers. UCMTF comprises 30 specialty textile machinery manufacturers, often leaders on their specific markets. Their total annual consolidated turnover of 1 billion Euros (1.3 billion USD) makes France the sixth largest textile machinery exporter and they are particularly strong in long fibre spinning, yarn twisting and texturing, heat setting, Jacquard and dobbies, dyeing, nonwoven and recycling processes.

Around 40,000 visitors from 113 countries attended Techtextil and Texprocess trade fair duo last week to find out about the latest innovations and trends. A total of 1,652 exhibitors from 56 nations presented their latest products and innovations. “Techtextil and Texprocess have once again set new records,” said Detlef Braun, member of the executive board of Messe Frankfurt, commenting on the results of the textile trade-fair double. “With an increase of 15% compared to the previous events, the two leading trade fairs confirmed the worldwide significance of technical textiles and textile-processing machinery”, he added. The events focusing on technical textiles combined various aspects of the industry from light to very heavy materials – from functional garments, via car seats and safety belts, to aircraft interiors.

The garment making-up industry has always been the labour-intensive ‘bottleneck’ of the conventional textile chain, despite attempts such as the Leapfrog EU7 project to streamline and automate all of its processes into a single-line system.

Seven large companies in east Netherlands have formed industrial partnerships with the aim of accelerating technological innovations relating to new high-tech materials, products and systems and of rolling these out in international markets. The promoter of this collaboration is the recently established foundation AMMON (Advanced Materials Manufacturing Oost-Nederland). The provinces of Overijssel and Gelderland in the Netherlands have welcomed this focused mode of industrial collaboration and have created favourable conditions by supporting the construction of demonstrators and by becoming a launch customer.

Techtextil hits a record number of exhibitors as it is due to open on the 11 June, while the exhibition running alongside, Texprocess, has confirmed its position as the leading international trade fair for cutting-edge textile-processing technologies. The two international venues for the textile sector Techtextil and Texprocess are set to open their doors next week with 1,648 exhibitors, an increase of 123 exhibitors over the previous events. “All in all, our trade-fair duo at Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre offers the world’s biggest range of technical textiles, nonwovens and textile-processing technologies”, said Detlef Braun, member of the executive board of Messe Frankfurt.

SCS Global Services (SCS) has announced that Unifi Manufacturing, a leading producer of multi-filament polyester, nylon textured yarns and related raw materials, is the first manufacturer of its kind to earn Responsible Source certification.

Innovation in Textiles has just published ‘21st Century Innovations in Technical Textiles’ - a great new 36 page illustrated A5 sized booklet all about cutting edge technical textiles developments (RRP £25.00) - and we’ve got a limited number to give away FREE to visitors to our booth (D75, Hall 3.1) at Techtextil in Frankfurt (11-13 June).

German textile machinery manufacturer Oerlikon Neumag hosted a well-attended Virtual Reality Show in Dalton last month, where it invited interested BCF producers in order to inform them about its latest technologies and the actual world market situation.

New Eco-Applicator offering significant energy savings for a wide range of technical textile applications from A. Monforts Textilmaschinen will debut in June 2013 at the Techtextil exhibition, Frankfurt.

Laboratory tests concluded by the Hohenstein Institute, Germany, have revealed that a new Wellmed dust mite protection mattress can help those suffering from household allergies. “For the first time ever, this offers the hope of a good night's sleep for around 5 million people suffering from a house dust allergy in Germany – completely without side effects,” the Institute revealed.