Messe Dornbirn, a leading trade fair and events organiser, has finally scheduled the premiere of SALTEX, the new community-platform for smart textiles and fibre-reinforced composites as well as their industrial automation, for 2016.

The new concept was developed in consensus with leading representatives from industry, politics and research, and the event will take place from 5-6 October 2016 in the new exhibition halls. The focus of the new trade fair is on interdisciplinary knowledge transfer and bringing together and interlinking both sectors through progressive networking, organisers report.

Intelligent textiles, as well as fibre-reinforced composites for lightweight structures, are both growth sectors and cross-cutting issues of key importance for the future. They will strengthen the industry in global competition, organisers report. Recent market studies forecast for both sectors considerable growth and increasing market significance.

According to NanoMarkets, the market size of smart clothing will increase until 2021 to US 1.8 billion. Lightweight structures are most likely to achieve a global market size of around EUR 140 billion in 2020 with an average growth rate of 7-8%, according to recent studies. The main driver of growth is the transport sector.

SALTEX, a community platform for smart textiles, as well as fibre-reinforced composites and their industrial automation, is taking into account the multifarious bilateral touch points of both industries and takes full advantage of synergetic effects with regards to speeding up the implementation of automation technologies for mass- production.

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