Communicating the future of man-made fibres

The worrying news about the developments in the financial and political environment obscure our sight on a positive future. The leitmotif for the DORNBIRN-MFC 2014:
Innovation – Efficiency – Competitiveness reflect the necessary evolutionary constraint for renewal in the transition to a new industrial era. Interdisciplinary cooperation along the processing chain will be the recipe for success. The European man-made fibre industry is committed to the European production sites and is entitled to claim from the European Union the creation of a favourable political/economic ambience.

After five record years for the DORNBIRN-MFC, we expect for this congress a slightly lower number of participants in comparison to the preceding years. This means for us also a structural change with in the most important target groups. We should like to receive comments from the ´fan-groups´ of DORNBIRN-MFC about possible reasons for these changes. The Austrian Man-Made Fibers Institute (Austrian-MFI) as the organiser of this event can be reached with immediate effect by email at office@austrian-mfi.at. After the traditional opening of the plenary session by Friedrich Weninger, the President of the AUSTRIAN-MFI and welcome addresses from the Province of Vorarlberg we have foreseen various plenary lectures.

Van Houte: ´The European Man-made Fibres Industry: Global Challenges and Institutional Changes´ -Man-made fibres dominate the fibre´s world; competition is increasing, also among the various fibres. Despite a changing ambience the industry is committed to continue production in Europe.´

Borsch: ´The Re-enchantment of the World – Survival Strategies with Brands as Modern Storytellers in an Engineered World.´

Wiertz:´Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Global Nonwovens Industry´ – Nonwovens or nonwoven-based products are among the fastest growing fields of application because they meet the fundamental needs of a society in various stages of development.

Askew: ´Determining the Efficiency of Antimicrobial Treated Textiles´ Despite the development of many synthetic materials to problem of bio-deterioration caused by microorganisms still exists. In recent years a number of textile-based goods have been produced which offer antimicrobial properties. The test protocols for these are less well defined. The presentation will focus on these to ensure that published properties of producers can be verified.

The Paul Schlack/Wilhelm Albrecht Prize 2014 will be awarded to Laura Scheid, TU Dresden, ITM (D) for her work ´Development of Textile Chitosan Micro- and Nanofibrous Hybrid Scaffolds via combined Net Shape Nonwoven (NCN) and Elektrospinning Technique´ the honorary award goes to Prof Dr Matteo Pasquali, Rice University, Texas (USA) and Dr Marcin J Otto, Teijin Aramid BV, Arnhem (NL) for ´Strong, Light, Multifunctional Fibres of Carbon Nanotubes with Ultrahigh Conductivity-´.

Web: www.dornbirn-mfc.com