Techtextil on a growth curve

Under the motto ‘Connecting the Future’, international exhibitors at Techtextil will present their textile innovations to trade visitors, from May 9-12, 2017 at Frankfurt am Main, Germany. This year, Techtextil is held in parallel with Texprocess, the leading international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials. Techtextil is the leading international trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens showing the full range of potential uses of textile technologies.

“The technical textile market will continue to grow accompanied by a changing textile industry. Demand from the using industries (applications) is growing as well: not only by growing demand in existing applications but also by inventing new technologies, materials and products for new ones,” said Michael Jänecke, Director, Brand Management Technical Textiles & Textile Processing, Messe Frankfurt, during the press meet for Techtextil India on March 6 at Messe Frankfurt’s Mumbai office.

He added, “Overall, market drivers include: global population growth, replacement of conventional building materials, rising housing expenditure, increasing complexity of industrial production, expansion of healthcare, growth in vehicle production, growth in expenditure on sport and leisure products, permanent opening up of new areas of application.”

He gave a glimpse of of Techtextil and Texprocess, the two trade shows that presents the complete textile value creation chain – from preparatory processes to finishing technologies.

Held concurrently with Techtextil, Texprocess offers insights into all stages of textile processing, including finishing and digital printing. Texprocess is also characterised by an outstanding number of exhibitor registrations exceeding the results of the previous edition, too. Techtextil 2015 was attended by 28,500 trade visitors from 102 nations, as well as over 5,500 trade visitors from the parallel Texprocess. Texprocess reports growing numbers of companies signing up, particularly in the CAD/CAM and cutting, making, trimming (CMT) product groups.

Technologies and material for sewing, joining and fastening are growing steadily, too. Among the companies that have already signed up are: Amann, Astas, assyst/Human Solutions, Barudan, Brother, bullmer, Caron Technology, Dürkopp Adler, Epson, Filiz Makina, Gemini CAD Systems, Gerber Technology, Gütermann, Juki, Kuris Spezialmaschinen, MACPI, Malkan, Mitsubishi, Morgan Tecnica, Pfaff, Serkon Tekstil Makina, SMRE, Strima, Tajima, Teseo, Tetas, Veit, Zünd, to name a few.

Veronika März, Director Marketing, VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies, shared figures of German sewing and garment technology. Three leading supplier countries in 2015 were: China with €2,065 billion, Japan with €615 million and Germany with €523 million. She said, “German exports increased by 6 per cent in 2015, highest figure since 2003. For Germany, most important export markets in 2015 were USA, Poland and Italy.

Speaking about Texprocess, she added that at Texprocess, individualisation is the megatrend. She said that there is enormous demand for individual products and flexible clothing production for customised clothing. She added that at Texprocess, there will be digitisation and Industrie 4.0 along with value-added chain.

The highlight of this year’s Techtextil will be the special ‘Living in Space’ event in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt – DLR). Under the heading ‘Living in Space’ and in cooperation with ESA and the German Aerospace Centre, Techtextil and Texprocess will illustrate the broad spectrum of applications for technical textiles with examples from the aerospace sector.

Exhibitors include not only international market leaders but also numerous newcomers and returnees. Significant exhibitor growth comes from European countries, particularly from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Spain. However, additional growth is also expected to come from Asia.

A special area in the vicinity of exhibitors of functional apparel and technical textiles is being created in hall 6.1 and, based on the areas of application for technical textiles, will show high-tech textiles and textile processing technology from and for the aerospace sector. The highlight of the interactive area is a virtual-reality experience. On a special area, Techtextil and Texprocess visitors can undertake a virtual journey through space to Mars and discover how technical textiles and their processing technology can make it possible to set up communities in space. Additionally, the ‘Material Gallery’ will show textile products and processing technologies from Techtextil exhibitors with links to space travel. There will also be presentations by start-ups that work at the interface of technical textiles and space travel.

In hall 6.1, exhibitors and visitors will also find the ‘Innovation made in Germany’ area of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie – BMWi), which is aimed at young, innovative companies based in Germany. Applications for a place in the BMWi area can still be made on the Techtextil website.

To make the profiles of Techtextil and Texprocess even sharper, the bonding and separating technology, CMT, CAD/CAM and printing product segments will be concentrated together at Texprocess in hall 4.0. Thus, visitors will find Techtextil exhibitors from these segments at Texprocess. These product groups will be deleted from the Techtextil nomenclature.

Successfully started at Techtextil and Texprocess in 2015, the Innovative Apparel Show will get in 2017 even more international with universities for fashion and design from four European countries. These universities will present their visionary product ideas using technical textiles and modern processing technologies on all four days. They are: Accademia Italiana, Florence / Italy; ESAD College of Art and Design, Matosinhos / Portugal; Esmod Paris/France, and the University of Trier / Germany. The young designers will show designs revolving around the themes of textile effects, creative engineering and smart fashion while a fashion show in the foyer of Halls 5.1 and 6.1 presents their ideas in a professional way.

The concept of Techtextil Symposium, one of the world’s leading events for textile research, is being expanded with the coming edition to be held in seven consecutive blocks, each of seven lectures. Thus, all lecture blocks will be expanded by one lecture. Additionally, Techtextil is working together with the Dornbirn MFC Man-made Fibres Congress for the first time. Thus, Dornbirn-MFC will organise one of the seven lecture blocks within the framework of the symposium (to be held in ‘Saal Europa’ of Hall 4.0).

Outstanding new developments and advances in the fields of technical textiles, nonwovens and functional apparel textiles will be honoured for the 14th time with the Techtextil Innovation Award, the competition for which is also open to non-exhibitors. Entries are now invited. The deadline for receipt is 20 February.

Together with the international Tensinet network, Techtextil is holding 14th ‘Textile Structures for New Building’ competition for students and young professionals, which honours innovative and practical concepts for building with textiles.