Texcare International 2020: Textile care gets ‘smart’

At Texcare International, from 20 to 24 June 2020, the world’s market leaders will be showcasing their innovations, all designed to help optimise the procedures and processes in textile care. The manufacturers’ agreed aim is to drive forward automation in the sector through artificial intelligence and smart data processing Texcare International will open its doors in Frankfurt am Main from 20 to 24 June 2020. Market leaders from all over the world, with products for all areas of textile care, have already signed up. They will be taking advantage of the leading world trade fair to present their innovations to the international trade-fair public for the first time.

Kerstin Horaczek, Group Show Director Technology at Messe Frankfurt: “Registrations for Texcare International are excellent. Because we are again using Halls 8 and 9, Texcare International will, once more, be able to grow in terms of exhibition space and strengthen some of the more dynamic product groups, including, for instance, IT, which has gained greater weight recently, not least as a result of digitalisation. Market leaders and product groups are evenly distributed across both halls. Those exhibiting include, amongst others, Alliance, Barbanti, Beirholm, Burnus Hychem, Christeyns, Datamars, Ecolab, Fintec, Girbau, Jensen, Kannegiesser, Kentaur, Kreussler, Lapauw, Lavatec, Macpi, Metalprogetti, Miele, Milnor, Multimatic, Onnera Group, Seitz, Stahl, Trevil, Vega and Veit. Visitors will be able to see, at first hand, the inventiveness that exists in the sector, ranging from new plant and machinery, washing and cleaning products, flat linens and workwear to IT and logistics solutions in operation.

The driving force in textile care is the development of digital solutions into smart ones. This provides the umbrella for all four major themes at Texcare International: ‘Smart Factory’, ‘New Business Models’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘New Work – New Learning’.

From digital to smart

The ‘Smart Factory’ theme covers the intelligent interlinking of production and data flows, so as to enable a high degree of automation in modern textile care. Modern 3D camera technologies, RFID chips, the deployment of robots and artificial intelligence all help to implement the vision of the fully automated laundry facility.

Digitalisation opens up new ways for textile cleaning services to get in touch with their customers. ‘New Business Models’ are now emerging that make it possible for consumers to make contact via online shops or apps, offering innovative collect and delivery services in collaboration with logistics companies.

Another important driver of innovation is ’Sustainability’. For laundries and dry-cleaning establishments, there are many new technologies and processes relating to energy efficiency, the sparing use of washing agents, wastewater treatment and water recovery. Here too, digitalisation offers further potential improvements: for example, if all monitored data in a laundry can be assembled and processed in real time. Over and above individual establishments, the sector as a whole is working on solutions that will drive forward the idea of the ‘Circular Economy’.

And, of course, these technologies bring changes to the world of work and, against the background of a shortage of trained staff, offer attractive possibilities for further training, professional development and staff retention. These aspects are covered by the ‘New Work – New Learning’ top theme.

All the above-mentioned issues for the sector are also revisited in the complementary programme at Texcare International. The Texcare Forum, to be held from 20 to 23 June, makes a crucial contribution to the international transfer of knowledge and to discussions between experts and business partners. In establishing the concept and content of the conference, Messe Frankfurt works closely with the partners of Texcare International – the German Dry Cleaning Association (Deutscher Textilreinigungs-Verband) and the VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies (a division of the Association of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry – the VDMA) and other international associations.