From the Sector

• Members of TMAS – the Swedish textile machinery association – have adopted a range of new strategies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, aimed at assisting manufacturers of textiles and apparel to adjust to a new normal, as Europe and other regions emerge cautiously from lockdown.

“Many European companies have been forced into testing new working methods and looking at what it’s possible to do remotely, and how to exploit automation to the full, in order to become more flexible,” says TMAS Secretary General Therese Premler-Andersson. “Others have been taking risks where they see opportunies and there’s a new sense of solidarity among companies.

“It’s extremely encouraging, for example, that over five hundred European companies from across our supply chain are reported to have responded to the shortages of facemasks and PPE – protective personal equipment – by converting parts of their sites or investing in new equipment.”

New supply chains

Amongst them are TMAS members of the ACG Group, who quickly established a dedicated new nonwovens fabric converting and single-use garment making-up plant to supply to the Swedish health authorities. From a standing start in March, this is now producing 1.8 million square metres of converted fabric and turning it into 692,000 finished medical garments each month.

“In 2020 so far, we have seen new value chains being created and a certain amount of permanent reshoring is now inevitable,” says Premler-Andersson. “This is being backed by the new funding announced in the European Union’s Next Generation EU plan, with €750 billion marked for helping industry recover. As the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has stressed, “green and digital” transitions hold the key to Europe’s future prosperity and resilience, and TMAS members have new solutions to assist in both areas.”

Remote working

Automated solutions have opened up many possibilities for remote working during the pandemic. Texo AB, for example, the specialist in wide-width weaving looms for the paper industry, was able to successfully complete the build and delivery of a major multi-container order between April and May.

“Our new Remote Guidance software now makes it possible for us to carry out some of the commissioning and troubleshooting of such new lines remotely, which has been helpful” says Texo AB President Anders Svensson.

Svegea of Sweden, which has spent the past few months developing its new CR-210 fabric relaxation machine for knitted fabrics, has also successfully set up and installed a number of machines remotely, which the company has never attempted before.

“The pandemic has definitely led to some inventive solutions for us and with international travel currently not possible, we are finding better methods of digital communication and collaboration all the time,” says Svegea managing director Hakan Steene.

Eric Norling, Vice President of the Precision Application business of Baldwin Technology, believes the pandemic may have a more permanent impact on global travel.

“We have now proven that e-meetings and virtual collaboration tools are effective,” he says. “Baldwin implemented a home office work regime from April with only production personnel and R&D researchers at the workplace. These past few months have shown that we can be just as effective and do not need to travel for physical meetings to the same extent that was previously thought to be necessary.”

Pär Hedman, Sales and Marketing Manager for IRO AB, however, believes such advances can only go so far at the moment.

“Video conferences have taken a big leap forward, especially in development projects, and this method of communication is here to stay, but it will never completely replace personal meetings,” he says. “And textile fabrics need to be touched, examined and accepted by the senses, which is impossible to do via digital media today. The coming haptic internet, however, may well even change that too.”

Social distancing

The many garment factories now equipped with Eton Systems UPS work stations – designed to save considerable costs through automation – have meanwhile benefited from the unintentional social distancing they automatically provide compared to factories with conventional banks of sewing machines.

“These companies have been able to continue operating throughout the pandemic due to the spaced nature of our automated plant configurations,” says Eton Systems Business Development Manager Roger Ryrlén. “The UPS system has been established for some time, but planned spacing has proved an accidental plus for our customers – with improved productivity.”

“Innovations from TMAS member companies have been coming thick and fast recently due to their advanced know-how in automation concepts,” Premler-Andersson concludes.  “If anything, the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic have only accelerated these initiatives by obliging our members to take new approaches.”

• Specialised in dye-sublimation printing, the Italian company has conquered the heights of the high fashion sector with its top-quality printed fabrics.
• With its recent investment in a direct-to-fabric printing line, Digitak is preparing to expand its range of printed products, focusing on fabric differentiation.

Dye sublimation printing of high fashion designs is the beating heart of Digitak, an Italian company specialised in digital textile printing. Operating in the textile district of Lombardy, Italy, the company has established itself among the main suppliers in the world of high fashion and sportswear in just under 15 years.

Making production versatility one of the cornerstones of its philosophy, Digitak has continued to invest in technology, as well as research and development its product portfolio. This forward-thinking approach has enabled the company to guarantee innovative, personalised products with meticulous attention to detail, with the highest – almost obsessive – standards of quality and maximum design flexibility. Over the years, the extensive experience gained by the company’s management in the field of sublimation with traditional and digital techniques, combined with their investment decisions have allowed Digitak to enhance its production performance, gradually implementing higher quality standards and differentiating itself from the competition in the complex and competitive sector of high fashion. An important feat, which has not, however, dampened its enthusiasm and willingness to continue growing and exceeding its goals. The company’s latest investment in a direct-to-fabric digital printing line with pigment ink propels the company into a new and promising production dimension.

Sublimation printing specialists

Since Digitak’s establishment, Filippo Taccani, the founder and current owner of the company, had set himself a clear and ambitious objective: “I wanted to take up the challenge of operating digitally - printing fabrics using this innovative technology to create products on a par with those  I had achieved with traditional sublimation textile printing methods during my previous work experience.”

The purchase of a Mimaki JV4 plotter, one of the first to be installed in Italy, marked the beginning of Digitak’s adventure. “To start the business, I needed a printing system that could operate with dispersed inks to print on polyester and I found the JV4 to be the best option,” explains Taccani. “It was an excellent decision, because I used these plotters to build the company and its success.”

The first Mimaki plotter was in fact followed by a second and a third. When it bought the fifth, the company moved to an industrial unit in Tradate (Varese) – Digitak’s current site – which now houses around fifteen Mimaki JV33 plotters, in addition to three Mimaki TS500-1800 wide-format sublimation printers, and a Mimaki TS300P-1800 high-speed sublimation printer. This Mimaki powered production facility – which is one of the company’s core strengths – was recently expanded with the addition of a Mimaki TX300P-1800B belt-type hybrid printing system, together with a Mimaki TR300-1850C textile coater and a Mimaki Tiger-1800.

“Naturally, over the years, we have also tested printing systems from other suppliers, but we have always returned to Mimaki. With high fashion as our key market, we need to guarantee our customers the highest levels of quality and, to date, we have never found solutions that beat the quality of this Japanese brand’s technology.”

According to Taccani, the difference lies in the “calligraphy” of Mimaki’s machines, that is the line of the ink on the fabric: “Unlike its competitors, Mimaki has focused on the ‘waveforms’, i.e. the electronics associated with the print heads. This attention paid to the way the ink jet is managed from the print head has allowed Mimaki to achieve unparalleled levels of accuracy, an aspect that has given my company a clear competitive edge.”

Moreover, at Digitak, quality comes before quantity: “We prefer to dedicate an extra day to production to guarantee the customer a final product that fully meets requirements and expectations. Mimaki’s technology not only suits this business model bult on top quality, but it crucially enables it.”

Operational and creative flexibility

Digitak currently prints around 2,000 linear metres of fabric per day. Its portfolio ranges from clothing and scarves, to beach and swimwear, with related personalised accessories, to sportswear, with technical properties such as breathability, comfort, resistance to external agents. The company have even added customised outdoor furniture to their offering of diverse and creative products.
The company’s machines operate continuously, 24/7. During the day, the machines are mainly used to develop and produce samples and colour proofs, while the actual production is carried out at night. “Thanks to our technology, we have developed an extraordinary operational flexibility. The fact that we have so many plotters allows us to work on multiple designs at the same time and to launch projects that are also very different from one another,” explains Taccani. “There are also some other crucial factors that have contributed, and continue to contribute, to increasing our production efficiency. The reliability of Mimaki’s solutions and the remote monitoring option offered is key. Once the standard start-up monitoring has been carried out and the machines are found to be printing correctly, we can let them work overnight without an operator. This is a great benefit for people who, like us, manage such a large and diverse fleet of machines.”

Digitak takes the same approach to customer service. Faced with an increasingly demanding market in terms of creativity, precision and completeness of service, the company wants to guarantee flexibility and customisation. “We decided to set up a department dedicated to the pre-press stage, in charge of preparing and checking the files supplied by customers. Seldom do our teams not need to do some editing of the files supplied, even if it’s only to make small changes that are essential for the print document to be as suitable as possible and to achieve the best final result.”

Technologies of the future

With a view to further enhancing production and customer service, Taccani has chosen to take on a new challenge, switching things up with some of the most recent investments.

While maintaining the focus on dye sublimation printing, Taccani has focused on technological diversification by installing a direct-to-fabric digital printing line. This consists of a Mimaki TX300P-1800B printing system with pigment inks and a TR300-1850C coater from Mimaki’s TR series. “The market continues to evolve and now requires even more flexibility regarding both processes and the fabrics supplied. This means that great opportunities exist for a print shop capable of simultaneously producing the same design – with minimal colour adjustment – on different fabrics, guaranteeing similar and accurate results. And this is precisely the path we are taking,” says Taccani. “Why have we opted for Mimaki again? Well, I had an opportunity to try out their new pigment inks and I immediately realised that they are a generation ahead of the other pigments available on the market. The cyan is very clean, the black is deep and there is a very interesting fullness of colour, suitable not only for furnishings, but also for other applications in the clothing sector.”

With its pigment inks, the new direct-to-fabric printing line allows Digitak to explore other related market segments. Thanks to the innovative automatic belt system, the TX300P-1800B guarantees good productivity and high-quality results. A standard of quality that is also boosted by the TR300-1850C fabric pre-treatment system: “This coater is essential for ensuring the best possible preparation of fabrics for printing. In fact, we are able to treat fabrics to make them suitable for the type of print they are intended for, sanitise them for specific applications and, in some cases, even dye them, with excellent quality.”

According to Taccani, another beneficial factor of direct-to-fabric pigment printing technology is the eco-sustainability of the process and its lower environmental impact. “We are proud to be able to offer our customers excellent printing results using little water and printing in ‘green mode’, with both the technologies we have available. I consider them winning technologies for the future, as both dye sublimation printing and direct-to-fabric printing with pigment inks use little water while mainly requiring the use of energy. Therefore, if you use renewable energy, then you’re done.”

Digitak’s other trump card is the Tiger-1800 installed in 2019. With this industrial printing system, the company aims to increase production volumes while maintaining its high-quality standards and further optimising costs. “We are excited to have these promising technologies available to us in-house. We are currently experimenting with these solutions, testing new opportunities and evaluating which paths to take to stay ahead of the game,” concludes Taccani.

• There is an urban legend that hemp canvas was used to make the very first pair of Levi’s jeans.
• While this is a myth that originated in the counterculture of the 1960s, hemp is without doubt the fibre of the moment for the denim industry.

At the second Kingpins24 virtual denim show that was broadcast from New York on June 23rd and 24th, the sustainable benefits of hemp fibre were referenced by many Monforts customers who are now including it in their collections, including AGI Denim, Artistic Milliners, Black Peony, Calik, Cone Denim, Naveena Denim Mills (NDM) and Orta.

“Hemp is an easy to grow fibre which requires no irrigation, no fertilizers, no herbicides and no chemicals,” says Allan Little, Director of Product Development for Cone Denim, which has recently launched its Sweet Leaf collection featuring the fibre. “Significantly, it also uses fifty per cent or even less water than cotton in cultivation.”

It can also bring some new aesthetics to denim too, he adds.

“Hemp has a unique colour and adds a different cast to our indigo, the drape and texture of the fabrics is different and it even adds  a bit of a unique hand, so combined with its sustainable credentials we are proud to be bringing the Sweet Leaf collection to the market.”

US supply chain

Cone is currently sourcing its hemp from France, but with much of its manufacturing now in Mexico – and with the introduction of the US Farm Bill in 2018 which has legalised the growing of legal hemp – is exploring the possibility of investing in the US supply chain.

“With US hemp we’re really at the R&D phase,” Little emphasises. “It’s a unique crop, so coming up with the right stalk to provide the right fibre is challenging. We’ve experimented with different types of seed and various methods of decortication.”

Decortication, he explains, is the mechanical removal of the outside layer of the hemp stalk to useable fibre on the inside. A second process, cottonization, is necessary to make the fibre suitable for spinning, because compared to cotton, hemp is longer, stiffer, and less flexible.

100% success

At the end of 2019, Naveena (NDM), headquartered in Karachi, introduced fabrics featuring up to 51% hemp content in blends with Tencel and recycled polyester and this year has developed the first 100% hemp denims.

“The response to the fabrics we showed last year was incredible and we were looking forward to the response to this latest development – which everyone was asking for – at the Kingpins show in Amsterdam, which unfortunately was unable to go ahead,” says NDM’s Director of Marketing Rashid Iqbal. “We produced initial samples in an undyed state because we were not sure how the wet spun yarn would react in the dyeing, but I’m happy to say we have had success in this respect and are now able to provide one hundred per cent indigo dyed hemp denim.”

Environmental benefits

“Differentiation is the key in the highly-competitive denim industry and we have assisted our customers with trials and optimised processing parameters for a range of different fibres, including hemp, both at our Advanced Technology Centre in Germany and at their own mills around the world,” says Hans Wroblowski, Monforts Head of Denim. “Given the environmental benefits of hemp, and the liberalisation of its cultivation in many parts of the world, the interest in it now comes as no surprise. We have the technologies and know-how to help our customers to fully maximise their hemp denims at all post-weaving stages of production.”

Monforts has a dominant position in the field of denim finishing with its well proven Montex stenters. It has been enjoying further recent success with its Eco Line concept based on two key technology advances – the Eco Applicator and the Thermo Stretch.

The latest Monforts innovation for denim is the CYD yarn dyeing system. This technology is based on the effective and established dyeing process for denim fabrics that is now being applied for yarn dyeing.

The CYD system also integrates new functions and processes into the weaving preparation processes – spinning, direct beaming, warping and assembly beaming, followed by sizing and dyeing – to increase quality, flexibility, economic viability and productivity. A full CYD line is now available for trials at the company’s Advanced Technology Centre.

Der Bundesverband Medizintechnologie, BVMed, hat den GKV-Spitzenverband aufgefordert, den bürokratischen Aufwand der zeitlich befristeten Umsatzsteuer-Absenkung für die Hilfsmittel-Leistungserbringer zu reduzieren.

"Die kurzfristige und zeitlich befristete Umsatzsteuerabsenkung ab dem 1. Juli 2020 bedeutet für die MedTech-Unternehmen einen erheblichen Umstellungs- und Mehraufwand", so BVMed-Geschäftsführer Dr. Marc-Pierre Möll. Der BVMed spricht sich deshalb für begleitende Maßnahmen aus, um die Umsetzung möglichst unbürokratisch zu vollziehen. "Für den Bereich der Hilfsmittel-Versorgungen und -Abrechnungen sehen wir den GKV-Spitzenverband in der Verantwortung, handhabbare Umsetzungsregelungen zu schaffen", sagt BVMed-Hilfsmittelexpertin Juliane Pohl.

Die vorübergehende Senkung der Mehrwertsteuer wird von den in der Interessengemeinschaft Hilfsmittelversorgung (IGHV) zusammengeschlossenen Hersteller- und Leistungserbringerverbänden, wie dem BVMed, grundsätzlich begrüßt. Allerdings sorgt die ab 1. Juli bis 31. Dezember 2020 geltende Maßnahme im Rahmen der Hilfsmittelversorgung und -abrechnung für immense Aufwände auf Seiten der Leistungserbringer. "Die befristete Umsatzsteuerabsenkung bedeutet für die Hilfsmittel-Leistungserbringer und Homecare-Unternehmen einen enormen bürokratischen und finanziellen Mehraufwand. Sämtliche Verträge und insbesondere die Abrechnungssysteme müssen vorübergehend angepasst werden", so Pohl. "Vor allem aber braucht es Klarheit, wie sich die Steueranpassungen in den Genehmigungs- und Abrechnungsprozessen abbilden lassen." Die Krankenkassenseite müsse deshalb gemeinsame Regeln schaffen, die die bestehenden Unklarheiten beheben und dabei den Aufwand für alle Beteiligten möglichst gering halten.

Insbesondere sei aus Sicht der Hilfsmittel-Unternehmen sicherzustellen, dass ungeklärte, diffuse oder variierende technische oder administrative Umsetzungs-Anforderungen nicht zu Absetzungen der Versorgung führen – "beispielsweise wenn aufgrund abweichender Steuersätze der genehmigte Kostenvoranschlag von der Abrechnung abweicht. Oder wenn mehrmonatige Abrechnungen aufgrund variierender Steuersätze gesplittet durchgeführt werden müssten, obwohl sie eventuell vertraglich anders vereinbart sind", erklärt Pohl. Für derlei Fälle sind aus Sicht des BVMed einheitliche Umsetzungshinweise durch den GKV-Spitzenverband erforderlich. Regelungsbedarf sieht der BVMed zudem bei der Umsetzung monatsübergreifender Versorgungen, die sich über einen Zeitraum erstrecken, in denen unterschiedliche Steuersätze gelten.

Shanghai – Sateri has unveiled FinexTM as its new product brand for recycled fibre. FinexTM, short for ‘Fibre Next’, is an innovative next-generation cellulosic fibre containing recycled content. Internationally known outdoor brand Lafuma has produced FinexTM apparel ahead of 618, China’s major mid-year online shopping festival, while independent China designer Rico Lee will launch his FinexTM apparel next month.

Since its announcement in March this year of a breakthrough in commercial production of viscose using recycled textile waste, Sateri has worked closely with its downstream yarn and garment manufacturing partners to bring the recycled fibre product to the consumer market.

“We’re pleased to collaborate with Sateri as one of their first brand partners for FinexTM. Sateri’s dedication to this partnership made it possible for Lafuma to produce T-shirts with this fine quality fibre in a short time. T-shirts made with FinexTM will be among the offerings Lafuma has in store for the 618 festival as we look to support environmentally-friendly and excellent performance solutions to strengthen our position as a leading outdoor apparel brand,” said Wu Qian, General Manager of Lafuma China.

Echoing similar sentiments is Rico Lee who established his own independent label in 2014, “I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with Sateri when they approached me because FinexTM encapsulates what my brand stands for – Beautiful Technology that combines function and fashion.”

Tom Liu, Sateri’s Commercial Vice President said, “Like our flagship brand EcoCosy®, FinexTM is made from bio-based natural fibres. Innovation and technology has made cellulosic textile fibre recycling possible and FinexTM represents how nature not only renews itself but that products made from nature can also be regenerated. This, at its heart, is what circular fashion looks like. Our brand promise to customers remains constant– Sateri’s products are sustainable, high quality, efficient, and cost-effective. The FinexTM tagline ‘Together For A Better Next’ expresses our aspiration to be the partner of choice for next-generation fibre - we thank Lafuma and Rico Lee for pioneering with us on this quest.”

Last month, Sateri announced its entry into China’s Lyocell fibre market. The recent string of product portfolio expansion announcements is underpinned by Sateri’s business strategy to capture value. Allen Zhang, President of Sateri said, “Being the world’s largest viscose producer gives us the advantages that come with volume, but value is what we hope differentiates us. By this, we don’t only mean higher value products like Lyocell or FinexTM but also the value we bring to communities, country, climate and customers.”

Globally, less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing. This presents a big opportunity for textile fibre recycling, particularly in China which is the largest textile producing country in the world. Last month, Sateri became a council member of the China Association of Circular Economy (CACE). The company will work closely with CACE’s Textile Waste Comprehensive Utilisation Committee to establish standards and promote industrial-scale textile waste recycling. Sateri is part of the Singapore-based RGE group of companies which has committed USD200 million into next-generation textile fibre innovation and technology.

• Digital processes also speed up the manufacture of meltblown systems

in order to further optimize the material provision for the Oerlikon Neumag and Oerlikon Nonwoven business units and to strengthen internal processes at the German site in Neumünster, the Manmade Fibers segment of the Swiss Oerlikon Group decided last year to invest in a state-of-the-art logistics center with a new lift center. It has already been fully operational for a few weeks. This is tremendously helpful for speeding up the processing of the numerous orders for meltblown systems for manufacturing high-quality nonwovens for protective masks and apparel that Oerlikon Nonwoven has received over the past months alone

Investing in a new Oerlikon Neumag and Oerlikon Nonwoven logistics center is paying dividends: the processing speed when manufacturing new systems – very much to the benefit of customers – considerably improved in the first week after the center started operating, not least as a result of the optimized processes and the material handling. After 25 years, the time had finally come to break new ground and to better equip ourselves for the future requirements of the markets. The paternoster storage facility to date not only needed to have regular repairs carried out due to its age, it was also too small for the projects increasingly being carried out today. The only 90 m² were capable of storing around 12,000 parts. In contrast, the new logistics center now offers more than 250 m² of storage space for in excess of 25,000 parts. As a result, this now also houses all small parts, which used to be stored in the high-rack facility due to lack of space.

New hardware, new software
Coinciding with the opening of the new logistics center, Oerlikon also introduced new digital processes that will also help cope with the increasing production volumes. To this end, consistently maintained master data and photos for all parts ensure safe, paper-free storage and handling of the material from now on. In order to minimize mistakes, a laser pointer now indicates from which or to which space the goods are moved. Furthermore, a photo of the material, sorted to type, is displayed on the screen. The digitalization of the warehousing facilities secures the pick and put-away process so that checking material numbers becomes superfluous when removing items from the warehouse.

• Producing fabric for medical gowns: Advanced barrier effect solutions support COVID-19 efforts

Huntsman Textile Effects and Bao Minh Textile, one of the largest and most modern woven fabric producers in Vietnam, are collaborating to produce fabric that meets the stringent performance standards required of isolation gowns. High-quality medical gowns are essential protective wear for healthcare workers combatting the global COVID-19 pandemic, but these are in short supply worldwide.

Bao Minh Textile will initially treat 760,000 meters of woven fabric with a carefully curated combination of Huntsman Textile Effects barrier effect solutions and auxiliaries. This fabric is sufficient to produce 345,000 high-grade isolation gowns.

Bao Minh Textile’s isolation gown fabric relies on a range of Huntsman pretreatment, dyeing and finishing solutions. These include CLARITE® ONE, an all-in-one pretreatment for peroxide bleaching; NOVACRON® and TERASIL® dyes; PHOBOL® CP-C, an excellent oil-, water- and stain-repellent finish; and PHOBOTEX® RSY, a non-fluorinated durable water repellent with extremely high washing resistance. PHOBOL® EXTENDER XAN is also applied to further increase wash durability.

In these difficult times of the worldwide COVID-19 crisis, flexible reactions and fast decisions can be of imminent importance, particularly in the fragmented composite industry with its back-bone of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In response, the Industrial and Business Consulting company AMAC under the lead of Dr. Michael Effing has signed today a cooperation agreement with Alpha Executive Advisory to jointly offer advisory services in Business Coaching, Acquisitions & Divestitures as well as Business Transformation and Crisis Management, also ad interim.

In detail, this cooperation is to identify the right fit in terms of capabilities and financial strength for companies looking for expansion or divestiture, to deliver support to innovative young start-up firms in order to faster penetrate the market and to smoothen the transition to the next owner in interim management or to make the next appropriate strategic step.

• AACOMA - Accelerate advanced composite manufacturing
• EMR Region Belgium, the Netherlands & Germany area hot spot for the future of lightweight materials and technologies

The Euregio Meuse-Rhine provides a huge potential with its many highly innovative, leading companies and especially SMEs which are active in the area of advanced material manufacturing in many industrial sectors, such as Automotive, Aerospace, Electronics, Building and Infrastructure, etc. The advanced material sector is growing, with a consolidated offer, ranging from raw material producers over technology development to production, research and development as well as industrial OEMs.

Interreg Euregio Meuse-Rhine invests EUR 96 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the period 2014-2020. Through the investments in cross-border projects, the European Union invests in the economic development, innovation, territorial development and social inclusion and education of this region.

Project

The Euregio Meuse-Rhine is a potential hot-spot for the further development of advanced material and process technologies. Technical Centers and Institutes around Aachen/Germany, Liège/Belgium and Eindhoven/The Netherlands were awarded with this new project AACOMA.

Innovative material design and advanced manufacturing provide large opportunities for SMEs. The AACOMA project kick-off took place in Aachen at the Campus of the RWTH University of technology in 1 Q 2020. The aim of the project, which is running for 3 years until 2023 with a budget of €3 Mio, is to connect SMEs with innovation hot-spots like institutes and technical centers.
Seven partners from all three regions will carry the project out: Centexbel is the project leader and gets support by University of Liège, Sirris and Flanders Make from Belgium, as well as Fontys University of Applied Science and AMIBM of Maastricht University in the Netherlands and AMAC in Germany.

Statements

Bernard Paquet, Project Coordinator from Centexbel/ Belgium stated:
“Centexbel, with a strong experience in textile and composites, will identify with its Interreg partners and an advisory board of international experts several demonstrators which will enable an accelerated advanced manufacturing of composite parts. This could include new materials and intermediates, high performance additives, bio-based products and new composites by additive manufacturing”.

Michael Effing, Managing Director of AMAC/ Germany said:
“The major goal of the project is to connect around 200 innovative SMEs with each other and establish the links to the world-class institutes in the EMR region. We will facilitate 6 roadshow events, addressing key topics like automated manufacturing, additive manufacturing or bio-based material systems combined with match making and training events. The first roadshow will be held on September 24, 2020 at the Aachen Campus of the RWTH University of Technology.”

Prof. Gunnar Seide from the AMIBM/The Netherlands continued:  
“Our AMIBM offers already an international master program on bio-based materials. The AACOMA project will be an important element for transborder research and will identify new players in the value chain coming from the EMR region. Innovative companies find markets for their new bio-based building blocks, chemicals and polymers. Their success stories and upcoming technological breakthroughs are needed for a sustainable future.”

The corona pandemic continues to put a strain on health systems around the globe. Many places lack effective textile protective kit among others for their medical personnel. HeiQ, a Swiss specialty chemicals company, has developed antiviral and antibacterial protective kit that is quickly effective against Coronaviruses (229E), as confirmed in wide-ranging studies. In cooperation with HeiQ, the CHT Group is supplying this technology to the market to help decrease the global shortage in protective wear.

A wide number of studies have proven that viruses and bacteria can remain active on textile surfaces for a longer period. The SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, can stay active on a textile for up to two days and therefore be infectious. Shortages in textile protective kit create a high risk for medical personnel who are in contact with COVID-19 patients: often, doctors and nurses cannot change their protective masks and clothing as frequently as would be necessary in order to adhere to hygiene rules and to prevent the spreading of the virus.

The HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03 that has been developed by HeiQ is a new technology that is also effective against Coronaviruses (229E) thanks to its antibacterial and antiviral properties. Comprehensive studies have demonstrated the kit‘s effectiveness. A combination of silver salts with a vesicle technology deactivates bacteria and viruses on textile surfaces within a few minutes and renders the bacteria and viruses harmless. Textiles equipped in this way reduce the rate of infection by 99.99%, which stops the transmission and the spread of bacteria and viruses through textiles.

Viroblock can be used on all types of fibers – not only for protective kit and masks, but also for work clothing, bed linen, towels and home textiles. The kit is wash-resistant and still highly effective after 30 standard wash processes.