From the Sector

The general meeting of AVK –Industrial Association for Reinforced Plastics has re-elected its executive board as part of its regular elections.

Gerhard Lettl (C. F. Maier) and Michael Polotzki (Menzolit) retired from the Executive Board. Both were honored for their many years of outstanding commitment to the work of the Executive Board, the management of various working groups and seminars and, in the case of Mr. Lettl, for his leadership of the AVK Innovation Award jury. As a special recognition, the AVK presented the new AVK Honorary Award for the first time, which honors the great personal commitment of both men.

Nicole Stöß (Polynt) and Ralph Breiltgens (Kunststoffverarbeitung Reich) were newly elected to the Executive Board.

At the constituent board meeting on the same day, the board positions were confirmed: 
Dr. Michael Effing (AMAC) remains Chairman of the Board, Dirk Punke (BÜFA) was con-firmed as Deputy Chairman. Prof. Jens Ridzewski (Applus+IMA) continues to hold the office of Treasurer.

The Executive Board will commence its new term of office on 1 January 2026 and remain in office for three years.

“With the new management team, we are focusing on continuity and fresh impetus at the same time,” emphasises Dr Elmar Witten, Managing Director of AVK. “I would like to thank Mr. Lettl and Mr. Polotzki for their many years of service and look forward to continuing to work with the newly elected committee to actively shape the future of the composite ma-terials industry.”

• A flagship graphene nanotube facility in Luxembourg, a $300 million deep-tech investment, is set to put Europe at the forefront of advanced materials innovation.
• The Luxembourg facility will bring more than 300 new jobs and serve as a scalable energy-efficient manufacturing center.
• The launch follows a recent investment round from Luxembourg investors and the signing of a long-term land lease with the State of Luxembourg.

OCSiAl, a Luxembourg-based deep-tech company and the global leader in graphene nanotube technologies, has announced the signing of a land lease, launching the development of its flagship graphene nanotube production center in Differdange, Luxembourg, that will become the world’s largest graphene nanotube production facility.

This official announcement is a culmination of a years-long effort by the company and the Luxembourg Government, including most recently an investment round raised from a “club” of Luxembourg-based investors and the signing with the State of Luxembourg of a long-term land lease for a 3.63-hectare site in Differdange.

“The launch of this future production center in Differdange perfectly illustrates our ambition to position Luxembourg as a key player in industrial innovation in Europe. This major investment in graphene nanotubes demonstrates investors’ confidence in our ecosystem and highlights the potential of our business parks to host high-tech industrial projects. We are proud to support OCSiAl in this strategic step, which will contribute to the creation of skilled jobs, the reputation of Luxembourg in deep-tech, and the transition to a more sustainable and competitive industry,” said Lex Delles, Minister of the Economy, SME, Energy & Tourism.

“OCSiAl’s investment highlights Luxembourg’s role as a platform for long-term innovation and smart industrial development,” added Gilles Roth, Minister of Finance. “This project reflects the value of combining private sector vision with public infrastructure support.”

Founded in Luxembourg in 2010, OCSiAl has become the world’s largest producer of graphene nanotubes, a next-generation material that offers exceptional performance to a multitude of products used in everyday life. OCSiAl’s nanotubes, currently produced only in Serbia, where the company is increasing production capacity fourfold, are already used in more than 10% of smartphones sold today and in over one million electric vehicles worldwide.

“Graphene nanotubes can improve over half of the materials we use every day, from safer batteries to longer-lasting tires and ultralight protective equipment,” said Alain Kinsch, a member of the OCSiAl Board of Directors. “We thank the Luxembourg Government for enabling this project through the land lease and for fostering an environment where innovation and industrial ambition can thrive.”

Can textiles that touch the skin relieve long-term pain? This is the core question of the large interdisciplinary research project Touch away the pain, where the University of Borås is one of the central actors. The project, which will run for six years, is part of the Swedish Research Council's investment in interdisciplinary research environments. 

Nils-Krister Persson, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, who is responsible for the textile development in the project, said, “We want to find out what actually happens in the body when you activate the sense of touch. Is it possible to create artificial touch that people actually want to experience, to reduce long-term pain? Is it possible to replicate touch from another person?”

Textile technology meets neurophysiology
The project brings together researchers from the University of Borås, Linköping University, and Region Östergötland. Together, they investigate how artificial touch, created with the help of textile actuators, can affect the body's pain signals.

“We have a long history of developing textiles that actuate, what we sometimes call textile muscles. They can thus exert force on their surroundings or change their shape. Now we are looking at how this technology can be applied in pain treatment,” said Nils-Krister Persson.

Håkan Olausson, Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology at Linköping University Hospital, who is participating in the project, commented, “We have discovered special receptors in the skin that convey pleasure when touched. They can lower stress levels in the nervous system, perhaps through mechanisms involving oxytocin. These are the ones we are trying to activate using textiles.

What happens in the body when touched?
His research colleague Sarah McIntyre, Associate Senior Lecturer and touch researcher at Linköping University Hospital, explains that touch and pain are not separate systems in the body; rather, they interact.

“The nervous system processes signals from both pain and touch at the same time, and they affect each other. We're trying to understand how it works, and how we can use that knowledge to design wearable aids that relieve long-term pain,” said Sarah McIntyre. “We will start by understanding the patient’s needs. What do they want help with? What feels good? This is a good starting point for the whole project.” 

The technology behind the textiles
Edwin Jager, Professor of Sensor and Actuator Systems at Linköping University, is working on the technical development of the project.

“We are developing two technologies in parallel, pneumatic actuators and textile actuators. Textiles are particularly promising because they can be integrated into clothes and used discreetly in everyday life,” said Edwin Jager.

“Imagine sitting in a meeting, and at the touch of a button or via an app you activate a textile that gives you pain relief, without anyone noticing. That's where we want to go,” he explained.

Clinical application in focus
Nazdar Ghafouri, Senior Consultant and pain researcher at Linköping University Hospital, is responsible for the clinical part of the project.

“We will start by testing on people without pain and then move on to patients. There is already a lot of research that shows that touch can relieve pain, but we want to find out what kind of touch, for how long, and where it works best,” she said.

She continued, “This is really interdisciplinary and we are constantly learning from each other. This is my first time at the Swedish School of Textiles, and I find it to be a fantastic environment characterised by creativity, humanism, and concern for sustainability. I believe that we in healthcare have a lot to learn from the creative approach in design and technology, especially when it comes to problem solving and daring to think outside the traditional framework.”  

Next steps, from lab to patients
The project is still in its start-up phase, but the researchers plan to start testing prototypes soon. First, tests are carried out in a lab environment, then in clinical studies.

“We've been working for about six months and are still in the start-up phase. But there are already about fifteen people involved, and more are coming. It is a large and exciting project,” concluded Nils-Krister Persson.

Getzner Textil AG, specialists in technical textiles made for a wide range of applications, announced the launch of their new getzspace® three-dimensional weaving technology. 

getzspace® will allow brands to create next generation technical clothing - performance and protective apparel - by reducing the need for seams in pockets and reinforcements. New garments made with the getzspace® technique aim to be more comfortable and more durable, all while reducing waste from the cut-and-sew process. 

getzspace® works by enabling three-dimensional structures such as pockets and reinforcements to be integrated directly into the textile surface, without the need for seams and stitching. The result is high-performance textiles with low weight and high resilience, opening up new possibilities for the design and functionality of modern performance and protective workwear.
 
Getzner Textil will introduce the new getzspace® technology at the Functional Fabric Fair in Portland this fall. Getzner will also present a wide selection of other fabrics during Functional Fabric Fair, underscoring the diversity of their product line and high standard of functionality, comfort, and safety, all developed through decades of textile manufacturing resource-efficient production processes in Europe.

“With over 200 years of experience creating textiles for everything from African fashion and workwear to soundproofing and materials for hot air ballooning, Getzner is set to help revolutionize how technical woven textiles are produced,” said Lukas Berthold, Getzner Sales Manager for North America. “By reducing the need for seams and stitching on pockets and reinforcements, apparel using the getzspace® process will be even more durable and comfortable, all while allowing for new design possibilities.”

With effect from January 1, 2026, the Freudenberg Performance Materials brand will replace the Filc brand, and the name of the company will also change from the same date. The new brand presence concludes the successful integration of Filc in Freudenberg Performance Materials. 

Filc joined Freudenberg Performance Materials in 2020 and this shared identity will now also be reflected in the joint brand presence: the Freudenberg Performance Materials brand will replace the Filc brand. “The joint brand presence is the final step in the successful integration of Filc. It not only underscores our shared identity, but also brings a decisive advantage, in that Filc will be able to benefit even more from the strength of the Freudenberg brand. Our unchanged goal is to reinforce the sustainable success of our customers through innovative products,” Anže Manfreda, SVP at Filc, explained.

Change in the company’s name 
The name of the company will also change effective January 1, 2026: “Filc d.o.o.” will in the future operate under the name of “Freudenberg Performance Materials Filc d.o.o.” For customers and suppliers, the only changes relate to the company’s address and the name of the bank account holder. 

FET is launching the FET-500 Series of gel spinning systems in a move that could revolutionise the research and development of UHMWPE fibres.

Fibre Extrusion Technology Ltd (FET) of Leeds, UK, has built a reputation in medical fibre extrusion technology and innovations, designing and delivering high-performance equipment for a range of precursor medical products, including bespoke extrusion systems for the production of both resorbable and non-absorbable sutures. FET’s equipment supports small-scale, adaptable production and rapid new product development.       

In recent years, there has been a growing demand for R&D of UHMWPE fibres. These fibres are prized in many industries due to their extraordinary properties. However, current production processes are complex and focused on the large-scale output of existing fibre grades. This rigid supply chain has stifled innovation in this untapped product market.

The FET-500 gel spinning systems will address this gap in the market. The FET-500 enables a flexible and consistent process, able to produce quality fibres with less than 100 grams of polymer, while avoiding the harsh processing chemicals that were historically associated with gel spinning. The key to unlocking this lab and pilot scale flexibility is the use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a green solvent in a patent-pending process.

Gel spinning starts with extrusion, but the additional washing and drawing technology to produce finished yarn is critical to the overall performance characteristics. An example of the wide range of features and benefits can be shown in the Washing process, with Patent Pending technology using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide:

Extract carrier oil without using toxic, environmentally harmful chemicals such as Hexane and DCM.

• CO2 is green, cheap, abundant, and significantly safer to work with
• CO2 efficiently dissolves carrier oils without affecting the polymer yarn

Reduced operational costs

• 9-Vast reduction in solvent use (CO2 vs Hexane/DCM)
• Comprehensive oil recovery and recycling
• Zero solvent waste is generated, unlike the hexane route

Compact and efficient batch washing system

• Recipe controlled plug and play technology
• Scalable and adjustable to customer needs
• Carrier oil is recovered and fed back to the extrusion process
• 80% reduction in factory footprint vs hexane route

FET’s Fibre Development Centre is critical to the inception and success of the FET-500. Having this facility located in Leeds where the manufacturing takes place allows FET to offer a gateway to de-risk, develop and demonstrate the system’s capabilities. FET houses a full demonstration line of the FET-500 to allow customers, existing and new, to visit and experience the system operating from start to finish. They can also aid in developing new products and operating parameters through R&D trials, giving customers the confidence and knowledge to transfer a new product offering onto a production line.

The countdown for submissions has begun. Until 15 December 2025, companies can enter their developments for the Techtextil Innovation Award and the Texprocess Innovation Award. Those selected by the distinguished juries benefit from international visibility as well as from the reputation and reach of the two leading trade fairs. From 21 to 24 April 2026, Techtextil and Texprocess bring together the global industries in Frankfurt. The presentation of the Innovation Awards and the showcasing of the winning ideas is among the most prominent highlights.

The industry is evolving at a rapid pace – from new advances in technical textiles and nonwovens to forward-looking manufacturing and processing technologies. Current developments such as the use of AI, sustainable approaches and new production methods are creating additional opportunities for innovation. Especially in times of recession, tariffs and restrained investment, these impulses take on particular significance. They open up new opportunities in numerous fields, ranging from mobility and medicine to apparel. The Techtextil and Texprocess Innovation Awards provide international visibility for the best ideas.

The innovations are driving progress in numerous industries. In 2024, the award winners presented recyclable fibre composites for aviation, self-cooling textiles for façades and measurement methods for body scans based on 4D scanning. Whether in mobility, construction, medicine or apparel – textile and technological innovations are creating new opportunities for progress.

Categories Techtextil Innovation Award 2026

• New Concept
• New Material
• New Application
• New Product
• New Chemicals & Dyes
• New Recycled Materials & Recycling Technologies
• New Production Technology, Digitalisation & AI Solutions

Submit application: https://solutions.techtextil.com/

Categories Texprocess Innovation Award 2026

• Economic quality (cost minimisation, time and process optimisation, automation)
• Ecological quality (climate protection, energy efficiency, sustainability, recycling, circularity)
• Digitalisation + AI
• Innovation for quality improvement

Submit application: https://solutions.texprocess.com/

Information on participation
The submission deadline for all applications for the Techtextil and Texprocess Innovation Awards 2026 is 15 December 2025. All companies, institutes, universities, polytechnics and individuals are eligible to apply. Participation is free of charge. Submitted developments must have been on the market for less than two years or be shortly before the market launch. From mid-December 2025, two experienced international expert juries examine all submitted products in detail and evaluate them according to criteria such as degree of innovation, market potential, sustainability, choice of materials and technical quality. The winning companies are formally and prominently presented on the first day of the trade fair, 21 April 2026, in Frankfurt am Main.

On various biological surfaces, oil is adsorbed from water surfaces and transported along the leaf. In her dissertation, ITA Postdoc Dr Leonie Beek transferred this effect to a technical textile using her Bionic Oil Absorber (BOA), which can remove up to 4 litres of diesel per hour from water at technological readiness level 4. For this development, Dr Beek was awarded the Paul Schlack Prize 2025 for her dissertation ‘Bionic textiles for oil-water separation modelled on superhydrophobic biological surfaces’ on 10 September 2025. The award ceremony took place during the opening event of the Dornbirn GFC Global Fiber Congress in Austria.

Oil-water separation without additional energy or toxic substances 
Dr Leonie Beek's dissertation focused on the sustainable separation of oil and water. On various biological surfaces, oil is adsorbed from water surfaces and transported along the leaf. This effect differs from technical solutions in that oil-water separation is achieved without external energy and without toxic substances.

Possible use in harbour basins or in the event of flooding/pollution of inland waters 
Dr Beek integrated the bionic textile into a floating device (Bionic Oil Adsorber – BOA). The BOA demonstrator, which has a technology readiness level of 4, can remove up to 4 litres of diesel per hour. It is intended for use in port areas. Another promising application is in the event of flooding and pollution of inland waters and urban sewage treatment plants.

Ecologically and economically sustainable technology 
The technology is ecologically sustainable, as both the textile and the separated oil can be reused. It is also economically sustainable, as the textile is up to 13 times cheaper than sorption materials with a service life of 21 days.

Overall, Dr Leonie Beek succeeded in her dissertation in transferring the biological principle to a bionic textile and presenting a product for use in the completely new application of oil-water separation. This is the first time that superhydrophobic surfaces have been used outside of friction reduction.

Since 1971, the Paul Schlack Prize has been awarded at the Dornbirn GFC Global Fiber Congress (formerly Dornbirn Man-made Fibers Congress) in Dornbirn (Austria) to promote chemical fibre research at universities and research institutes. Previous ITA winners of the Paul Schlack Prize include Dr Stefan Peterek, Dr Andreas De Palmenaer, Prof. Dr Gunnar Seide, Dr Wilhelm Steinmann, Dr Stephan Walter, Dr Gisa Wortberg, Dr Benjamin Weise, and Dr Markus Beckers.

Developed by Stanford researchers, NeuroString is a hair-thin multichannel biosensor and stimulator with promising potential applications in drug delivery, nerve stimulation, smart fabrics, and more.
 

• NeuroString is a small, soft fiber that is made of skin-like material and can host hundreds to thousands of electronic channels.
• The hope is that NeuroString could be implanted in the body to sense chemicals, deliver drugs, stimulate muscles or nerves, and monitor bodily activity.
• Outside the body, this invention could enable new smart fabrics, wearable devices, and soft robotics. It could also enhance study of lab-grown tissues.
• So far, researchers have used NeuroString to monitor the intestines of a pig and to observe individual neurons in the brain of a mouse.

Stanford pediatric surgeon James Dunn specializes in helping children with short gut syndrome, a congenital disease in which children are born with short intestinal tracts. “I’ve been working to grow new intestinal tissue by applying a mechanical force to the intestine – stretching it,” Dunn, who is a professor of surgery in the School of Medicine, explained. “But I didn’t have a way to demonstrate that this new tissue is functioning exactly like normal intestine.”

That is when Dunn reached out to Zhenan Bao, the K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering and director of the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative (eWEAR), who has drawn worldwide attention for developing skinlike electrical circuits, like her electronic skin that can sense the weight of a butterfly and the heat of a flame. The result of their collaboration is NeuroString, a multichannel, soft, thread-like implantable biosensor/stimulator.

NeuroString is just a quarter of a millimeter in diameter – about the width of a human hair – and can host hundreds to thousands of independent electronic “channels,” each of which can sense neurochemicals, stimulate muscle or nerve, sense gut movement patterns, or monitor the activity of a single neuron, among many other promising possibilities. 

Unmet needs
“There is great need, in both research and clinical settings, for these minimally invasive sensing and stimulation bioelectronics,” said co-author Xiang Qian, co-director of Stanford’s eWear Initiative and a medical doctor who specializes in neuromodulation to treat severe pain. Currently, clinical tools boil down to rigid and bulky needlelike probes or stiff wires with limited functionality.

“It is a high-density electronic fiber that’s also exceptionally biocompatible due to its softness,” Qian said. “It can stay inside the body for months at a time or longer, and it’s so soft and small that it can be implanted without discomfort or harm to the patient.”

Beyond the thin and soft circuitry, Bao’s team also developed a clever roll-up fabrication technique. They prepared a video of the method that shows a prototype with 20 electronic channels laid out on a thin, transparent skin-like material. The film is then rolled tightly into a spindle so thin it is described as one-dimensional. All 20 electrical connecting wires in the example are spiraled inside the string, like the layers in a Swiss roll, while the 20 sensors are exposed on the surface. Each independent sensor/stimulator is connected by a discrete wire running the length of the NeuroString to deliver valuable data.

Bao said the approach allows exquisite control of the positioning and distribution of the active components, and her team has demonstrated a fiber with a remarkable 1,280 individual channels. “Many more channels can be added if we make longer fibers,” says Muhammad Khatib, a postdoctoral fellow and first author on the paper.

New frontiers
On a practical front, to demonstrate the effectiveness of their new electronic fiber, Bao, Dunn, and team used the implanted NeuroString to monitor the intestines of a pig and to observe individual neurons in the brain of a mouse over four months.

Dunn explained that, in his field, measuring basic things like how the intestine contracts without interrupting normal activities may sound easy, but it has so far been out of reach, not to mention that the intestine also does a lot of things like absorbing nutrients and secreting biochemicals like serotonin that he might want to track.

“To be able to stimulate the muscle and measure all these other things in a specific region will be transformative for my research and, potentially, my medical practice – NeuroString is a platform for us to understand how the intestine works,” Dunn said.
 
The research team anticipates that such devices could have far-reaching impacts in fields ranging from neuroscience to gastroenterology. They envision that it could yield robotic pills that can be swallowed to diagnose medical conditions throughout the gastrointestinal tract or be wrapped around an optical fiber to create an ultra-thin endoscope.

Qian thinks NeuroString could introduce an era of minimally invasive, closed-loop neural stimulation techniques – devices that can both sense nerve dysfunction and intervene in an instant. “You only need to stimulate when you detect this abnormal electric signal to shut it down,” Qian said of his device, which he is currently testing in mice. “It will be ten times smaller than conventional alternatives and much safer with fewer complications. It would be groundbreaking.”

In a tubelike form, Bao says the NeuroString could deliver drugs to precise locations inside the body. Imagine a new form of implantable insulin pump that both senses blood sugar and delivers the life-sustaining hormone on demand, much like the pancreas.

In brain studies, NeuroString could deliver light for optogenetics and sense its effect on local neurons to optimize light intensity. And these potential applications are only the in-body opportunities for NeuroString. In other practical outlets, Bao said, NeuroString might lead to a new era of smart fabrics and textiles, wearable devices, and soft robotics.

Synthetic organs
One area of research that Bao finds particularly intriguing is organoids – lab-grown tissues that function like real tissue for use in research. Her team, together with Xiaoke Chen, associate professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences, initially developed a NeuroString with only one neurochemical sensor seeded by Bio-X seed funding. The team’s initial development of this advanced NeuroString came under the aegis of the Brain Organogenesis Big Ideas in Neuroscience program at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

The Brain Organogenesis program is pursuing new models of human brain circuits to understand how the brain develops and what is happening when things go wrong, as in numerous neurological and psychiatric diseases from depression to Parkinson’s disease. Bao said her NeuroString technology was inspired by the need for soft sensors that can be embedded inside the growing organoids that will allow researchers deeper insights into the function and biochemistry of these lab-grown mini-organlike structures to mimic human tissues.

“We hope to thread these thin electronics inside and throughout organoids, to promote and monitor their growth,” Bao said. “That’s our vision and it’s pretty exciting.”

After three days of facilitating meaningful exchange for numerous applications of technical textiles and nonwovens, Cinte Techtextil China 2025 concluded on 5 September at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. Feedback across the fairground was highly positive, especially from first-time exhibitors and buyers who valued the platform’s capability to create new opportunities both in China and overseas markets. The fair attracted nearly 20,000 visits from 74 countries and regions – a 17% increase from last year, and, as the most comprehensive edition ever in terms of product categories, visitors had much to explore. Major fringe events, such as the China International Nonwovens Conference (CINC), Econogy Tour, Sustainability Forum, and AI Panel, linked innovation and sustainability with industry demands, maximising reach and business opportunities for participants.

As Asia’s only dedicated show for the full spectrum of technical textiles and nonwovens, Cinte Techtextil China 2025 hosted over 300 global exhibitors, and welcomed a wide range of visitors, including sourcing decision-makers, textile & mechanical engineers, product developers, researchers, and more. The fair saw a significant rise in visitor pre-registrations, with international numbers increasing by over 40% compared to the previous edition. VIP buyers from across the globe attended the fair, as did 14 visitor delegations with over 250 participants. Some of the leading brands included domestic representatives from Kimberly-Clark (China), Li Auto, Li Ning, and L'Oréal (China); and international participants from Lego System (Denmark), Norafin Industries (Germany), Rockline Industries (USA), and Toyoshima & Co. Ltd (Japan).

Among the returning exhibitors, key international players included AUTEFA Solutions, Lindauer DORNIER and Rowa Group from Germany, Fil Man Made Group from Italy, Graf + Cie and Swisstulle from Switzerland, Picanol from Belgium, and more. This edition also welcomed several newcomers, partly due to the incorporation of textile chemicals and dyes into this year's product categories. Key exhibitors making their debuts included: Serel Industrie (Belgium) and Proton Products (UK) in the European Zone; Wetekam Group in the German Zone; Dupre Minerals (UK) and Michelman (USA) in the Textile Chemicals and Dyes Zone; Huamao (Xiamen), BW Advanced Materials, Shanghai Shenda, and Zhejiang Kingsafe Group from China, JCT Industries Group from Malaysia, Vietnam Geotextile from Vietnam, and more.

To support the diverse array of exhibitors and visitors onsite, Cinte Techtextil China identified specific development areas and offered relevant fringe events to facilitate meaningful interaction. The Econogy Tour and Sustainability Forum promoted the industry’s eco-transition, with the latter sparking cross-sector discussions among academia, brands, and other industry players. On the innovation front, the AI Panel and the Innovation Product Award and Presentation provided forward-looking insights from various perspectives, helping the industry reshape its future.

Other events like the CINC, themed ‘Breaking the Deadlock and Reconstruction’, offered in-depth discussions and report presentations for the nonwovens industry to navigate upcoming challenges and opportunities. To harness the promising Mobiltech trend, the fair organised a Technical Innovation Exchange Conference on Automotive Textiles followed by a tour visiting related exhibitors. Interested parties could also enjoy live-streamed tours organised for in-demand sectors such as Medtech, Mobiltech, and Protech.

The next edition of Cinte Techtextil China will be held from 1 – 3 September 2026.

The fair is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA).