From the Sector

For the first time, Barmag is presenting itself alongside its new parent company, Rieter: At this year’s ITM in Istanbul, both companies will be represented from June 9 to 13 at the Tüyap Fair Convention and Congress Center.

As a technology leader in the field of chemical fiber equipment, Barmag will showcase its entire portfolio of systems for filament yarn, staple fiber, and nonwoven production, as well as solutions for the networked factory. 

The future of filament spinning
The new POY 2.0 concept already impressed industry experts at ITMA Asia + CITME 2025. Presented to only a select group in Singapore, the heart of the concept—the semi-automated winding machine—will be shown to the general public for the first time. WINGS POY 2.0 features an automatic string-up function – a long-awaited feature in the market that keeps string-up times consistently short and sustainably reduces waste. At the same time, staffing requirements at the winding level are reduced, which represents a significant advantage for many spinning mills given the increasing shortage of skilled personnel. Numerous other features make the entire concept a sustainable solution with significant optimizations in terms of energy efficiency, material consumption, waste production, and yarn quality.

Efficient texturing with eFK EvoSmart
Barmag’s manual texturing machine, the eFK EvoSmart, focuses on energy-efficient yarn production while delivering the highest yarn quality. The technological features of the eFK EvoSmart sustainably reduce both energy consumption and operating costs—without compromising on quality and process reliability. By combining energy-optimized process control with innovative components such as EvoHeater and Smart Godets, the eFK EvoSmart achieves a significant reduction in specific energy consumption—with potential savings of 25% per kilogram of yarn. Additional features reduce maintenance requirements by up to 50%.

Neumag’s EvoSteam process reaches perfection 
The state-of-the-art Neumag EvoSteam process, which impresses not only with significant energy savings but also with even better fiber quality, is complemented by two new developments: EvoDuct and EvE-2. EvoDuct optimizes airflow distribution in the air jet, resulting in lower pressure drop, reduced energy consumption, and a more uniform airflow. Together, these factors have a positive effect on fiber quality and fiber uniformity. EvE-2 improves monomer and hot air extraction. The extraction nozzles minimize air turbulence and improve the uniformity of cooling in the air jet. The monomer extraction system, accessible from the outside, facilitates maintenance work and significantly increases spinning performance.

Another component of this perfected concept is the wiping robot, which is already in use in a similar manner at the Barmag filament spinning mill. This means that the benefits—consistent, excellent wiping quality, extended cleaning intervals, reduced labor costs, savings on consumables, and the synchronization of cleaning cycles with can changes and splice management—are now available in the staple fiber process.

Setting new standards in BCF yarn production
With its BICO BCF technology, the Neumag brand is introducing a completely new type of yarn to the market that takes carpet performance to a new level: greater bulk, improved recovery properties, and all this with approximately 20% less pile yarn consumption—without compromising the brand’s renowned high quality. The result: lighter carpets with the very high quality characteristics of Neumag yarns.

Also new to the portfolio: Neumag’s FiberGuard BCF – an intelligent system combining sensors and software that measures yarn tension between the twisting and winding stages in real time. The software automatically reacts to deviations and adjusts the process independently. This means: less waste, higher efficiency, and greater sustainability. FiberGuard is compatible with all current BCF machines and can be easily retrofitted into existing BCF S8 machines.

Toward the networked factory with atmos.io 
atmos.io is the operating system for intelligent yarn production. Every machine – whether a pilot plant or large-scale production with hundreds of positions – comes with the digital core. This makes atmos.io the basis for the smart factory. In the integrated app store, yarn manufacturers can put together exactly what they really need. atmos.io provides data-based decision-making criteria – objectively, efficiently and with a focus on quality. It digitizes the entire material flow: every bobbin carries its own data, from the melt to the warehouse. This allows yarn manufacturers to intervene in production at any time – quickly, precisely and profitably. The advantages: less waste, higher yarn quality, less effort for shop floor employees. The system integrates seamlessly into existing production and IT infrastructures. atmos.io relies on an intelligent data infrastructure that meets the highest standards of cyber security while providing consistent, trustworthy data for secure and efficient process control.

Metamaterials — materials whose properties are primarily dictated by their internal microstructure, and not their chemical makeup — have been redefining the engineering materials space for the last decade. To date, however, most metamaterials have been lightweight options designed for stiffness and strength.

New research from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering introduces a computational design framework to support the creation of a new class of soft, compliant, and deformable metamaterials. These metamaterials, termed 3D woven metamaterials, consist of building blocks that are composed of intertwined fibers that self-contact and entangle to endow the material with unique properties.

“Soft materials are required for emerging engineering challenges in areas such as soft robotics, biomedical devices, or even for wearable devices and functional textiles,” explains Carlos Portela, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Professor and associate professor of mechanical engineering.

In an open-access paper published Jan. 26 in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from Portela’s lab provide a universal design framework that generates complex 3D woven metamaterials with a wide range of properties. The work also provides open-source code that allows users to create designs to fit specifications and generate a file for printing or simulating the material using a 3D printer.

“Normal knitting or weaving have been constrained by the hardware for hundreds of years — there’s only a few patterns that you can make clothes out of, for example — but that changes if hardware is no longer a limitation,” Portela says. “With this framework, you can come up with interesting patterns that completely change the way the textile is going to behave.”

Possible applications include wearable sensors that move with human skin, fabrics for aerospace or defense needs, flexible electronic devices, and a variety of other printable textiles.

The team developed general design rules — in the form of an algorithm — that first provide a graph representation of the metamaterial. The attributes of this graph eventually dictate how each fiber is placed and connected within the metamaterial. The fundamental building blocks are woven unit cells that can be functionally graded via control of various design parameters, such as the radius and pitch of the fibers that make up the woven struts.

“Because this framework allows these metamaterials to be tailored to be softer in one place and stiffer in another, or to change shape as they stretch, they can exhibit an exceptional range of behaviors that would be hard to design using conventional soft materials,” says Molly Carton, lead author of the study. Carton, a former postdoc in Portela’s lab, is now an assistant research professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland.

Further, the simulation framework also allows users to predict the deformation response of these materials, capturing complex phenomena such as self-contact within fibers and entanglement, and design to predict and resist deformation or tearing patterns.

“The most exciting part was being able to tailor failure in these materials and design arbitrary combinations,” says Portela. “Based on the simulations, we were able to fabricate these spatially varying geometries and experiment on them at the microscale.”

This work is the first to provide a tool for users to design, print, and simulate an emerging class of metamaterials that are extensible and tough. It also demonstrates that through tuning of geometric parameters, users can control and predict how these materials will deform and fail, and presents several new design building blocks that substantially expand the property space of woven metamaterials.

“Until now, these complex 3D lattices have been designed manually, painstakingly, which limits the number of designs that anyone has tested,” says Carton. “We’ve been able to describe how these woven lattices work and use that to create a design tool for arbitrary woven lattices. With that design freedom, we’re able to design the way that a lattice changes shape as it stretches, how the fibers entangle and knot with each other, as well as how it tears when stretched to the limit.”

Carton says she believes the framework will be useful across many disciplines. “In releasing this framework as a software tool, our hope is that other researchers will explore what’s possible using woven lattices and find new ways to use this design flexibility,” she says. “I’m looking forward to seeing what doors our work can open.”

The paper, “Design framework for programmable three-dimensional woven metamaterials,” is available now in the journal Nature Communications. Its other MIT-affiliated authors are James Utama Surjadi, Bastien F. G. Aymon, and Ling Xu.

This work was performed, in part, through the use of MIT.nano’s fabrication and characterization facilities.

Leading computerized flat knitting innovator SHIMA SEIKI MFG., LTD. of Wakayama, Japan is partnering with digital garment solutions provider CLO Virtual Fashion of Seoul, South Korea for the integration of technology in garment design and simulation. 
 
Through this partnership, by integrating SHIMA SEIKI’s APEXFiz® 3D design software with CLO’s advanced 3D garment simulation technology, a new workflow that combines the strengths of both companies is enabled—from knitwear planning and design to high-quality product simulation, animation and various other content usage, as well as seamless linkage to the manufacturing process. 
 
Until now, importing material data created in APEXFiz® into CLO consisted of manually loading numerous material layers along with settings and adjustments. In the upcoming versions scheduled for release, APEXFiz® will feature a dedicated export function for CLO, while CLO will enable one-click import functionality with the APEXFiz® Integration Plugin. This enhancement will provide users employing both products with a significantly smoother and more efficient environment. 
 
By expanding creative capability while eliminating traditional barriers between design and production, the collaboration allows users to move from digital concept to knitted output with unprecedented efficiency. Users can now generate accurate, high-quality knit imagery that can take advantage of CLO’s strength in animated production, metaverse applications and even game usage, and furthermore design with the confidence that these digital creations can then be translated into real-world production. 
 
Software integration is set for April, supported by the V-09C update from SHIMA SEIKI in March and the CLO 2026.0 release for enterprise users in April. 

Over 25 years ago, Jeanologia influenced the denim industry by introducing laser technology for jean finishing, a solution that replaced manual processes with high impact on both workers’ health and the environment. Today, the Spanish company is again transforming the sector with the launch of BILLY, the first artificial intelligence developed specifically for the denim industry, capable of extracting precise designs directly from a picture. With this launch, Jeanologia brings AI into one of the most creative and complex phases of denim development: design.

For decades, translating the character of a vintage garment into a laser design ready for production required time-consumingwork by highly skilled designers. Achieving an authentic result depended not only on their experience and precision, but often also on manual retouching during production to refine the final look.

With Jeanologia AI, this process changes completely. In minutes, the system analyzes a garment image and extracts a precise laser design, capturing the natural wear patterns and authentic character of vintage denim. The result is a design optimized for laser technology, eliminating the need for manual retouching or inefficient traditional processes in production. 

“BILLY brings intelligence to the creative process,” explains Enrique Silla, CEO of Jeanologia. “For the first time, designers can transform a garment image into a precise laser design ready for production in just minutes. What previously required a full day of expert work can now be achieved almost instantly.”

From heritage to artificial intelligence
The name BILLY pays tribute to one of the most emblematic garments in the Jeanologia archive: a pair of jeans dating back to World War II. The garment belonged to a young American soldier named Billy who crossed the ocean to fight in Europe. Decades later, Jeanologia acquired the jeans, which became a central piece of the company’s ‘Truth & Light’ exhibition, where the industry first saw how technology could reproduce the authentic wear patterns of vintage garments.

Every repair, fade, or crease on these jeans tells a story, capturing a moment in time and reflecting the authenticity that defines denim culture. Today, that same spirit inspires the development of BILLY AI, transforming that legacy into a digital tool that shapes the future of jean design.

“As a company, we have spent decades studying vintage garments to understand how denim naturally ages,” adds Enrique Silla. “BILLY AI translates that accumulated knowledge into intelligence.”

BILLY has been trained with over 9,000 laser designs, developed by Jeanologia during more than 25 years of experience working with laser technology and creating laser files. That extensive archive allows this new generation of multimodal artificial intelligence to understand the structure, depth, and natural behavior of denim wear patterns, extracting them from any garment image and converting them into accurate laser designs ready for marking.

Combined with Jeanologia’s laser technology, the system ensures that what is designed digitally is reproduced on the garment with precision, consistency, and authenticity.

Empowering designers and accelerating creativity 
Beyond efficiency, BILLY is designed to empower designers. “BILLY does not replace designers; it amplifies their creativity,” explains Enrique Silla. “It removes the most labor-intensive technical work and allows them to focus on what truly matters: creating.” By automating the extraction of complex wear patterns, designers can dedicate more time to creative exploration and concept development rather than technical reconstruction. This new workflow accelerates product development cycles and allows designs to move from inspiration to production more quickly and accurately.

BILLY also responds to one of the strongest fashion trends nowadays, the demand for authentic vintage aesthetics. From luxury houses to premium brands, retailers, and fast fashion, jeans with character and a vintage look remain central to collections. However, reproducing complex wear patterns required extensive manual work, often involving water-intensive, chemical, and labor-intensive processes with high environmental and safety costs.

With BILLY extracting the design and laser technology executing it with precision, brands can now recreate authentic vintage garments with unprecedented accuracy and reproducibility. The process is efficient, precise, and sustainable, eliminating the need for manual retouching while guaranteeing quality, authenticity, and natural-looking results.