From the Sector

• Building Leadership Position in Luxury Market

Oerlikon announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Riri, a leading provider of coated metal accessories for the luxury fashion industry. This transaction marks a milestone in Oerlikon’s growth strategy and diversifies Surface Solutions’ offerings and market access. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and standard closing conditions.

“Riri is highly complementary to our existing luxury business and will reinforce our fashion jewelry and metallic components for leather goods. It is the ideal next step after our acquisition of Coeurdor in 2021 and will make us a market leader and an integrated provider with a complete offering of coated luxury metalware for high-end fashion brands,” said Michael Suess, Executive Chairman, Oerlikon. “The acquisition will drive cross-selling and strengthen our footprint in the global luxury metalware market, which sees mid- to-high single-digit growth rates annually.”

“Our portfolio, particularly in zippers and buttons, is an excellent fit to Oerlikon’s strengths in coated metal-based fashion components. Together, we are ideally positioned in Italy and France – the two major European fashion hubs – and can provide a complete offering to fashion customers,” said Renato Usoni, CEO, Riri. “We are excited to join Oerlikon as it will allow us to accelerate the luxury goods industry’s sustainability transition to greener technology by applying technologies such as Oerlikon’s PVD¹.”

Riri, headquartered in Mendrisio, Switzerland, is a market leader in metal accessories manufacturing, with a wide product range and unique offering. The company supplies global leading brands in the luxury fashion industry and has a strong foothold in the Italian luxury market. The company has more than 1 100 employees and expects to generate sales of EUR ~170 million (CHF ~165 million) in 2022.

¹ PVD, or physical vapor deposition, coating is a thin-film coating solution that is more environmentally friendly than traditional processes such as chrome plating.

Montex Maschinenfabrik – the key site for the manufacturing of Monforts finishing machines in Austria – has celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022.

Located in St. Stefan, in the centre of Austria’s Lavant Valley in Carinthia, the advanced manufacturing hub was founded by Monforts in 1982.

“From the outset, we have specialised in all aspects of machine production, including high-precision sheet metal working, laser cutting and welding, and the pre-assembly of machines and components, , along with a well-organised quality management and spare parts service,” says Montex plant manager Gert Hanzl.

“We work very closely with the Monforts research and development team in Mönchengladbach, Germany, to take the latest new ideas through testing and prototyping, in readiness for future series production,” Hanzl says. “We are fully exploiting the many new possibilities in the continuous development of design and manufacturing methods. The respective electrical switch cabinets for the machines are delivered just-in-time from Monforts in Germany according to our production schedules.”

While there is standardisation in series-produced Monforts machines, Montex is also increasingly called upon to construct bespoke machines with unique designs, according to the special needs of customers in technical textile or special textiles, he adds.

The core Monforts machine range, including the industry standard Montex stenters, along with relaxation dryers, Thermex dyeing ranges, Monfortex compressive shrinking ranges and Montex®Coat coating units is built at the Austrian site.

The Lenzing Group, a leading supplier of sustainably produced specialty fibers, and Renewcell, the Swedish textile-to-textile recycling pioneer, have signed a multi-year supply agreement to accelerate the transition of the textile industry from a linear to a circular business model. The agreement contains the sale of 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes of Renewcell’s 100 per cent recycled textile Circulose® dissolving pulp to Lenzing over a five-year period, for use in the production of cellulosic fibers for fashion and other textile applications.

“The textile industry must change. By signing the agreement with Swedish textile-to-textile recycling company Renewcell, Lenzing is able to further integrate recycling and accelerate the transition of the textile industry from linear to circular. As champions of sustainability, we know that moving towards a circular economy is vital to address the enormous textile waste challenges of the industry”, says Christian Skilich, Chief Pulp Officer of the Lenzing Group.

“Lenzing is a major player in our industry, with an inspiring track record of path-breaking technical excellence and sustainability leadership. Our new partnership fits perfectly into Renewcell’s strategy to accelerate the scale-up of circular materials by collaborating with fashion’s most important players. We are more than pleased to join forces with Lenzing with the shared goal of making fashion circular.” said Patrik Lundström, CEO of Renewcell, in a comment on the agreement.

Canopy, a not-for-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting forests, species, and climate, welcomes the agreement between Lenzing and Renewcell.
“Accelerating the transition to low-impact, circular production is the challenge of the decade for the fashion industry. That is why this partnership between Renewcell and Lenzing is so refreshing – it will bring low-carbon Next Gen solutions to market at scale,” exclaimed Nicole Rycroft, Executive Director of Canopy. “With the climate and biodiversity clocks ticking, the race to circularity is one we need all companies to win.”
 
It is an essential part of Lenzing’s corporate strategy and ambitious sustainability targets to become a true champion of circularity and to offer TENCEL™ and LENZING™ ECOVERO™ branded specialty textile fibers with up to 50 percent post-consumer recycled content on a commercial scale by 2025. To reach this goal Lenzing partners with recycling pioneers like Renewcell.
Circulose® originates 100 per cent from textile waste, like old jeans and production scraps, and turns into dissolving pulp. It transforms textile waste and production scrap into new high-quality textile products.

TEXCOM has recently started up two new BRÜCKNER POWER-FRAME stenters for knitted fabric with eight compartments and lubrication-free vertical chain and direct gas heating. This is already the 5th BRÜCKNER line purchased by TEXCOM and the successful continuation of the cooperation with BRÜCKNER since 1979. The third member of this successful alliance is the commercial agency, MAPEKO, which has been active for BRÜCKNER for several decades and in the 3rd generation.

With 3 production plants, a commercial office and 6 sales stores distributed around the country, TEXCOM manufactures and distributes knitted fabrics for a highly demanded market, where sports, technical, fashion and workwear fabrics stand out. The company's own developments, such as Twintex, Polisap, Neodry, Sense, Texcom antibacterial, among other brands, are perfect for sports and leisure due to their technical attributes. The company attaches great importance to the fact that all processed materials have the appropriate current environmental certificate (Öko Tex Standard 100, BlueSign and ZDHC)and efficient as well as responsible chemicals are used.

With more than 100 circular knitting machines and a wide range of possibilities for rotary printing, sublimation, lamination as well as special finishes such as antibacterial or hydrophilic, TEXCOM produces premium sports and leisure wear. This includes the official jersey of Argentina's national soccer team.

• Lenzing again recognized for sustainable sourcing, innovation and transparency
• Lenzing achieves the highest category for the third time already

The Lenzing Group achieved first place in the “Hot Button Ranking” of the Canadian non-profit organization Canopy, thus confirming its leading role in the areas of sustainability and responsible wood and pulp sourcing. Lenzing can also once again celebrate a dark green shirt, synonymous with the highest category.

In this ranking, which receives a lot of attention in the textile and apparel industry, Canopy evaluates the world’s 34 largest producers of cellulosic fibers in terms of their sustainable wood and pulp sourcing, their efforts with regard to the use of alternative raw materials and their achievements in the protection of ancient and endangered forests. Resource preservation is a key element of Lenzing’s corporate strategy and at the core of its innovation agenda. The sustainable production of TENCEL™, VEOCEL™ and LENZING™ ECOVERO™branded specialty fibers is based on these principles.

Promoting the circular economy
With its REFIBRA™ and Eco Cycle technologies, Lenzing offers solutions for transforming the textile and nonwovens industries towards a circular economy. In line with its vision for the circular economy, “We give waste a new life. Every day.” Lenzing is driving the industry toward a full circular economy by striving to give waste a new life in all aspects of its core business and developing circular solutions together with potential partners inside and outside the current value chain. A milestone on this path is the cooperation with the Swedish pulp producer Södra. The two global market leaders, who have been proactively promoting the circular economy in the fashion industry for many years, are joining forces to give the topic a further boost and make a decisive contribution to solving the global textile waste problem by making fibers from post-consumer textiles.

Today, Lenzing offers lyocell fibers made from 30 percent recycled cotton waste. The company aims to launch lyocell, modal and viscose staple fibers with up to 50 percent recycled post-consumer content on a commercial scale by 2025 and to develop a new circular business model by closing the loops for post-consumer waste. By 2025, the company plans to enter into further partnerships with 25 key supply chain companies.

HeiQ takes advantage of its presence at ISPO Munich 2022, 28th-30th of November, to launch HeiQ Mint, the new proprietary odor control technology. It is plant-based and designed to make textiles smell fresh even if we use them repeatedly, avoiding the need for frequent washes, thus enabling to save water and energy.

HeiQ Fresh MNT-01, under the HeiQ Mint product family, jointly developed with Patagonia, addresses body odors on textiles and regenerates at every wash, with superior efficiency and durability that meets most end-use performance requirements, while keeping all the fabric properties such as breathability, hand feel, or wicking. This textile technology is OEKO-TEX® suited, bluesign approved, and ZDHC compliant, with a USDA bio-preferred certification in progress.

The product development tests were highly demanding, with HeiQ Mint standing out in comparison to the other two tested solutions. According to Laura Hoch, Patagonia’s Materials Innovation Engineer, “out of all the anti-odor technologies we tested, HeiQ Mint provided the highest odor control performance, with the added benefit of being plant-based. This innovation enables Patagonia to deliver our customers high-performing products made with the best available chemistry.”

Another advantage of HeiQ Mint is the ability to be applied and marketed worldwide, without the need for biocidal declaration on product labels, since it is based on a blend of essential mint oils and naturally derived deodorizing ingredients. HeiQ Mint is just Fresh by Nature.

It is ideal for next-to-skin products like sports apparel, underwear, linings, casual and business wear but also home textiles such as bed linen, pillow fabrics, or mattress textiles, both on cellulosic and synthetic fibers.

• Fully traceable and sustainable wool via blockchain
• Transparent supply chains

Schoeller strives to offer more high-quality fabrics made from sustainable NATIVA™ wool in the future.

The NATIVA™ wool comes from certified farms in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, North America, Uruguay and Argentina. The farms comply with strict levels of animal welfare, and management and ethical work policies. To ensure animal welfare each farmer has a management plan, assessing feeding, breeding, behaviour, animal handling and health and infrastructure. This includes the prohibition of mulesing and stress free shearing.

All following steps such as wool sourcing, combing, spinning and weaving are also monitored and certified to the highest ethical and quality standards. NATIVA™ is the first global wool brand to provide Blockchain traceability from farm to consumer. This transparency in the supply chain, enabled by the NATIVA™ certification and powered by Blockchain, means brands can truly show the journey of their wool.

A unique QR code is generated for each product of each brand. This code is a connection between the NATIVA™ Blockchain Platform and the NATIVA™ Blockchain Website. Customers can scan the QR code to view the NATIVA™ Blockchain Website, where they can trace in real time the journey of their wool, from farm to brand.

Benefits:

• Complete transparency over the supply chain and product transformation.
• End to end traceability.
• A fantastic marketing tool for any brand.

The 11^th India ITME will take place from December 8.– 13., 2022, in Noida, India. Over 1,800 exhibitors and more than 150,000 trade visitors from the textile and apparel industry from all over the world are expected. Groz-Beckert will be presenting innovations from its various product areas..

India ITME takes place every four years and is the ideal technology platform for forward-looking innovations in the textile world. At the 11th edition of India ITME, exhibitors will be presenting their highlights from research and development across 15 halls.

The Knitting Product Division will be presenting several new products at India ITME: Among them the SAN™ SF staple fiber needle and the SNK SF staple fiber sinker, which are specially designed for use on large circular knitting machines. The division will also be exhibiting the SAN™ TT for application-related use in the field of technical textiles for flat knitting machines, as well as a needle which enables the advance into new dimensions of gauge in the flat knitting sector.

Groz-Beckert will also be demonstrating its competence as a system supplier in the field of warp knitting at the India ITME. The warp knitting machine needles and system parts from Groz-Beckert are precisely matched to one another and achieve a uniform and flawless warp knitting process.

With the WarpMasterPlus and the KnotMaster, the Weaving product division presents the latest generation of drawing-in and knotting machines from Groz-Beckert. They are particularly distinguished by their ease of operation and flexibility.

The product area Felting (Nonwovens) presents its product and service highlights for the nonwovens industry. These include the HyTec P jet strip for spunlace customers as well as the GEBECON felting needle, the dur needle, EcoStar felting needle and the Groz-Beckert customer product. The HyTec P-nozzle strip is characterized by improved handling and higher hardness. The patented GEBECON felting needle offers an improved surface finish and optimized breakage bending properties.

The Carding product area will present its further developments for the spinning industry. These include the new stationary flat series, the TV56 revolving top and the cylinder wire set with special tooth geometry. The new stationary flat series is characterized by an innovative tooth geometry and a new type of tooth distribution. The new TV56  revolving top with its new setting pattern and 560 points per square inch is particularly easy to clean. The improved cylinder wire convinces with its special and patented tooth shape, which has a positive effect on the maintenance effort. This makes it particularly suitable for quality-oriented cotton spinning mills producing high-quality yarns. Visitors can also look forward to the new InLine card clothing series for the nonwovens sector.

In the Sewing exhibition area, the focus is on technical textiles – in particular the manufacture of car seats. The answer to the high demands of sewing car seats is the special application needle SAN® 5.2 from Groz-Beckert. The special geometry gives it sufficient stability. The double groove at the point improves thread guidance and leads to a uniform seam pattern, especially in multidirectional sewing processes. The scarf chamfer on both sides of the needle prevent skipped stitches and optimize loop formation. The wear protection is increased by the titanium nitride coating GEBEDUR. In addition, the quality management INH will be exhibited and the functions and contents of the customer portal will be presented.

Fibre Extrusion Technology Limited (FET) of Leeds, England has installed a FET-200LAB wet spinning system at the University of Manchester which will play a major part in advanced materials research to support sustainable growth and development.

This research programme will be conducted by The Henry Royce Institute, which operates as a hub model at The University of Manchester with spokes at other leading research universities in the UK.

The Henry Royce Institute identifies challenges and stimulates innovation in advanced UK materials research, delivering positive economic and societal impact. In particular, this materials research initiative is focused on supporting and promoting all forms of sustainable growth and development.
These challenges range from biomedical devices through to plastics sustainability and energy-efficient devices; hence supporting key national targets such as the UK’s zero-carbon 2050 target.

FET-200 Series wet spinning systems complement FET’s renowned range of melt spinning equipment. The FET-200LAB is a laboratory scale system, which is especially suitable for the early stages of formulation and process development. It is used for processing new functional textile materials in a variety of solvent and polymer combinations.

In particular, the FET-200LAB will be utilised in trials for a family of fibres made from wood pulp, a sustainable resource rather than the usual fossil fuels. Bio-based polymers are produced from biomass feedstocks such as cellulose and are commonly used in the manufacture of high end apparel. The key to cellulose and other materials like lyocell and viscose is that they can be recycled, treated and fed back into the wet spinning system for repeat manufacture.

Established in 1998, FET is a leading supplier of laboratory and pilot melt spinning systems with installations in over 35 countries and has now successfully processed more than 35 different polymer types in multifilament, monofilament and nonwoven formats.

Aim: Reducing returns and thus increasing sustainability in fashion e-commerce

Hohenstein, a global market leader in apparel sizing and fit development, has invested in AI technology startup, Sizekick. The collaboration will enable accurate decisions on apparel size, improving online shopping experiences, reducing returns and preventing the associated CO2 emissions.

Hohenstein’s 1.3 million Euro investment in the 2022 startup will drive growth in the Sizekick team and enable the 2023 launch of its smartphone app for online shoppers.  The technology will enable online shoppers to find the right clothing size in a few seconds via smartphone.

Sizekick puts an end to unnecessary size-related returns in fashion online retail. The Munich-based company uses artificial intelligence and computer vision technology to recommend the right clothing size to customers in partner web stores. With the help of the integrated Sizekick software and a smartphone, anyone can find the right size in a few seconds. Fashion and sports brands, but also multi-brand stores or marketplaces can integrate the "Sizekick Button" in their online store. Sizekick offers its solution as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

"The strategic partnership with Hohenstein enables us, as a new AI solution, to meet the high demands of the market right at the start and to take on the role of technology leader. Our artificial intelligence is already learning thanks to the comprehensive Hohenstein database of 3D body scans. This is an extremely big advantage for our AI," highlights Jake Lydon, CTO at Sizekick.