From the Sector

Digital Product Passports can now be processed at TEXAID’s largest sorting facility, thanks to circular.fashion’s intelligent sorting stations, which use RFID and NFC technology to improve the quality and consistency of manual sorting.

Digital Product Passports (DPP) have been recognised by the EU as an enabler for circular fashion and textiles. Technology company circular.fashion has been a leader in this effort, releasing the circularity.ID in 2018 and developing Intelligent Sorting Stations to bring ID based sorting to the textile reuse and recycling industry.

ID based sorting optimises the manual sorting process for reuse and recycling by giving sorters data to make decisions more accurately and consistently. TEXAID has, by adopting this technology, increased Europe’s capacity to process DPPs.

The installation and testing of TEXAID’s new Intelligent Sorting Stations was completed successfully shortly before the holiday period. Initial test results indicate that ID based sorting can make sorting decisions more reliable and more consistent. The team also sees a potential for ID based sorting to reduce training costs for new employees and maximise the value of their sorting decisions. This advancement was made through the CIRTEX project, funded through the KMU Innovativ funding programme from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The Intelligent Sorting Stations at TEXAID are now operational, and brands and retailers have the ability to adopt the circularity.ID as a Digital Product Passport and have textile products returned to TEXAID for ID based sorting.

Monforts has installed and commissioned a new Montex finishing range at the Baltic Works of Halley Stevensons in Dundee, Scotland, to further boost the weatherproofing specialist’s highly flexible operations.

The range, with a working width of two metres, was built at the Montex assembly plant in Austria and consists of a Montex®Coat coating unit in knife execution for paste and foam coating and a Montex 8500 6F stenter.

Founded in 1864, Halley Stevensons has amassed unique technical know-how and manufacturing experience in the art of waxed cotton for weatherproofed fabrics and is able to provide international orders in custom colours and finishes to very low minimum quantities where required. The company exports worldwide and its premium brand customers include Belstaff, Barbours, Filson and J.Crew.

The range has replaced one of the company’s older stenter/coating lines and has already enabled Halley Stevensons to recreate various products with lower coating applications at higher speeds than was previously possible.

Waxed cotton was originally developed by sailors in the early 15th century when Scottish North Sea herring fleets began treating flax sailcloth with fish oils and grease in an attempt to waterproof their sails. Remnants of these sails were used by the sailors as capes to withstand the high winds and sea spray.

By the mid 1850s, sailcloth was being treated with linseed oil, but while initially highly effective, it would yellow and stiffen through weathering over time and eventually lose its waterproofing qualities.

In the years that followed, various treatments were applied to cottons in an attempt to find the most effective weatherproofing solution, and the combination of densely-woven cotton impregnated with a paraffin waxed coating proved most successful. For over 150 years, Halley Stevensons created many different variations of both woven constructions and finishing treatments and now supplies thousands of metres of waxed cotton every year, with each roll produced to custom specifications.

“The beauty of waxed cotton is its durability and longevity,” says Managing Director James Campbell. “The fabrics are breathable, with the wax adjusting to ambient temperatures to be softer and more breathable in warm weather and stiffer and more wind proof in cold conditions.”
While traditional waxes are petroleum or paraffin based, Halley Stevensons has always been comfortable about using a waste product from industry and reusing it to make products that last a lifetime.  

“We are always exploring different finishing techniques and one of our most popular finishes is our hybrid aero – an emulsified blend of waxes,” Campbell says. “This fabric is water repellent but has little wax in the mixture so the handle is much drier to touch than the traditional wet waxes.”

The company has also recently launched a new 100% plant-based wax – Ever Wax Olive – consisting of a blend of olive oil, rape seed and castor bean with comparable water repellence to petroleum and a far better rating than other natural waxes which have come before it.

“The high tradition of skills and fabric innovation imposed by our original guildsmen is still our benchmark standard of honest workmanship today,” Managing Director James Campbell concludes “We use responsibly sourced cotton fabrics and processes that are gentle to the product and low impact to the environment. Our dyeing methods use very low levels of water and our waxes are simply heated up for application and cooled down to store when not in use, meaning no waste discharges. Now, with this new Monforts line, we are also achieving running speeds two-to-three times faster than with the older stenter, combined with less gas usage. It’s proved a great partnership.”

More than 350 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year, and vast amounts of plastic waste simply end up in the environment. The circular economy offers enormous potential for keeping plastics in the loop and thus conserving resources and the environment. Since 2018, six Fraunhofer institutes in the Fraunhofer CCPE cluster have been researching how to make the plastics value chain circular, and Prof. Manfred Renner has been the new head of the cluster since August 2022. Research results, implementation projects and strategies to accelerate the transformation to a circular plastics economy will be presented by Fraunhofer CCPE at the first international Fraunhofer CCPE Summit on February 8 and 9, 2023 in Munich.

In a circular plastics economy, resources can be saved, products can be intelligently designed for long service life, and end-of-life losses can be reduced. Systemic, technical and social innovations are needed to make the transition from a linear to a circular economy a success. This is what the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE is researching in the three divisions “Materials”, “Systems” and “Business”. The cooperation of the six Fraunhofer institutes IAP, ICT, IML, IVV, LBF and UMSICHT enables a multi-stakeholder approach in which the appropriate R&D competencies are bundled.

Fraunhofer CCPE would like to present and discuss successful projects and research approaches on an international scale at the Fraunhofer CCPE Summit on February 8 and 9, 2023 in Munich. The summit is to become an international forum for exchanging ideas for solutions and innovations for a circular plastics economy.

Cross-industry collaboration - local, regional and international
Since August 2022, Prof. Manfred Renner, Institute Director of Fraunhofer UMSICHT, is the new head of Fraunhofer CCPE. He succeeds Prof. Eckhard Weidner, who has retired. “Cross-industry cooperation - very local, but also regional and international - is the elementary prerequisite for a functioning circular plastics economy. At the summit, players from all points of the compass will meet and network in order to rethink the plastics value chain together," explains Prof. Manfred Renner, adding, “We want to provide answers to the following questions:  How can we make all Circular Economy principles, i.e. the ten R-strategies, known? How can industry, science and society best cooperate in a transformation to a circular plastics economy for the greatest possible impact?”

Results of the Fraunhofer CCPE cluster so far are innovative approaches for circular business models, intelligent collection, sorting, and recycling technologies, but also new formulations for circular polymers and compounds to enable multiple recycling cycles. With the newly developed assessment tool CRL® , companies can, for example, self-assess the maturity of products or product systems with regard to the circular economy. The tool checks the extent to which a product already takes into account circular economy principles in the areas of product design, product service system, end-of-life management and circular economy, and where there is still potential for improvement.

Sustainable fashion brands YesAnd & Kornit Digital are teaming up with the global platform fostering innovation in the fashion industry, Fashinnovation. This month, the three like-minded companies will be unveiling a direct-to-garment printing collaboration.
 
YesAnd & Kornit Digital are (e)co-creating digital, on-demand printed certified organic blank merchandise, with graphic designs by artists, celebrities, influencers, musicians, fashion VIPs, NGO’s and more. Sharing core values of fashion & innovation & non-toxic, zero-waste production, and the fusion of technology to accelerate impact, this launch represents a cutting-edge and sustainable solution that’s accessible, traceable, customizable, and scalable. By joining forces, this collaboration will educate, engage, and activate both consumers and industry alike.
 
"We at Fashinnovation have a strong belief that the fashion industry must walk side-by-side with innovation, in order to ensure a sustainable future. We are thrilled for this collaboration with YesAnd and Kornit, as we hope to set an example when it comes to the power of unity. In our minds, it's not about a person's wins, but rather it's about our collective progress," said Jordana & Marcelo Guimaraes, Founders of Fashinnovation.
 
Debuting the first of their brand collaborations with farm-to-print organic merchandise, this collaboration will together minimize waste, water, chemical use, and energy, while celebrating climate action, manufacturing efficiencies, and sustainable innovation—representing a true and timely fashion statement. The brands will be debuting their select blank styles of digitally-printed designs from the initial capsule collection—including the YesAnd Frida Hoodie, Gloria Hoodie Tee, Dominique Tee, and the Samata Dress, with a graphic option aligning the missions of YesAnd, Fashinnovation and Kornit Digital, “Don’t Wear Clothes, Wear Change.”

27^th International Garment Machinery, Spare Parts and Sub-Industry Exhibition, one of the largest exhibitions in Europe ended with great interest. The IGM 2022 Exhibition, which hosted ready-to-wear investors and leading brands of the garment machinery sector in Istanbul for 4 days, satisfied the exhibitors with the number of foreign and domestic visitors and machinery sales.

IGM 2022, Turkey's first and only international exhibition in its field, has become the most comprehensive meeting point of the sector where all technologies used in garment and ready-to-wear production from sewing to cutting, ironing systems to packaging, embroidery to printing are exhibited. IGM 2022, the first international exhibition organized in the garment industry after the pandemic, turned into a platform where many firsts were achieved. Especially domestic machinery manufacturers introduced the latest technologies and innovations developed in the last 4 years for the first time at IGM 2022. In addition, the latest models of embroidery machines were exhibited in working condition only at IGM 2022. International buyers, who had the opportunity to observe and examine all the innovations in the apparel and ready-to-wear sector together, had the opportunity to direct their investments thanks to IGM 2022.

The exhibition, organized in partnership with Tüyap & Teknik Fairs Inc. and in cooperation with KOMİD- Garment Automation Machinery Manufacturers Association and İNSAD- Istanbul Embroidery Industrialists Association, was held at Tüyap Fair and Congress Center on September 8-11. The IGM 2022 Exhibition, which was attended by 100 companies and company representatives from countries including Turkey, Japan, USA, China, South Korea, Brazil, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Iran, was visited by 9822 sector professionals from 64 countries, including 1483 international and 8339 domestic visitors.

Next Meeting on September 21-24, 2023
The next meeting of the IGM 2023 Exhibition will be held at Tüyap Fair and Congress Center between September 21-24, 2023. Considering the dates of the exhibitions organized in the same sector in different countries of the world and Europe and the gains of the sector, an exhibition calendar was determined for the IGM Exhibitions to be held biennially. IGM Exhibition will be organized in 2023 and the following odd years (such as 2025-2027) in order to prevent companies from being under the burden of exhibitions in terms of both time and budget due to participating in more than one exhibition in the same year.

Ulrich Reifenhäuser, CSO of the Reifenhäuser Group, was awarded the prestigious Georg Menges Prize 2022 at the 31st International Colloquium on Plastics Technology in Aachen from September 7-8, 2022. The prize recognizes individuals or groups who have rendered outstanding services to the transfer of research results into industrial practice. The sponsors of the award are the Plastics and Rubber section of Germany's Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA), together with PlasticsEurope Deutschland and the Association of Sponsors of the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH University. The award is traditionally presented every two years during the colloquium organized by the IKV. Ulrich Reifenhäuser is the first businessman to receive the Georg Menges Award.

The award was presented by Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, Director of the IKV and Dr.-Ing. Herbert Müller, Chairman of the Board of the IKV Sponsors' Association. In his laudatory speech, Professor Hopmann highlighted Ulrich Reifenhäuser's great and successful commitment to the industry and his tireless search for optimal solutions that are sustainable in the best sense of the word, and praised him as a personality of integrity and integration. "The Georg Menges Prize is awarded for the consistent implementation of research and innovation in industry. The previously described achievements of our prizewinner would certainly have been enough to receive the award but, for the sponsors of the Prize, what was especially important and the key argument for their decision was Ulrich Reifenhäuser’s honorary dedication to the K tradefair," explained Professor Hopmann.

Ulrich Reifenhäuser has been a member of the Reifenhäuser Group management since 1992 and is responsible for international line sales. Together with his brother Bernd Reifenhäuser, he manages the company in the third generation. Ulrich Reifenhäuser has been a board member of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association for more than 25 years and has been its chairman since 2010. In 2020, he was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame, as was the award's namesake, and in 2022 he will be co-chairing the world's leading plastics trade fair in Düsseldorf for the seventh time in a row as "President of K show."

Messe Frankfurt India has announced that the ninth edition of Techtextil India will be held from 12 – 14 September 2023, for the first time at JIO World Convention Centre (JWCC), Mumbai. On the side-lines of the three-day fair, the organisers are planning a series of live sessions to spark debates on important industry topics and high-growth application areas.
 
As the leading business event for the Indian technical textile industry, Techtextil India, aims to connect international and domestic players with buyers from 12+ segments under diverse application areas and create a one-stop sourcing platform to highlight latest product innovations in technical textiles.
 
Marking a spectacular comeback after the lockdown, the eighth edition of Techtextil India in  2021 stood out to be a ground-breaking business platform for the technical textile sector with live demonstrations from over 150 companies’ brands and an exclusive German pavilion. The high-profile event, over the course of three days attracted 4,087 trade visitors from 25 states and 194 cities. Mr Pramod Khosla, Director, Khosla Profil Pvt Ltd, shared: “Despite the unprecedented situation created by pandemic, Techtextil India 2021 saw a tremendous response from visitors. This goes to show the immense interest and trust that industries and people have in the technical textiles sector as well as in Techtextil India.”
 
For the upcoming ninth edition, leading Indian players such as Alok Masterbatches, Khosla Profil, Park Nonwoven, Sarex Chemicals, Suntech Geo, Weavetech have already confirmed their participation and will be showcasing innovations in high-growth application areas of Geotech, Packtech, Agrotech & Indutech with a focus on products such as specialty fibres, filtration fabrics, functional textiles & advance technology.
 
While Mobiltech, Indutech, Meditech, Packtech and Sportech constitute a major share value in the global market for technical textiles, the segments likely to grow at the fastest rates (at rates faster than a CAGR of 10%) in the Indian market are Oekotech, Protech, Mobiltech, Geotech, Indutech, Agrotech, Buildtech and Packtech. The government’s target to accelerate technical textile sector growth from 8% to 15-20% range in the next five years and transform the nation into a major player in innovations, technology development, applications in key areas (agriculture, roads and railways, water resources, hygiene and healthcare, personal protection) is giving strong impetus to industry players.

With an aim to place India as one of the leaders in the global technical textile market and enhance its adoption and penetration domestically, the Indian government has earmarked INR 1000 crore (USD 130.7 million) dedicated only for R&D of the Technical Textiles sector, while the Union Budget 2022-23 further allocates INR 100 crore (USD 13.07 million) for the National Technical Textiles Mission. The centre is making strong efforts to encourage the use and adoption of technical textiles and has mandated the use of 92 items by government organisations covering agriculture, horticulture, highways, railways, water resources, and medical applications. The organisers are in talks with international technology players targeting these application areas to present their innovations at the three-day fair.

• Free trade deal boosts export potential

The time is right for Swiss textile machinery companies to grow their export business with Indonesia – one of the world’s top 10 textile producers. A free trade agreement between the two countries came into force in 2021, and market analyses show that there is scope for a significant increase in business in textile and textile machinery sectors.

This was the background to a successful symposium in the Indonesian capital Jakarta last month when Swiss Textile Machinery Association members presented their products and innovations to an invited audience of 200 delegates from Indonesian textile companies.

The symposium audience was welcomed by Philippe Strub, of the Swiss Embassy in Indonesia; Ignatius Warsito, from the Indonesia Ministry of Industry’s Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Textile Industry branch; Anne Patricia Sutanto, of the Indonesian Textile Association (API); and Ernesto Maurer, President of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association.

Swiss companies taking part were: Stäubli, Zeta Datatec, Loepfe, Saurer, Benninger, Rieter, Bräcker, Jakob Müller, Maag, Uster and SERV.

The presentations were followed by panel discussions with speakers, and there were also networking opportunities at the companies’ exhibition tables.

Also taking part in a panel at the event was Testex, the independent Swiss organisation which provides testing, certification, OEKO-TEX® and other labels for the textile industry. Discussion focused on the relevance of innovation in textile technology to sustainability and ‘saving the planet.’  

Recent years have seen an acceleration in trade relations between Switzerland and Indonesia, which in 2008 was classed as one of eight priority countries for economic development cooperation by SECO, the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs, with a joint economic and trade commission established the following year.
Collaboration was heightened further in 2018 with a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) for Indonesia with Switzerland and the other EFTA countries. This more extensive form of free trade agreement was accepted after a popular referendum, and ultimately came into force in November 2021.

Trading between the two countries is supported by SERV, the Swiss export risk insurance organisation. This insures export goods against political and commercial risks and facilitates credit.

Cornelia Buchwalder, Secretary General of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association, said the Indonesia Symposium was ideally-timed, right after the CEPA came into effect: “With the free trade agreement in place, there is even greater potential for the development of trade between our countries,” she said.

“Business in textile and textile machinery is actually below the relative market shares for the sectors, so this stronger cooperation is probably overdue. It was a successful symposium, with enthusiastic participation from Indonesian textile companies, so we are optimistic about future export prospects for Swiss textile machinery.”

• Recypur successfully starts up a complete airlay line delivered by ANDRITZ for its mill in L’Alcúdia, Spain

The airlay line is designed for recycling of post-industrial and post-consumer foam and was developed specifically for the bedding and furniture industry, with material heights reaching 20 cm and densities of up to 120 kg/m3. Experimental tests carried out together with experts from ANDRITZ Laroche led to the conclusion that the mechanical method for recycling polyurethane is the most versatile and reliable.

With a capacity of 1.2 t/h, this airlay line enables Recypur to supply new mattresses made of industrial & post-consumer foam waste from old mattresses. This well proven process allows to reduce the environmental impact, increase self-sufficiency and eventually reduce the use of polyurethane. Such a set-up also allows multiple functional materials to be incorporated into the blend, such as flame-retardant, conductive and insulating fibers, among others. Thanks to this tailored approach, Recypur is now able to expand its diversification, innovation and reputation on the Spanish market.

The scope of supply includes a blending line with five feeders, an Exel 1500 for fine opening, an Airlay Flexiloft+ with 2.20 m working width, a recycling machine and an oven.

Airlay lines strongly support the circular economy and are part of ANDRITZ’s comprehensive product portfolio of sustainable solutions that help customers achieve their own sustainability goals in terms of climate and environmental protection.

Recypur, based in the Spanish province of Valencia, is part of DELAX, a Spanish group specialized in manufacturing and commercialization of innovative beds and mattresses. This company is the first Spanish manufacturer of recycled flexible polyurethane foam cores from post-consumer foam waste.

Leading computerized knitting machine manufacturer SHIMA SEIKI MFG., LTD. of Wakayama, Japan, together with its Turkish sales representative TETAS A.S., will participate in the CAITME 2022 Central Asian International Textile Machinery Exhibition in Tashkent, Uzbekistan next month.

This is the first time SHIMA SEIKI products are shown at the exhibition. Uzbekistan has been keen to convert its industry from raw material supplier to garment exporter, and therefore its market offers new opportunities for development and implementation of new technology.

To that end, SHIMA SEIKI will exhibit its WHOLEGARMENT® knitting technology that can knit an entire garment and requires no post-process sewing. On display will be the MACH2VS WHOLEGARMENT® knitting machine. The flexible and versatile MACH2VS is capable of knitting a range of production styles. As a conventional shaping machine, it is capable of all-needle knitting in its available range of 8 to 18 gauge, while WHOLEGARMENT® knitwear can be produced in half-gauge fabrics. The range of usable yarn and material has increased as well, thanks to i-DSCS＋DTC® as standard equipment. The R2CARRIAGE® system that yields quicker carriage returns for greater efficiency, now features a lighter carriage for even higher productivity. MACH2VS is even capable of gaugeless knitting whereby a number of different gauges can be knit into a single garment.

Meanwhile the N.SSR112 computerized flat knitting machine offers leading technology in an economical yet reliable package. Featuring industry-leading innovations such as the R2CARRIAGE®, spring-type moveable sinker, DSCS® Digital Stitch Control System, stitch presser and takedown comb, Made-in-Japan quality, reliability, productivity, user-friendliness and cost-performance combine to satisfy the high expectations of the world's fashion industry.

Demonstrations will be performed on SHIMA SEIKI's SDS®-ONE APEX4 design system. At the core of the company’s "Total Fashion System" concept, SDS®-ONE APEX4 provides comprehensive support throughout the production supply chain, integrating production into one smooth and efficient workflow from yarn development, product planning and design, to production and even sales promotion. Especially effective is the way SDS®-ONE APEX4 improves on the design evaluation process with its ultra-realistic simulation capability, whereby virtual samples replace physical sampling, consequently reducing time, cost and material that otherwise go to waste. Digital prototyping using virtual samples on SDS®-ONE APEX4 help to digitally transform the fashion supply chain for realizing sustainable manufacturing