From the Sector

The Trevira CS joint booth at Heimtextil 2020 was once again a success.

Trevira looks back on a successful trade fair appearance at Heimtexil 2020. The concept of a joint booth together with customers along with the presentation of product innovations and a special exhibition dedicated to the contract sector has once again proved its worth. Trevira hosted 31 co-exhibitors thus increasing the number of participants again compared to last year. Members of the entire textile value chain were present at the Trevira stand: from the fibre production and yarn manufacture, to the colouring, weaving and warp and weft knitting stages, to the textile editor.

Klaus Holz, CEO Trevira GmbH: „We are pleased about the very positive feedback we got on our joint booth at Heimtextil 2020 from our customers and the visitors to our stand. It shows that our concept is successful and that the booth works well as a market place for Trevira CS.”

Product novelties were presented in an Innovation Park. Under the headline “Recycling at Trevira” the fibre producer presented its sustainable product range and diversified approaches to recycling: flame retardant fibres are produced from residual materials, which are reprocessed in an agglomeration plant. The recyclates are then deployed in the spinning facility to make new, high-quality products consisting of 100 % pre-consumer recycled material. Recycled, flame retardant filaments are produced from PET bottles and have a recycled content of 50 %. Standard polyester spun-dyed filament yarns are also available in a recycled version. Produced from PET bottles these yarns have a recycled content of 100 %.

In order to produce flame retardant fabrics which are also high-performing  in outdoor applications, Trevira now offers six more colours in addition to the existing colour range of 24 UV-stable, spun-dyed filament yarns. Trevira had been awarded the „Brandenburger Innovationspreis Kunststoffe und Chemie 2019“ for this innovation.

Cationic dyeable fibres and filament yarns enhance the Trevira portfolio of flame retardant specialties. They are used to create melange designs in fabrics, which still represents a strong trend in the home textile sector.

To meet the ever more complex demands of the market for more flexibility in design and additional functions as well as for sustainable products Trevira has introduced an enhanced Trevira CS branding concept, consisting of the three brands Trevira CS, Trevira CS flex und Trevira CS eco. Assigned according to product features, all of them stand for tested safety.

Market leader Oerlikon Neumag has its finger firmly on the pulse of their customers with the new Color Pop Compacting unit (CPC-T) for the BCF S8 carpet yarn plant, which is now available for the Polyamide 6 process. The new solution, which was on show from 10-13 January 2020 at the Domotex 2020 in Hannover, attracted great interest from many trade visitors.

Following the trend for multicolored carpets, BCF S8 sets new standards in regards to color separation. The plant, launched as a tricolor solution at last year’s ITMA in Barcelona, makes anything possible – from mélange to strongly separated. It promises carpet yarn producers even more flexible color mixing variants for product differentiation. The core component in this process, the Color Pop Compacting unit (CPC-T), offers more than 200,000 different color shades from three colors. The innovation, which has been filed for patent, is available for polypropylene and polyester polymers as well as for the polyamide 6 process.

Polyester, recycling polyester and fine titers are on trend
During numerous conversations with customers, Martin Rademacher, Head of Sales Oerlikon Neumag, observed a noticeable trend for polyester in the carpet industry even outside the USA. Sustainable solutions are equally sought after: “Our customers increasingly demand plants that can process recycled polyester,” explains Martin Rademacher.

The Manmade Fibers segment presented an additional solution by Oerlikon Barmag for polyester applications that need fine single filament titers from 0.5 dpf and high filament counts: Puffy, soft polyester filament yarns with BCF-similiar properties are produced on the basis of a POY and texturing process. Core components of the processes are the POY take-up unit WINGS HD as well as the new texturing machine eAFK Big-V.

Special features: over 30 top clients at a joint stand and a special exhibition highlighting trendsetting textile concepts for the contract market

Trevira, which manufactures high-quality, flame retardant polyester fibres, will be repeating its successful joint booth concept at the upcoming Heimtextil fair, due to take place from 7-10 January 2020 in Frankfurt. Together with 32 of its major customers, Trevira will be located on a stand of over 2000 msq in Hall 4.2.

The participants of the Trevira CS joint stand will cover the entire textile value chain: from the fibre production and yarn manufacture, to the colouring, weaving and warp and weft knitting stages, to the textile editor. Trevira’s customers will present their latest Trevira CS products for home and contract textiles at individual stands, demonstrating their contribution to the value chain. This year, Trevira welcomes a new partner to its Heimtextil stand, design and engineering specialist ima-tuve.

“We’re excited that our joint fair booth has proved to be so popular and that we are increasing the number of Trevira CS customers joining us for Heimtextil year on year. This means that we can once again look forward to displaying the extensive range of possibilities and applications available in Trevira CS,” said Trevira CEO Klaus Holz.

Trevira’s joint booth, which will be situated in Hall 4.2, immediately next to the Messe Frankfurt exhibition “Interior. Architecture. Hospitality”, will also feature a special showcase, “Textile Future by Trevira CS” especially for the contract market. To curate this special display, Trevira is proud to have secured a collaborative partnership with renowned Berlin design company studio aisslinger. The studio is known for its outstanding work in experimental and product design, innovative materials and architectural concepts.  As a designer, studio founder Werner Aisslinger is particularly interested in how the newest technologies and unusual materials can be integrated into product design. Besides a focus on furniture, his most recent projects include interior design concepts for hotels and workspaces.

During the conference it was very interesting to see how the Chinese recycling industry in general and the Chinese polyester recycling industry in detail is on its way to digest the drastic measures of the Chinese government to ban the import of any plastic waste from January first, 2018 onward.

While Europe is struggling with individual measures such as the ban on drinking tubes, cotton swabs, balloons, plastic bags or disposable tableware, the Chinese leadership has created eight ministerial administrative units covering the entire complex of environmental protection, renewable energies, circular economy including recycling and climate protection. There is still a substantial gap to European environmental standards but Chinese velocity of progress is impressive in this field.

More than 360 delegates form China and oversees listened to the latest results in polyester recycling technology, production and market and exchanged their recent experiences. Especially the exhibition was core of social and technical networking.

Two contributions from governmental organizations and three from industry associations are underlining the high administrative attention of the recycling issue and loop economy in general.

Filo d’Oro has been selected by Première Vision to exhibit within the SMART CREATION area, the key research and sourcing space for those looking for new generation of sustainable solutions. An informative, educational, visionary and multimedia space where exhibitors, designers, buyers and fashion brands can experience and truly visualize the progress the industry is making in terms of responsibility. At the show in Paris above all they will present a consolidated system of collaborations and a virtuous network that works side by side to make the difference with certified superior quality products for the international market.

Within Filo D’oro, on the occasion of the inclusion in the Smart Creation, they present innovations that reflect "a real commitment to cultural sustainability as well as industrial and production". The organic silks are made with natural fibers from organic farming, the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification guarantees both the quality of the raw materials and the sustainability of all production processes. The FSC® certified viscose comes from forests with sustainable management that respects the environment and the population, other viscose developments are made with Ecovero™ yarn from certified and controlled sources. The polyesters are GRS certified, they are made with Newlife™, a yarn born from the transformation through mechanical process of post-consumer plastic bottles collected in northern Italy, whose production process is entirely 100% Made in Italy. Some proposals combine Newlife™ with ECOANTEX, a yarn resulting from the transformation of post-industrial waste and the selective collection of Pet packaging.

15th China International Recycled Polyester Conference & Exhibition is to be held in China during 18-20 Sep 2019. The forum is jointly organized by Dr. Thiele Polyester Technology and China Chemical & Fiber Economic Information Network (CCFEI), and supported by Recycled Fiber Commission of China Chemical Fiber Association and China National Chemical Fiber Corp.

Having achieved successes during the past 14 years, our China International Recycled Polyester Conference has developed to be the largest international conference of recycled polyester industry in Asian-pacific region. The upcoming 15th China International Recycled Polyester Conference & Exhibition will again gather domestic and overseas raw material suppliers, recycled fiber (regular, hollow and filament) makers, machinery suppliers, downstream consumers, as well as related medium, industry associations and traders, to share valuable opinions of market status quo and perspective.

• Clean Technology. Smart Factory.

Remscheid – Oerlikon invites all visitors to this year's ITMA in Barcelona on a journey into the future of manmade fiber production. From 20 to 26 June 2019, the world market leader will show all its guests its vision of a sustainable and automated manmade fiber production in a virtual 4D showroom at its 1,000 m² stand in Hall 7, A101: "Clean Technology. Smart Factory." is the motto of the future. And this is only a stone's throw away from reality at the stand. Because today Oerlikon is presenting four world premieres for efficient machine and plant concepts in a new, innovative industrial design. Together with numerous other innovations, all this forms the new DNA of the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment.

The challenges for the manmade fiber industry are manifold and Oerlikon shows its customers solutions:

1. Choosing the right business model
Price pressure on fiber and yarn manufacturers is growing due to global market consolidation. Here it is important to position oneself correctly. Are you producing polyester, nylon or polypropylene for the niche market and skimming off good margins with innovative products and ingenious material properties, or are you looking for business success through economies of scale in the volume market such as the constantly growing apparel sector? Oerlikon has the right answers for both business models. And the most important thing: the market leader supplies all solutions from a single source. See for yourself at the world premieres of the machine and system concepts of WINGS FDY PA6, BCF S8 Tricolor and the revolutionary eAFK Evo texturing machine.

2. Finding alternatives for good personnel
Finding good operators in the manmade fiber industry is becoming increasingly difficult, even in emerging industrial nations such as China, India and Turkey. The solution is obvious. What, for example, the automotive industry achieved years ago with the 3rd Industrial Revolution is now also taking its course in the textile industry. And at the same time it is even shifting up a gear. In the next step, automation in combination with digitization will lead to new, sustainable production. Oerlikon will be showing how automation and digitization interact at ITMA. Self-learning machines and systems, artificial intelligence (AI), remote services and edge computing are just a few of the key words in the digital half of the new Oerlikon Manmade Fibers DNA.

3. Guarantee quality and traceability
The qualities of the fibers and yarns must meet the highest demands and their production must be traceable throughout the textile value chain. This no longer only plays an important role in the automotive industry, where safety is of paramount importance. Other branches of industry that use fibers, yarns and nonwovens also want to know where the raw materials they produce for consumer articles come from. Legal regulations are demanding this more and more frequently. Oerlikon offers optimal solutions with its DIN ISO certified manufacturing processes. More than half of the world's manmade fiber producers are convinced every day that the qualities produced on Oerlikon Barmag, Oerlikon Neumag and Oerlikon Nonwoven equipment are right – and all visitors to ITMA can do the same on site.

4. Efficient and sustainable production
In the future, the materials produced from manmade fibers must become part of a further improved global recycling economy. The recycling of polyester – with over 80% market share the most frequently used manmade fiber in the world – has not only been on the agenda since today. Oerlikon already has solutions at hand: from PET bottles to fibers and filaments, to textiles and carpets. ITMA is the next step. With the VacuFil® Oerlikon in cooperation with the subsidiary company BBEngineering presents the world premiere No. 4 – a recycling solution within a running polyester production with a waste-free approach.

Vision becomes reality
The Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment thus demonstrates what the ITMA in Barcelona promises as the world's leading trade fair for textile machinery and plant construction: "Innovating the world of textiles – sourcing for a sustainable future". In Hall 7, A101, this is already reality.

For the third consecutive year, the Italian brand Zerobarracento was selected to embody the excellence of Italy at the Budapest Fashion Week. On November 14th, Zerobarracento will show on runway S/S 2019. The concept of connection to a fashion garment, and the idea of creating pieces to last is fundamental to this brand. 0 means: zero waste, reduced pollution, and reduced emissions. 100 means: 100% quality, Made in Italy, sustainability and transparency of the production. Patterns are developed with zero-waste techniques, that eliminates textile waste at the design stage, adopting a zero-waste design approach reduces textile waste and the demand on natural resources. The pieces are 100% made in Italy, created with premium sustainable and traceable materials.

Camilla Carrara, CEO and designer of Zerobarracento, describes the collection as follows: "garments are created with the GOTS certified Bacx™ by Centro Seta organic silks sourced from C.L.A.S.S. e.commerce and the Newlife™ transformed polyester. Shapes and colours were inspired by a Malaysian trip: simplicity and nature are blended giving life to saturated colours".
We are pleased that the collaboration with the Budapest Fashion Week lasts over time and is positive to see the growing interest for the issue of sustainability by consumers of this country.

This September’s Cinte Techtextil China will once again provide a strong barometer of the state of the global technical textiles industry, and in particular which sectors in Asia as a whole, and China specifically, are performing well. Two of these for certain are Buildtech and Mobiltech, with a number of leading global and Chinese brands exhibiting to eager buyers from these sectors.

Cinte Techtextil China is Asia’s leading biennial fair for the technical textiles and nonwovens sector, and will feature an expected 500-plus total exhibitors from around 20 countries & regions from 4 – 6 September. The fair offers products and technologies for 12 application areas* which cover the entire industry.

Buildtech benefits from Belt & Road and other infrastructure investment

With a huge boom in national and regional infrastructure projects, the market for Buildtech products, especially geotextiles and construction textiles, is rapidly expanding. In particular, the government’s global Belt & Road project, as well as continued investment at home in highways, high-speed rail and more, is fuelling this expansion. According to CNITA, in 2017 China started 35 new railway projects, with additional private capital investment in this sector totalling some USD 53 billion that year. The same investment in highway construction increased 17.7%, while water conservation project investment by private firms reached a new record of USD 105 billion.

With this potential in the Asian market, it’s no surprise a number of new exhibitors will feature in the Buildtech sector at the fair, including FPC Technical Textile from Saudi Arabia, Kobe-cz from the Czech Republic, as well as Lenzing Plastics, while Johns Manville are one of the returning exhibitors this year.

• FPC Technical Textile (Saudi Arabia) produce high-end specialty fabrics including PVC coated fabrics and fibre glass PTFE fabrics, and will focus on the latter at the fair.
• Kobe-cz (Czech Republic) will showcase their nonwoven fabrics, mainly from glass fibre with temperature resistance up to 800°C.
• Exhibiting for the first time at the fair with their Plastics division, Lenzing (Austria) will feature their technical laminates for building industries, roofing membranes, vapour barriers, isolation facings and barrier packaging, as well as PROFILEN® PTFE yarns, films and fibres at Cinte Techtextil.
• Johns Manville’s (US) products on offer include polyester spunbond, PP & PBT meltblown, glass fibre nonwovens, micro glass fibre nonwovens, hybrid nonwovens, glass fibre needle mat and glass microfibers.

Mobiltech benefits from huge increases in automobile production in China

With new textile innovations and application possibilities spreading throughout the automobile industry, coupled with the fact China is the world’s largest auto producer, Cinte Techtextil is the place to see the latest products and technologies for this sector this September. Automobile production in China reached 29 million units in 2017, an increase of 3% year-on-year. Staggeringly, new-energy vehicle production grew by 53% last year, while SUVs and commercial vehicles increased 13.81% and 13.95% respectively.

With such strong growth in China, a number of leading international Mobiltech producers, as well as top domestic suppliers, will be at Cinte Techtextil this year, including:

• Abifor (Switzerland): their focus at the fair is on products designed for automotive, construction and other technical applications, in particular their specialty hot-melt powders. The company has its own production unit in Shanghai, and reports that an increasing number of domestic customers are starting to focus on more sophisticated products.
• SKS Group (Sweden): will showcase high performance single end yarn for automotive and industrial hoses, and single end cord for automotive and industrial belts.
• Swisstulle (Switzerland): will have a range of products on offer for automotive, rail and aviation uses, including sunshade materials, nets, tube reinforcements and new possibilities for luggage compartment covers.
• Windel Textile Far East (Germany): with production undertaken in China, this German firm offers textile greige, half-done and finished materials. They offer nonwoven, knitted and woven fabrics (substrates), and glass fibre solutions. At the fair, they will showcase substrates for adhesive tapes / wire harnessing tapes, and Maliwatt- and coagulated microfibre fleece for covering vehicle interiors.
• Protechnic (France): they will feature hot melt thermoadhesive nets, webs and films, as well as laminating process in automotive and other industrial applications at Cinte 2018.
• Kuangda Technology Group (China): having supplied products for global brands such as Volkswagen and Audi, this Chinese supplier will offer automotive interiors, including interior fabrics, seat covers and cushions at the fair.
• Shanghai Shenda (ShanghaiTex Group) (China): specialising in automotive interior textiles, they manufacture a full range of products including grey car carpet, moulding car carpet, head liners (warp-knitting and nonwoven), seat belt, seat fabrics and more, and have supplied the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and GM.

Cinte Techtextil China is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA). To find out more about the fair, please visit: www.techtextilchina.com.

Exhibitors from eight countries have already confirmed to participate in the fair’s European Zone. They join an expected 500-plus total exhibitors from around the world. The 2018 edition of this biennial fair takes place from 4 – 6 September in halls N1 – N3 of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.

While China retains its edge in terms of technical textiles and nonwovens production capabilities, in the eyes of Chinese buyers, European suppliers are still the leaders when it comes to technology and innovation. This was widely reported by European exhibitors at the previous edition in 2016 of Asia’s leading biennial trade event for the industry: Cinte Techtextil China.

“In the Chinese market, buyers want good quality products, so overseas companies, and products with recognised quality certifications, have a lot of potential,” Ms Ping Chen, General Manager of IBENA Shanghai Technical Textiles commented. “As a leading German company in the industry, our products are welcomed by many buyers at this fair. It is also important to be in the German Pavilion as this signals to buyers that we have quality products, and it attracts more attention.” Swiss firm Sanitized AG had the same experience. “As a Swiss company in the European Zone I believe it’s an advantage, as some local buyers have more confidence towards imported products,” Mr Steven Liu, Sales Manager said.

Other exhibitors commented on the long-term trends in the Chinese market. “There’s a definite shift to more high-quality machinery in China that isn’t affected by what’s happening in the overall economy. Moreover, there are opportunities for overseas suppliers as there is still a gap between us and what Chinese companies produce,” Dr Joachim Binnig, Vice President, Head of Development & Technology, Autefa Solutions Germany GmbH explained.

Mr Roger Zhang, Sales Manager for German firm J.H. Ziegler Nonwovens and New Materials commented: “Our products are mainly for high-end Chinese customers, such as BMW and Audi. The Chinese market has gradually matured, but the production capability for high-performance products which are energy efficient and eco-friendly is still developing, so there is a lot of space for overseas brands to develop here.”

European Zone highlights
This year’s European Zone will feature around 30 exhibitors from eight countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, while further exhibitors can be found in national pavilions from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy. Some of the exhibitor highlights in the European Zone include:

• Arkema (France): with brands including PMMA Altuglas, Rilsan, Pebax, Kynar PVDF and Bostik, they will present polymer resin for fibres and yarns, which apply to a wide range of applications, at the fair.
• Dakota Coating (Belgium): specialists in thermoplastic and thermosetting adhesives, their polymer products, based on polyethylene, polyolefin or mixtures, ethylene vinyl acetates, co-polyamides, polyurethanes and co-polyesters, are suitable for automotive, building, heat transfer and sound insulation uses.
• Lenzing Plastics (Austria): a new exhibitor at the fair, they are a leading manufacturer of polyolefin and fluoropolymer products, such as Thermoplast and PTFE products. One of their core competencies lies in the monoaxial stretching of films and filaments, and they offer special solutions in the fields of construction & insulation, medicine & hygiene, packaging and cables, as well as automotive and technical textiles. They will highlight their PROFILEN® PTFE product at the fair, and with its extreme durability and very smooth surface, it is highly valued in many niche applications in the technical and medical sectors.
• Protechnic (France): leading manufacturers of hot-melt adhesives and plastic printed films, they will showcase hot melt thermo-adhesive nets, webs and films at the fair.
• Trelleborg Coated Systems (Italy): another new exhibitor this edition, they produce high-performance, engineered coated fabrics. They offer a wide variety of substrates – from Kevlar® to silk – with a choice of weaving methods.