Features

In the bid to commercialize self-driving cars – which will be preceded by a move away from the internal combustion engine towards electric and other methods of propulsion –  established car brands and their tier-1 suppliers are forging all kinds of new partnerships, including with users and manufacturers of smart textiles. Adrian Wilson reports.

Nick Butler previews the exhibits at Texprocess, where the industry will reveal its vision of the future for textile production.

Testing, and quality assurance and control are vital elements for manufacturers of technical textiles. Fortunately, Techtextil will offer attendees plenty of opportunities to find the latest equipment and instruments to help them maintain and prove the standards of their products. Nick Butler provides a few tips as to where to begin looking among the crowded halls.

There are many finishing, and coating and laminating technologies that are applied to textiles to add a diverse range of properties. Techtextil will once again be the place to visit to find out the latest developments for adding functionality.

Innovation by manufacturers of knitted, woven and laminated fabrics continues to flourish. Nick Butler provides some examples to look for during Techtextil.

Following the recent IDEA exhibition (held in Miami Beach, Florida, USA, on 25–28 March 2019), which principally catered for hygiene markets, Techtextil now offers nonwovens manufacturers the chance to show a range of technical applications for their products.

A wealth of opportunities continues to be created by the development of high-performance fibres, yarns, filaments and threads. Nick Butler offers some ideas of what to look for during Techtextil.

While machinery builders will save their most significant announcements for ITMA (to be held in Barcelona, Spain on 20–26 June 2019), Techtextil still represents an important opportunity for them to present to the technical textiles market. Editor Nick Butler previews what readers can expect to see in Frankfurt, Germany, on 14–17 May.

A dedicated hall for digital printing at Heimtextil in January 2019 provided pointers as to where this technology is headed in the lead-up to two other significant exhibitions in this sector later in the year. Adrian Wilson reveals what readers should now be looking for at FESPA Global Print Expo and ITMA.

An international symposium held in October 2018 and a market report published the month before have helped to identify the disruptive technologies that insiders believe will have the greatest impact on the nonwovens industry in the decade to follow. Ahead of IDEA 2019 on 25–28 March, Nick Butler reports which technologies have been singled out so that readers can use the occasion of the exhibition in Miami, Florida, USA, to find out more about them.