Techtextil, the world’s biggest trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens, will present a comprehensive symposium programme for exhibitors and visitors from 24 to 26 May 2011. As in the past, the 16th Techtextil Symposium and the 6th Avantex Symposium are being held under the patronage of EURATEX – European Apparel and Textile Confederation. Top speakers will present the latest product, material and technology developments and offer a future oriented view of the trends and developments in the international sector.

“Fully in keeping with the motto of the leading international trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens, ‘Pure innovation energy’, the two symposiums will take an in-depth look at issues of importance to the sector and where the trends are headed”, explains Michael Jänecke, Brand Manager Technical Textiles of Messe Frankfurt. “The symposiums offer orientation and information in the expanding sector of innovative textiles and their applications.”

Altogether, visitors and exhibitors will have the choice of 60 different Techtextil and Avantex lectures. The focus of the speakers, all experts from business and research, will be on user oriented presentations with the emphasis on aspects of practical interest to visitors.

New symposium concept

The concepts of both the Techtextil Symposium (from 24 to 26 May 2011) and the Avantex Symposium (on 24 and 25 May 2011) have been revised to ensure greater transparency. There will be two lecture blocks in the morning, each with six lectures, and two in the afternoon, also with six lectures per block. Thus, two blocks of lectures will always be held concurrently. The daily timetable has also been changed with the morning programme running from 09.30 to 12.15 hours and, following a break for lunch, the afternoon programme from 14.00 to 16.45 hours. This restructuring gives visitors and exhibitors the chance to take part in as many of the highly interesting lectures as possible.

A programme committee made up of renowned international experts has compiled the individual lecture blocks. Each lecture block is devoted to a single subject.

Ten lecture blocks on three days

The 16th Techtextil Symposium begins on Tuesday, 24 May, under the chairmanship of Dr. Guy Némoz, Consultant for Technical Textiles, on the subject of ‘Fibre reinforced composites’. The individual presentations will explore the opportunities offered by combining different fibres and materials. Also on the Tuesday of the fair, Dr. Klaus Jansen of the Berlin-based Forschungs­kuratorium Textil research organisation will chair lectures on the subject of ‘New materials’, reviewing innovative material developments including organically based agricultural textiles, 3-D knitted spacer fabrics for medical applications and thin silicon membranes for use as barrier layers.

On Wednesday, 25 May, the Techtextil Symposium will be chaired by Prof. Roshan Shishoo, Shishoo Consulting, and spotlight ‘The latest developments in the field of high-performance textiles using nano-technology’. Rounding off the Techtextil Symposium on Wednesday will be a lecture block on ‘Intelligent materials with versatile electronic systems’.

Braz Costa of the Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industries of Portugal (Centro Tecnológico das Indústrias Téxtil e do Vestuário de Portugal – Citeve) will chair the lecture block on processing electronic systems in textiles. Covering the spectrum from sensor systems integrated into textiles for automobile interiors, via conductive e-fibres, to luminous textiles, the focus will be on the challenge involved in bringing together electronic systems and textiles. On the same day, Dr. Thomas Stegmaier of the Institute for Textile and Process Technology (Institut für Textil- und Verfahrens­technik), Denkendorf, will chair the lecture block on ‘Surface modifications for new and adaptive functions’. The main question to be dealt with by the six lectures in this block is how can surfaces be treated and modified to give textiles new functions and properties?

On the last day of the fair, the first of the two lecture blocks at Techtextil Symposium will be devoted to ‘New fibres and fibrous structures’. Dr. Ana-Maria Popa of the Swiss Material Testing and Research Institute (Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungs­anstalt – EMPA), will chair this lecture block focusing, inter alia, on the production of nano-ribbed fibres and permanently conductive yarns. With Prof. Carl A. Lawrence, University of Leeds, Great Britain, in the chair, the ‘New technological developments and processes’ lecture block will look at, for example, intelligent coating techniques, textile-tube inlays and a multi-laser system.

Avantex - Innovative Apparel Textiles

The 6th Avantex Symposium opens on 24 May 2011 and will concentrate on the Protech area of application. In the first lecture block on ‘Personal protection and protective textiles’, Dr. Jan Laperre of Centexbel, Gent/Zwijnaarde in Belgium, will present, for example, innovative protective textiles that repel insects, are characterised by high bullet resistance and offer acoustic-thermal insulation. To be chaired by Dr. Sharon Baurley of Brunel University, School of Engineering & Design, Uxbridge, UK, the second block of the first day, ‘Apparel and electronic systems’, will focus on integrating electronic systems into textiles to create ‘e-textiles’ and include, for example, lectures on technical applications for the changed demands of the ‘smart textiles’ community, the development of an interactive police vest and ‘soft circuits’ for intelligent textiles.

‘Intelligent textiles – from the research stage to the product’, is the main theme of the Avantex Symposium on Wednesday, 25 May. At these lectures, speakers will present a variety of interesting examples showing the development process from the idea to the finished product.

The Techtextil and Avantex Symposiums will be held in the Congress Centre of Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre and all lectures will be translated simultaneously into English and German. Further information and a detailed programme of the two symposiums can be found on the Techtextil website at www.techtextil.com

Participants who purchase their admission tickets for the sym­posiums up to and including 29 April 2011 will receive also an admission ticket for the fair on the day booked.