More than 220 exhibitors from Germany are present at ITMA this month. © VDMA

ITMA 2019, the world’s leading fair dedicated to textile machinery, is once again marked by a significant presence of German companies. More than 220 exhibitors from Germany, including more than 110 VDMA member companies, cover nearly all different machinery chapters with a focus on spinning, nonwoven, weaving, knitting, warp knitting and finishing.

The overall exhibition space occupied by German machinery manufacturers is more than 21 thousand square meters, an increase of booth space by approximately 3.5 % compared to ITMA 2015. VDMA members show in Barcelona most advanced technology solutions and applications of Industry 4.0, including Smart Services.

During the VDMA press conference at ITMA, spokespersons of twelve renowned VDMA member companies showed how Industry 4.0 solutions are impacting the textile process chain.

“Andritz has pooled its relevant expertise to offer attractive digital solutions for existing and new plants under one technology brand: Metris. Metris technologies are the very latest state-of-the-art in the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) or Industry 4.0 sector and can be fully tailored to individual customer requirements,” said Alexandre Butte, Director Business Development, Andritz Perfojet.

“Software innovations around textile machines are becoming increasingly important in product development,” said Axel Pieper, CTO, Brückner Trockentechnik. “Our newly developed mobile machine operation panels and management cockpits have increased user-friendliness significantly. Advanced production assistance systems support the operator to maximise production output at the lowest possible cost while maintaining a consistent high-quality level. Our advanced service tools offer new features such as predictive maintenance, video tutorials and augmented reality support.”

“Digitalisation succeeds when the focus is on customer benefits,” commented André Imhof, COO, Autefa Solutions. “Our Service 4.0 covers all aspects of improving the bottom line of a production line during lifetime. Based on the availability of a permanent digital communication, Autefa Service 4.0 provides well-graded services for customer’s benefit. Autefa Service 4.0 integrates tasks from well-known daily jobs up to high sophisticated big data algorithms always focused on customer needs.”

ITMA is also an event for junior engineers. With the financial support of the VDMA, more than 300 students from eight technical universities take the chance to see high-tech live in Barcelona.

www.vdma.org