Around 42,000 visitors from 116 countries made their way to Frankfurt to see the biggest spectrum of materials, processes and technologies for the entire textile value chain during the four days of the two leading international trade fairs.

Altogether, 1,662 exhibitors from 54 countries presented their new technical textiles, nonwovens and processing technologies for textile and flexible materials at Techtextil and Texprocess 2015 that took place from 4-7 May.

“Not only was there a fantastic atmosphere at the fair and in the sectors, the visitor standard was exceptional and there were more new products to be seen than ever before. Techtextil and Texprocess 2015 have shown themselves to be the undisputed centre for innovation in the field of high-tech fabrics, smart textiles and processing technologies,” commented Detlef Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt.

Attendance and feedback

All participants gave top marks for satisfaction with the two fairs. Thus, 95% of Texprocess visitors and 965 of Techtextil visitors rated their time there as having been well or very well spent, organisers report.

More than one in two visitors came from outside Germany. The top visitor nations were, after Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, Great Britain, Poland, The Netherlands and Spain. Significant increases in visitor numbers were registered from, countries like Egypt, Bangladesh, China, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

According to the exhibiting companies, the economic outlook in the sector is very good: 94% rated the situation in the technical textiles and nonwovens sector as being satisfactory to good while the percentage for the processing industry for textiles and flexible materials reached no less than 96% whereby German companies in particular tended to be even more euphoric in comparison to 2013.

Smart Textiles, synergies and Industry 4.0

The range of technical textiles and nonwovens to be seen at Techtextil was once again characterised by application diversity. Thus, these innovative fibres are not only used in the agricultural, automotive, construction, apparel, energy and medical fields.

Techtextil exhibitors also presented synthetic fibres for covering stadiums or for truck / goods-wagon tarpaulins, as well as non-combustible glass-fibre mats for seats, flooring and luggage racks. In addition to multi-function jackets that can communicate, warm and illuminate, other highlights at Techtextil included embroidered electrodes for long-term ECGs, algae-based artificial snow, an artificial womb for premature babies and a maritime textile for cultivating kelp.

One of the top subjects at Texprocess was Industry 4.0, the fully-automatic, digitalised and decentralised production. “Industry 4.0 has a great potential for the garment and leather technology sector, which needs fast and fully-integrated production processes to cater for the numerous collections,” said Dr Andreas Seidl, CEO of Human Solutions AG, one of the leading suppliers of 3D body-scanning systems.

Germany’s next top apparel

The 1st Innovative Apparel Show proved to be a magnet for all participants interested in new materials and processing technologies, and attracted around 500 trade visitors per show to the catwalk on all four days, organisers report.

“Unparalleled worldwide, this event showed new ways for this creative and imaginative sector. The universities and fashion schools involved presented fascinating and aesthetically pleasing hybrids of fashion and technical textiles made using manual and mechanical processing technologies,” explained Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles and Textile Technologies of Messe Frankfurt.

During the four days of the fairs, spectators were invited to vote for their favourites. The winner was Maria Valdez from Mönchengladbach, a student from Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, with a black and white dress made using ultra-sound welding technology. In addition to a new edition of the successful show in 2017, Schmidt also announced during the presentation that it would be opened to more international participants in the future.

www.techtextil.messefrankfurt.com

www.texprocess.messefrankfurt.com