The winners of the 13th Techtextil Innovation Award 2015 have been chosen and honoured for outstanding achievements and new developments in six categories during the official opening ceremony of Techtextil, the leading international trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens, which is being held this week in Frankfurt.

An international jury of experts selected eight projects for the coveted Techtextil Innovation Award. They include printers for three-dimensional woven structures, embroidered electrodes for long-term ECGs, algae-based snow, an artificial womb, and maritime textile for cultivating kelp.

New technology

One of the winners in the new technology category is Sosa Fresh for its 3DWeaver, a 3D printer that can produce three-dimensional woven structures step-by-step.

The other winner in this category is Emil Stutznäcker for its high-performance sewing technology with automatic handling in the sewing area, which can produce preforms, i.e., multi-layer woven and nonwoven fabrics for textile-reinforced lightweight structures, at the record speed of around 3,000 stitches a minute.

New product

The Techtextil Innovation Award in the new product category goes to the Empa Research Institute for an embroidered electrode that can be used for long-term ECGs and thus takes account of the growing demand for textiles in medical applications.

New concept

Two companies have been singled out for the Award in the new concept category: Switch Embassy for a washable LED screen that can be used in many areas of application, from clothing to interior furnishings, and the ITV Denkendorf Research Institute for BioGlizz, a biological alternative to artificial snow, which is based on an algae-covered textile layer.

New application

The winner in the new application category is the Hohenstein Institute for Textile Innovation with ARTUS, a technical textile that can be used as an artificial womb for premature babies and, inter alia, reproduces the mother’s movements and heartbeat.

New composite

The new composite category has been won by a technology that makes it possible to weave fibre-reinforced 3D structures in T, X, and U forms that can, for example, contribute to weight reduction in automobiles and machinery. The new process was developed by the Forschungskuratorium Textil e. V. textile research association.

New material

In the new material category, the jury gave the award to Sioen Industries for developing a maritime textile that makes it possible to cultivate kelp and alternative sustainable biomasses.

The jury

The jury included:

• Braz Costa, CITEVE Centro Tecnológico das Indústrias téxtil e do Vestuário de Portugal
• Sabine Gimpel, TITV Textilforschungsinstitut Thüringen-Vogtland e.V.
• Dr Klaus Jansen, Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V.
• Dr Jan Laperre (Chairman), Centexbel
• Dr René Rossi, EMPA Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
• Pascal Rumeau, IFTH The French Institute of Textiles and Clothing
• Prof Dr Roshan Shishoo, Shishoo Consulting AB
• Dr Thomas Stegmaier, ITV Institute of Textile Technology and Process Engineering Denkendorf
• Dr Hartmut Strese, VDI/VDE Institute for Innovation and Technology

During Techtextil 2015, the award-winning products can be seen in a special exhibition in Hall 6.1. The exhibition offers insights into the materials used, production details and areas of applications.

www.techtextil.messefrankfurt.com