The second edition of Saltex, a new community-platform for smart textiles and fibre-reinforced composites as well as their industrial automation, will take place from 12-13 September in Dornbirn, Austria, featuring innovative product presentations and an exciting framework programme.

With only six months to go, prospects for Saltex 2018 are very promising, according to organisers. Leading textile associations and numerous industry companies from Vorarlberg will again exhibit, and new international enterprises expressed their interest in exhibiting at the upcoming event.

“As a supplier of sophisticated textile solutions, Saltex is an important regional trade event for us. It allows us to have an immediate contact with our customers and to expand our existing business network. Furthermore, Saltex is a great platform to showcase our product portfolio and our innovations,” commented Hannes Tschofen, Director Sales, Technical Textiles, Getzner Textil AG, Bludenz, Austria.

Highlights

Saltex positions itself as a know-how broker, network and knowledge transfer platform for smart textiles and high-performance materials. Apart from the cooperation forum organised by WISTO, the economic location Vorarlberg, which schedules meetings for matching up companies, Saltex brings new creative formats into play.

The planned hackathon means that programmers, screen designers and developers, as well as interested parties from other sectors, work together on a chosen topic that fits with the range of products and services of Saltex. According to the coordinator of the project Guntram Bechtold, the objective is to develop within a time frame of 24 hours an intelligent product that might fit into the overall digital work flow. Guntram Bechtold, StarsMedia IT Management KG, will steer the project on behalf of Messe Dornbirn.

In addition, a Rubber Cup is planned in the framework of Saltex. This competition has been originally launched by the worldwide renowned industry designer Richard Sapper, who had been an academic teacher at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 1986 till 1998. In the style of the legendary Rubber Cup, Saltex invites to develop a smart engine that is driven by a rubber drive wheel.

Rubber Cup

The challenge is to design a vehicle with only 20 grams of rubber that serve as a powertrain and to let it drive on the longest possible duration. The team covering the longest distance wins. The vehicle shows a size of approximately 1 m and has a light structure.

“We would like to encourage engineers, technicians and developers to participate in this competition. We want to reach the female experts in companies and universities and encourage them to team up in interdisciplinary groups. We are confident to meet with plenty of innovative engineering power and bold ideas,” explained Guntram Bechtold.

The format shall encourage to demonstrate in a creative way, how semi-finished products and new product ideas, showcased in the framework of Saltex, may be applied in different contexts.

Application-oriented solutions

On the occasion of the upcoming Saltex, representatives from research facilities shall get the opportunity to showcase application-oriented solutions. A special area will be allocated. Universities, colleges and research facilities are given the opportunity to introduce their current developments in the fields of smart textiles and high-performance materials.

The target audience is visionaries, decision makers from industry, research and strategic marketing as well as heads of research and development departments. The entire textiles value chain shall be addressed, in particular representatives from industry, research and academic teaching, who are involved in future technologies and are always looking for innovations that could be useful and in line with the new requirements of digital transformation.

Smart Textiles Symposium

Key attraction and integral part of Saltex is the Smart Textiles Symposium that since 2016 takes place in parallel with the community platform Saltex. A visit to Zumtobel Lighting, a leading supplier of innovative lighting solutions, located in Dornbirn, Austria, will complement the event calendar of Saltex.

For two days, Saltex will also run simultaneously with the 57th Global Fiber Congress Dornbirn- GFC (12-14 September 2018).

www.saltex.at