ITMA 2019 featured a wide spectrum of cutting-edge solutions from the global solutions providers, whether established or new-to-market. During seven days of the exhibition, there was an overwhelming response to the state-of-the-art machines and technologies.

Jakob Müller debuts novelties using new Multi Directional Weaving technology

As a provider in the field of narrow fabrics, Jakob Müller presented a wide range of innovative solutions and applications.

Robert Reimann, CEO, Jakob Müller AG, emphasized that all the exhibits on display were “eye catchers and novelties”, especially the MDW technology (Multi Directional Weaving), which will drive the smart textile industry and the field of woven labels.

Based on this technology, Jakob Müller has developed a unique product: VELVEDGE. The new VELVEDGE selvedges replace hot wire, ultrasonic and laser label slitting systems. They are ideally suited to top quality clothing that is worn directly on the skin. Therefore, they are particularly attractive to brand manufacturers of articles such as sportswear.

Commenting on technology trends, he said: “Reducing energy and water consumption is nothing new for us. Since years, we have shown that our machines operate with much lower consumption than our competitor’s machines. For example, at the booth, you can see our new wash tanks which exactly fulfill this requirement.

“Furthermore, our Industry 4.0 platforms support heavily these improvements and give the customer high benefit for a more efficient operation. Our new production data acquisition system ‘mymuenet’, the Internet-based service portal ‘mymueller’  and smart solutions on the machines are of big help.”

He said the first half year of 2019 was very successful and ITMA2019 gave the company another boost with the big amount of novelties. He recognized a slowdown of the market in certain areas but fortunately Jakob Müller differentiates itself from the “metoo- products”.

In addition, he pointed out that the company has been very successful in China during the last years, with local production operating above the targets until now.

“However, considering the world economy, this might change in the months to come. The rest of Asia is on a normal level and we expect to continue at this level since some volumes are moving out of China,” he said.

AUTEFA Solutions uncovers new Spunlace technology and Industry 4.0 solutions

AUTEFA Solutions presented the new innovations of its four business fields to the visitors at its booth.

André P. Imhof, CEO, AUTEFA Solutions Austria GmbH, said the two highlights at the booth this year including advanced Spunlace line and innovative solutions for Industry 4.0.

According to him, more and more new applications have been found for Spunlace fabrics over the past years. Besides the traditional market for wipes and cleaning products, technical applications are also gaining importance. With the development of the hydroentanglement machine, AUTEFA Solutions closes the missing link in the production process of Spunlace fabrics, offering a complete line for nonwoven.

For the Spunlace line, with the new hydroentanglement machine V-Jet FUTURA, AUTEFA Solutions has developed an advanced technology with special focus on reducing energy consumption. Besides high energy efficiency, the V-Jet FUTURA offers high throughputs, easy maintenance and long lasting V-Jet-technology components.

Talking about the solutions for Industry 4.0, he said: “We presented the iWeb and iProduction intelligent self-optimization systems. In addition, Service 4.0 is also one of our answers. Our Service 4.0 covers all aspects of improving the bottom line of a production line during lifetime. The Service 4.0 integrates tasks from daily jobs up to high sophisticated big data algorithms, with a focus on customer needs.”

“I anticipate things will interlink with each other more. Some of the island solutions will be brought more and more together to get a big picture. I believe there will be more open platforms developed for everyone. For me, Industry 4.0 is not only about introducing a new technology, it is also about presenting a new business model. We will see more new, disruptive solutions coming out.”

Commenting on the sustainability trend, he said it is important to reduce the waste before talking about saving energy and water. He revealed, “We invested €3 million for a new advanced non-woven laboratory, which will be opened in fall this year in Leitz, Austria. Our ultimate goal is to recycle different products, not only pure natural fibers, but also carbon fibers and mixed composites.”

Habasit rolls out new patented smart printing blanket

Habasit, a global belting manufacturer headquartered in Switzerland, showcased its comprehensive portfolio of textile industry solutions, ranging from its new, patented “smart” printing blanket to belts for yarn processing and nonwoven materials manufacture.

As explained by Luca Rovacchi, Industry Segment Manager for Textile at Habasit, the new digital printing technology requires extremely high printing blanket positioning accuracy. The challenge now is to improve on this, especially since the extremely high printing accuracy needed by high-resolution printheads on single-pass printing machines cannot be entirely achieved using traditional printing blankets.

In view of this, Habasit presented its game-changing concept belt - Smart printing blanket at ITMA 2019. The company used a “live” test/demonstrator bench to present its patented concept for the printing blanket with an integrated linear encoder.

“This leading-edge technology features a magnetic field acting like an electronic tape measure embedded in the belt. Put simply, this lets sensors read the exact measurements of the belt and coordinate with the printheads to attain even greater printing precision by actively compensating for unavoidable mechanical imprecisions. We want visitors to see what the future of digital textile printing will look like,” he illustrated.

In addition, for the first time at ITMA, Habasit presented not only its fabric belts but also its plastic modular belts and timing belts for yarn processing and non-woven applications.

Rovacchi underscored that the non-woven market will become more and more important as nonwoven textiles are increasingly used in areas ranging from hygiene and medicine, to automotive component manufacture, to geo-textiles. “We are taking a growing market share for our belts used with the crosslapper machines that produce nonwoven textiles,” he said.

A.Piovan premieres mini sanfor rubber belt for tapes

A.Piovan S.R.L., an Italian manufacturer of rubber roller coverings, presented its complete range for the textile industry at ITMA 2019.

According to Stefania Castrignano, Business Development Assistant, A. Piovan S.R.L.,

the company launched the mini sanfor for tapes for the first time at the show. The mini sanfor features high temperature resistance, excellent abrasion resistance and no stretching inner plies.

For sanfor rubber belt, there are three different rubber compounds available for different fabric features, such as denim, light fabric and viscose.

As introduced, A.Piovan supplies sanfor belt up to four-meter width and the company can customize the Sanfor belt according to customer’s requirement. The innovative manufacturing process allows A.Piovan to manufacture a belt without any bubbles inside.

The sanfor belt is made of 100% natural rubber with two layers of different components: The external part with an excellent grip offers optimum shrinking action, while the smooth inner part prevents inner peeling and allows the belt to function freely.

SICAM debuts spun lace and spun bond machinery

Italian machinery and complete plant manufacturer for textile and nonwoven industries SICAM released its spun lace and spun bond machinery for the first time at ITMA this year.

The spun lace line produces nonwoven products, such as cotton pads, wipes and light webs laminated products. In this line, the hydroentangled web is dried in a high efficiency 3 passes oven to reach softness and bulkiness in the final product.

After forming section of the web, the water jet machine bonds the fibers on the hydroentanglement principle and a proper oven evaporate the water, making the web ready for winding. The web forming is obtained by traditional carding machine or airlay technology according to the final products.

On the other hand, the spun bond line is used for the production for roofing, civil engineering, technical felts, separators for batteries and carriers of PVC flooring.

After the forming, the web is needle punched, thermo fixed, calibrated, impregnated, pre dried, dried, cured, calibrated and rolled.