The Liederhalle conference center in Stuttgart, Germany, was for 2 days the hub of cross-sector hightech developments
The Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf – International Textile Conference – took place this year in Stuttgart. International experts from 28 countries, from economy and research met in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg for a scientific and user-related intellectual exchange. The German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (Deutsche Institute für Textil- und Faserforschung Denkendorf – DITF) have recently joined the organizers‘ committee. Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Economic Affairs Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut emphasized in her opening speech the importance of technical textiles as „the key to new concepts and products“, particularly in the automotive, machinery, medical technology and in the construction industries. “Therefore the innovative power of the textile industry is of extraordinary importance to our local economy”, said the minister.
„If every attendee is taking home only one new idea, the visit in Stuttgart was worth the trip for that alone“, co-organizer Prof. Dr.-Ing. Götz T. Gresser mentioned in his closing speech. In fact, presentations along with the networking discussions in the breaks offered a whole range of interesting developments, products and processes particularly for the application areas mobility and medical/health.
Dr.-Ing. Marcin Meyer, Karl Otto Braun GmbH, gave an insight in recent development projects related to wireless health monitoring with smart textiles for medical applications. Karl Otto Braun with the parent company Paul Hartmann AG is known as a supplier of special elastic textiles for medical use. Production facilities are in Germany and India. In view of the current demographic situation the demand for intelligent medical textiles that allow the monitoring of vital parameters and the wireless transfer of measuring data – buzzword telemedecine – will steadily grow.
According to a recent study by IDTechEx the market for electronic textiles shall reach 3 billion US $ until 2026, stated Meyer. Those electronic and sensor components under development shall be integrated in existing customer products in order to optimize the application particularly monitoring the compression pressure for an effective healing process.
Textured surfaces are acoustically more effective
Dipl.-Ing. Victoria Zinnecker gave an insight in the exciting activities of the Getzner Textil AG, Austria related to acoustic textiles. A special interdisciplinary team explores and develops 3D acoustic textiles for various application profiles for domestic and contract markets. Architectural acoustics is conceived in a holistic way. Three major aspects ensure a pleasant room ambience: the noise level, the air quality and the light emission, according to Zinnecker. By comparing different atmospheric pictures of spaces she pointed out how the design of a space is influencing the mindset of a viewer and that textured surfaces are acoustically more effective. Getzner develops sound-absorbing textiles without applying plastic materials or foam constructions, that negatively affect air quality.
„Help us to launch a new age in bioeconomy!“
With this credo René Bethmann, Innovation Manager, VAUDE convincingly presents various approaches, how new recycling concepts help to save fossil resources and therefore reduce the ecological footprint. Since 2001 VAUDE has applied the strict environmental standard bluesign®. Bethmann revealed that VAUDE will launch the 1rst membrane of recycled polyester 2019 at the Outdoor Fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany.