Germany and Italy: Active CINTE Exhibitors

"Techtextil China=CINTE" a specialized exhibition for technical textiles and nonwovens was participated by more than 320 firms from 22 countries and regions. France, Germany, Italy and Taiwan set up their own national Pavilions and participated as groups.

In an interview with an ATB reporter

at the "CINTE" fairground, Michael J?necke, Director, Brand (Techtextil & Avantex), Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH said that CINTE, a specialized exhibition for technical textiles and nonwovens, has continued a smooth expansion and gained great momentum toward high-tech textile exhibition "Techtextil" to be held in Germany, the home country.

CINTE is held every two years. Compared with CINTE held in 2004, the number of visitors to this exhibition was 7,249 persons from 59 countries and regions, a gain of 10%. The breakdown of visitors was 3,325 persons on the first day; 2,765 persons on the second day and 1,159 persons on the third day.

Visitors were mostly Chinese (6,044 persons). Among other things, many visitors came from Shanghai, Jiangsu province and Zhejiang province which are three important areas as hopeful markets for high-tech fibers. The number of overseas visitors was 1,205 persons and many visitors came from six countries and regions covering Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the U.S., Hong Kong and Germany.

The next "Techtextil" will be held in Frankfurt city, Germany from June 12 to 12, 2007. On the momentum of favorable responses at CINTE Techtextil China, it is likely that exhibits from Chinese high-tech textile firms will increase at Techtextil to be held in Germany as well.

The highlight at this ClNTE Techtextil China was the first participation in CINTE by the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT). With ACIMIT as the central exhibitor, 42 Italian firms announced high-tech fabric coating machines and special narrow-width woven fabric making machines, making a brilliant showing that fashion is not the only thing Italy can offer.

According to Paolo Banfi, President of ACIMIT, he considers China as its first priority because of the growing demand for high-tech textiles in China.

China is the market that can be the engine for the Italian textile machinery industry and the share taken by China among its overall exports is 17%.

The German pavilion presented 39 firms. The booths of Fleissner GmbH, a nonwoven machine builder Groz-Beckert, a specialized needle producer for felt and tufted carpet attracted a large crowd.

Bruckner appealed its capability to offer the tailor-made type technology in coating, floor covering finish and glass mesh finish. This year, the company reinforced staff members for solving customer's problems

Groz-Beckert introduced a hydroentanglement system called "HyTec". This is used for the spunlace process. Allocations of final products range from apparel, synthetic leather to hygiene materials and home furnishings.

Andritz Kuesters presented the full lineup of technical textiles and nonwovens. In collaboration with its subsidiary established in the U.S., the company has adopted a strategy to enhance the degree of customer's satisfaction in the nonwovens segment.

According to R. Neil Muirhead, C.Col A,S,D.C., Managing Director, Kuesters Far East Ltd., the company will establish a system in which Kuesters Far East Ltd. (Hong Kong) and Kuesters Shanghai will support customers in Asia. As for materials, hot S-Roll 200" and "hot S-Roll 250" are main items.

Lenzing Fibers introduced flame retardant fiber "Lenzing FR", highquality viscose "Lenzing Viscose" and lyocell fiber "Tencel".

In addition, Lenzing Fibers offers sophisticated items such as short cut fiber used for special paper, viscose for highly water-absorbing tampons, dope-dyed yarn used for automotive indoor goods and viscose for special spunlace.

Nevertheless, its highlight was flame retardant viscose "Lenzing FR". Lenzing exhibited a number of apparel actually made of "Lenzing FR" such as fire fighting uniforms and fire protective hoods.

Karl Mayer showed multi-axial woven fabric making equipment. The company analyzes that "The demand for geotextiles has risen in China at this time."

NSC Nonwoven exhibited based on its positioning that Asia, particularly China, is "the market with the fastest growing demand for nonwovens." The company places special emphasis on "ProDyn" and 70 units of this model are working in 21 countries worldwide.

"ProDyn" offers an automatic adjustment system whereby final products can achieve the numerical value of "metsuke" (a unit of weight; metsuke=4.3560 g/sq.meter) as initially designed. This automatic adjustment system utilizes the difference in speed inside machines coming from the combination of cards and cross-lappers.

The correction of metsuke in the direction of width and in the flowing direction works effectively for variations in metsuke that can take place in the bonding process.

Rieter exhibited in the filament production segment and the nonwoven segment. In the filament segment, two-for-one twisting machines for industrial filament yarn, cable making machines for tire cords and carpet yarn making equipment. In the nonwoven segment, Rieter's exhibits included "JETlace 300" utilizing the latest spunlace technology. Laurent Jallat, Marketing Manager, Rieter Textile Systems expressed pride by saying, "With nonwovens technologies such as spunlace, spunbonding and melt blowing we are in the front line of the world."

Also, at the symposium which was held separately on the second floor of the exhibition building, the company held a lecture meeting to introduce "PerfobondSOOO" as an innovative spunbonding technology and "Universal Twister UT50" as a typical example to show the up-todate situation in the industrial yarn technology.

Saurer (Allma, Volkmann) announced its newest product information on the production of tire cords, industrial twisted yarns and glass fibers. "MultiCorder" is a machine additionally equipped with the technology developed for tire cords suitable for run-flat tires.

Wolfgang Sch?ffl, Vice President, Tirecord & Industrial Yarn, said "The growth of the automotive industry in China including Guangzhou is highly hopeful in the future as well and advanced automotive parts will be much in demand." In other words, he considers that there will be a keen demand for machines built by Saurer developed in the yarn twisting technology required to produce advanced products such as run-flat tires.

Only four firms were Japanese exhibitors to CINTE. Among these four firms, Tohkai Thermo Co., Ltd. proposed "Fusec" a thermoplastic adhesive sheet which the company considers as its priority item in the development of new business.

Hironobu Hayakawa, General Manager of Industrial Materials said, "So far our company has been exclusively involved in the interlining business and all our customers were in the apparel business. With "Fusee", a new trading material, we are going to develop entirely new customers such as automotive interiors goods manufactures." "Fusee" sheet is available in three forms: web, film and net. Besides automotive indoor goods, it is likely that "Fusee" will find applications in jeans belt loops, bags, shoe insoles and building materials.

Germany Holding Next Techtextil in 2007

When it comes to an exhibition and symposium to present the latest technological development in textiles for industrial materials, the most authoritative one is "Techtextil" which is held in Germany, its home country.Previously, it was held in June 2005 and the next one will be held in 2007. This will be the 12th time to hold this exhibition.

The holding of "Techtextil China (CINTE)" in China was just between 2005 and 2007. The sponsor is the same Messe Frankfurt. It is difficult to say that the level of exhibition in China has caught up with that in Germany; however, there is no doubt that China attracts considerable attention as a techtextile market.

The number of exhibiting firms at "Techtextil 2005" held in Germany was 1,075 firms from 47 countries. The number of visitors was 21,730 persons from 70 countries. In this exhibition, major textile producing countries and regions such as France, Italy, Spain, the U.S., the U.K., Taiwan and China built country pavilions under the sponsorship of respective industrial associations and intensified promotional stances on a country basis were clearly noticeable.

Among other things, special emphasis on the part of Italy and China was outstanding. This time, China was the place to hold Techtextil exhibition (CINTE). So it is quite understandable that the Italian Pavilion stood out in the CINTE.