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Newsflashes for Saint Joan’s Day

Catalonia is celebrating the festival of Saint Joan today – it’s also Summer Solstice in the UK – so enjoy the fireworks and festivities tonight in Barcelona. Here are some short ITMA 2019 newsflashes from each of the nine CEMATEX associations.

ACIMIT (Italy)

Italy’s EFI Reggiani (Hall 3) has announced that it has received a number of orders for its new Bolt digital printer, including the sale of a machine to Pakistan-based company Zaman. The Bolt is capable of record operational speeds of some 90 metres a minute and a first installation is already in full production in Italy, just a few months after the machine’s initial launch.

(R) Representatives of EFI Reggiani and Zaman celebrate a contract for the supply of a new Bolt digital printer. (L) Recycling specialist Margasa.

AMEC AMTEC (Spain)

Recycling specialist Margasa (Hall 5) reports a busy ITMA 2019 so far, with many enquiries concerning its complete lines for recycling a wide range of materials and turning them either into OE/Dref yarns or more often, nonwovens. The company’s key technologies employ either airlaying or web forming via a perforated rotary drum and nonwoven mats in the range of 350-2,500gsm can be produced in widths of up to 2.6 metres.

BTMA (UK)

A number of BTMA members are very actively involved in the supply of materials to the booming composites industry, including Optima, a new company manufacturing 3D weaving machines (Hall 5), Cygnet Texkimp, a company increasingly specialising in the field of machinery for textile reinforcements for composites (Hall 4), and Amba Projex (Hall 2), which provides engineering, technology and automation services. At ITMA 2019, Amba Projex is showcasing a new wide-width PU coating line.

(L) It’s a family affair – the UK Amba Projex team in Hall 2 – Kiera, Amanda and Barry Goodwin. (R) SPG is exhibiting at it's second generation single-pass digital textile printing machine.

GTM (The Netherlands)

SPGPrints has been providing popular demonstrations of its second generation Pike single-pass digital textile printing machine printing on viscose fabric with reactive ink in Hall 3. The Pike now combines the industry’s highest resolution of 1,200 dpi with the smallest droplets and lowest ink consumption available.

Technology for accurately handling the unidirectional (UD) and crossply materials widely employed in composites is meanwhile the special field of Van Wees, which is in Hall 5. Crossply materials are used for making bullet resistant vests and panels, while the many applications for the UD tapes manufactured on Van Wees machines include sails for racing boats. Van Wees is also working on the development of composites made from UD tapes with very low or zero waste.

SYMATEX (Belgium)

Over 128,000 micro-selector sensors are actively powering 10 Bonas advanced Jacquard systems at this ITMA show. That’s the equivalent of an average working weaving mill installed with 48 carpet weaving machines, each with jacquards equipped with 2,688 hooks!

Bonas, part of the constantly growing Vandewiele Group, is a leading supplier of shedding systems to both the flat weaving and carpet weaving industries. A total of 10 Bonas jacquards are operating on advanced weaving machines here in Barcelona, six of them at the main Vandewiele stand (Hall 4).

(L)Over 128,000 micro-selector sensors are actively powering ten Bonas advanced Jacquard systems in operation at this ITMA show. (R) Jakob Müller showcasing it's sophisticated technology.

SWISSMEM (Switzerland)

Operating from a huge stand in Hall 4 is Jakob Müller, with narrow fabric technology for a wide range of end-uses – from garments to technical textiles, and from medical products to composite reinforcements.

Of note is a special needleloom with a Jacquard of 1,536 hooks which is making some extremely sophisticated products which really need to be seen and touched to be believed. Go and ask to see a few samples.

TMAS (Sweden)

A new technology which has been attracting considerable attention at ITMA 2019 so far is the new TexCoat G4 system based on non-contact spray technology being demonstrated by Baldwin Technology in Hall 2.

Our stand has been constantly crowded since the show opened,” said the company’s COO Peter Hultberg, explaining that this new non-contact spray technology brings numerous advantages compared to conventional methods of applying finishing chemistry. The chemistry is uniformly distributed across the textile surface and is applied only where it is required – on one or both sides of the fabric.

(L) Baldwin Technology COO Peter Hultberg and the company’s new TexCoat G4 system. (R) Laroche is the French go-to specialist in recycled fibre processing.

UCMTF (France)

The French machinery builders are very much technology partners to their customers, according to Evelyne Cholet, UCMTF general secretary. “It’s often the case that the R&D teams of our members will work with customers long before any investment decision is made,” she said.

Among French technology leaders is Laroche, a specialist in fibre processing technology and increasingly that for recycling. At ITMA, the company is exhibiting its Flexiloft 2600 airlaying line which can process a vast range of synthetic and natural fibres, in addition to waste materials such as wood and foam chips. It is also showing the Jumbo 2000 rag tearing line for the high capacity recycling of all types of textile waste.

VDMA (Germany)

Twelve companies made rapid presentations on the ITMA 2019 activities of the German textile machinery industry in a special press conference and were united in their view of the importance of Industry 4.0. One emphasis was on the subject of the anytime, anywhere operation and control of machines – even from the beach. Hmm, funny that – wonder where they all are today?