Country: Italy

Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using fabrics, leather, technical textiles and composite materials, recently co-hosted a Design & Technology Seminar in Milan with the Department of Design and the POLI.design Consortium of Politecnico di Milano, one of Italy’s largest technical universities.

The event was an opportunity for students and executives from the upholstered furniture, marine, and automotive markets to gain valuable insights into the ways recent technological innovations can bolster design creativity and development efficiency. The seminar witnessed a demonstration of DesignConcept, Lectra’s 2D/3D solution for virtual prototyping, costing and creation of technical specifications, which showcased multiple ways in which the solution’s collaborative product development and pre-production process help companies in better addressing these market challenges.

Explaining the benefits of the same, Stanislas Joly, General Manager of Sylvain Joly Designs stated, “DesignConcept is a solution with which the cost and technical constraints can be integrated from the beginning and any modifications r changes can be easily incorporated and shared among all teams. This will bridge the gap between the original design and the final product.The increased communication and visibility significantly shorten process time ensuring that the end product resembles our original intention as closely as possible.”

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Also, explorations of market trends and changes were presented by Caterina Rorro, Marketing and Communications Director, Lectra Italy at the seminar while emphasizing the importance of offering innovative designs, accelerating development speed and reducing costs for companies across the three industries.

Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT), a private non-profit body which promotes the Italian textile machinery sector, recently hosted its annual meeting, where sustainable technologies emerged as the main point of discussion, with mentions of innovations and the recovering textile machinery market.

Owing to the new sustainable technologies developed by Italian manufacturers, 221,000 less tonnes of CO₂ eq. were emitted into the environment in 2014, the equivalent of reducing CO₂ eq. emissions generated by 38,000 cars. Sustainable innovation is among the primary goals promoted by ACIMIT – a goal that can be achieved only through a strict collaboration with the recipients of innovative research, the textile producers, according to the association.

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Innovation, which goes hand-in-hand with being sustainable, was also discussed at length. “Innovation is a discriminating element between those who have managed to overcome the long period of recession in production, and those who on the other hand struggled on the sidelines,” explained Raffaella Carabelli, President of ACIMIT adding, “In future, innovation will play an even larger part in making a difference in the textile sector.”

The textile machinery market is expected to grow even bigger with Vietnam, Bangladesh Cambodia, India, Myanmar, etc. focusing to increase their share of textile exports in the international market, which will require these countries to adopt latest machinery and technologies. This will further drive growth in the textile machinery market world over.

FESPA – a global federation of 37 member associations for the screen printing, digital printing and textile printing community which aims to promote screen printing and digital imaging with its members across the world – will host a ‘Digital Textile Conference’ on 30 September 2016 in Milan, Italy. The Conference will be organized with support from FESPA Italia Association, in collaboration with Sistema Moda Italia, the Italian Fashion and Textile Federation, and Associazione Italiana Disegnatori Tessili, the Italian Textile Designers Association.

As per the press release, the Digital Textile Conference will provide print service providers with insights into the diverse market segments of digital textile printing, including updates on the latest technology developments in machinery, software, inks and textiles. The list of speakers and panellists includes names like Enrico Barboglio (FESPA Italia); Duncan MacOwan (FESPA); Ron Gilboa (InfoTrends); Fulvio Alvisi (AIDT); Andrea Ferrero (Miroglio Textiles); Lorenzo Zottar (The Color Soup); Gianluca Brenna (Stamperia di Lipomo); Dario Garnero (Stamperia Serica Italiana); and Andrea Barbiani (MS Italy).

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Neil Felton, CEO, FESPA said, “Today, digital accounts for only a small proportion of all textile printing, but this is forecast to grow substantially in the years ahead, with estimates suggesting that digital could account for 5 per cent of textile printing by 2020, up from 2 per cent today. Clearly that’s a significant diversification opportunity for printers already invested in digital output technology and supporting workflows.”