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Auto textiles to be second largest segment at Techtextil

18 Mar '15

3 min read

Techtextil and Texprocess, taking place from May 4 to 7, 2015 will offer a world-wide innovation platform for technical textiles, nonwovens and processing of textile and flexible materials, especially for the automotive segment.

Around 600 exhibitors will show their products in the field of mobile technology which apart from the industrial technology sector is the second largest, out of twelve fields of application that will be presented at the Techtextil fair during the four exhibition days.

According to Commerzbank, the automobile market is the most important consumer of technical textiles, in which German manufacturers hold a world market share of 23 per cent. The technical textile raw material group tries to ensure that the cars become lighter and lighter.

“Compared to a figure of about 23 kilograms that is currently used in one new car, the fibre-based material portion will soon increase to 30 to 35 kilograms,” the organisers of the fair, Messe Frankfurt said in a press release.

According to Commerzbank, completely new textile products could be created within a few years, such as textile displays, textiles allowing colour change and self-cleaning structures or reactive protecting textiles.

“In this connection, two interesting innovations come from Mönchengladbach and Aachen,” Messe Franfurt said. Although Mönchengladbach has been a traditional textile branch place it was so far not considered an input generator for the automobile industry.

In order to bring about a change in this respect, a good deal of development projects has been initiated by experts of the department textile and clothing technology (FTB) at the Niederrhein University of Technology.

The department developed new functional equipment which provides a permanent protection against wet dirt on extensively used textile surfaces in car interiors.

The basis of the cleaning effect which shall enable the use of bright fabrics and thus provide a more comfortable space feeling between the bonnet and the car boot is a dirt-repellent equipment, for instance, in seat covers, which does not allow dirt to penetrate into the fabrics.

High-tech ground floor tiles, automobile and inner decoration trims as wells as tiles for heating purposes represent a completely new and innovative design material both for exterior and interior applications.

The tiles can be manufactured and customised as far as colour, haptics and optics are concerned. The new development consists 95 per cent of recycled fibre material from the automobile industry and looks like wood is long-lasting, chemically resistant and extremely robust.

The carbon flooring provided with light-conducting fibres on the surface glows point by point and can be used as trim in the car interiors, as decorative element on furniture, as floor covering in architecture or as staircase step with safety lighting. (AR)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India