Expansion to include the field of sustainability in terms of life cycle assessment and recycling

In order to meet the market demand for sustainable products and recyclable materials, Alliance Technical Textiles has been expanded to cover the business area »Sustainability« with regard to life cycle assessment and recycling. This is an additional focus of Alliance's activities: End-of-life and new-life scenarios, taking into account raw and material recycling strategies for bioplastics and fiber composites as well as the development of recycling concepts and alternative uses for recycled materials. The multi-layered, complementary research competencies of the individual institutes cover all areas of the textile value chain. The Alliance is looking forward to the industry's requests for further research approaches at Techtextil.

Intelligent textiles and textile-based components

At Techtextil, the Smart Textiles division will be presenting a broad spectrum of its developments, integrated into intelligent textiles and textile-based components. These include, for example, extremely elastic strain and pressure sensors made of dielectric elastomers and intertial sensors that measure accelerations in all degrees of freedom (e.g. for spinal column monitoring) as well as specially coated RFID tags that withstand high stresses and many washing cycles. In addition, new functions will be presented at the stand using printed circuit paths and wireless energy transmission on textiles applied to clothing, for example.

In the same way, component-integrated sensor and functional solutions in textile-reinforced lightweight structures await interested parties for further applications and research approaches that can be implemented with the Alliance's bundled expertise.

Innovative braids to meet requirements

The processing of new functional materials is demonstrated on a variation braider. The high potential of the patterning and binding possibilities of the braider allows new ways to individualized 3D designs, designed according to requirements, by computer-controlled binding techniques. Innovative braided structures are being developed for applications in safety engineering, component reinforcement and medical technology.

Simulation programs for production processes

The optimized design and monitoring of production processes is becoming increasingly important for the success of a production line, especially with regard to the complexity of material and process parameter selection. For this reason, successful companies invest in the multi-criteria simulation and optimization of their processes in order to minimize the risk of planning failures. With its Process and Product Simulation business unit, the Fraunhofer Technical Textiles Alliance offers solutions tailored to the individual requirements of the textile industry and among other things will present a »Machine Learning Simulation« on artificial intelligence (AI) methods at the fair.

Fraunhofer Technical Textiles: R&D partner for the entire textile value chain

At present, 13 Fraunhofer Institutes are bundling their individual competencies to map the textile value chain from textile machinery to fiber production, preform/semi-finished product production, textile functionalization, smart textiles, process and product simulation, sustainability (life cycle assessment and recycling) and fiber composite components. Complex textile topics can thus be dealt with together in a synergetic and efficient way. The Alliance was founded in 2016 in response to the growing need for innovation and research in the textile industry.