Ahead of this year’s ITMA Asia + CITME exhibition in Singapore from October 28-31, members of the British Textile Machinery Exhibition have already announced a succession of new developments aimed at expanding efficiencies and resource savings for fabric manufacturers, with more to come.
Many BTMA members have established leading positions in the areas of testing and instrumentation and Verivide, for example, has just released a new version of its industry leading DigiEye imaging system. This features 100% LED illumination, improving the accuracy of colour assessments while supporting environmentally responsible practices in colour management.
Q-Lab Corporation is meanwhile a global leader in lightfastness and weathering test equipment and has just launched a new breakthrough in UV testing – TUV-421 lamps.
This new light source, exclusive to Q-Lab, enables testing for colour changes and fade in materials whose colorants are susceptible to longer-wavelength UV and shorter-wavelength visible light. This includes pigments and dyes found in textiles, as well as plastics, paints and printing inks.
Martindale testing needs little introduction to textile manufacturers, being well established as the industry standard for abrasion and pilling testing since its initial development and introduction by James Heal back in the 1940s.
For 2025, however, James Heal’s development team has taken a fresh look at this classic instrument and the result is the new Martindale Motion. This redesigned nine-station Martindale instrument with individual lifting heads now offers the flexibility to run each station independently for carrying out different textile tests simultaneously. Multiple textiles can be tested at the same time through to conclusion without intervention.
“ BTMA companies continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the area of textile testing,” says the association’s CEO Jason Kent. “They are each making solid contributions to the quality and performance properties of today’s textile products, and just as importantly, enabling manufacturers to prove their claims.”
Composite reinforcements
Many other BTMA members are increasingly involved in projects aimed at the further development of advanced technical textiles and reinforcements for composites.
The UK’s National Composites Centre (NCC), headquartered in Bristol, for example, is to locate its new open access carbon fibre development facility at BTMA member Cygnet Texkimp’s site in Northwich, Cheshire.
It will house two digitally-enabled development lines for manufacturing carbon fibre, funded by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and act as a critical stepping stone to further develop and industrialise advanced material manufacturing capability in the UK.
In addition, Cygnet is licensed to design and build the DEECOM® composite recycling system developed by new BTMA member Longworth Sustainable Recycling Technologies. DEECOM® is a zero emission, low carbon pressolysis solution using pressure and steam to reclaim pristine condition fibres and resin polymers from production waste and end of life composites.
Another new BTMA member, Emerson & Renwick (E+R), also specialises in the technology for the production of carbon fibre prepregs, while Airbond, Fibre Extrusion Technology (FET), Roaches, Slack and Parr are others actively involved in technical textiles.
“As the BTMA continues to expand its membership, newly-developed fibres, technical textiles and composite materials are finding success through meeting demand in high value industries such as aerospace, renewable energy, automotive and the medical sector,” says Jason Kent. “These are certainly areas of growth and opportunity and an important factor underpinning the success of our companies here is the strong collaboration between industry and the many universities and institutes in the UK. Our members will have many more new things to introduce in Singapore.”
