The organisers of textile and garment technology exhibition, ITMA have announced that stand space application for ITMA 2023 will open on March 3, 2021.
The exhibition will be held at Fiera Milano Rho, Milan, from June 8-14, 2023. According to show owner Cematex, and organiser ITMA Services, many enquiries have been received from participants since last year.
“The pandemic has changed the world in many unprecedented ways. We are now moving into a new world where the digital space has become more commonplace.
At the same time, it has underscored the importance of face-to-face meetings, which all of us will appreciate more than ever once it becomes possible again,” Charles Beauduin, chairman of ITMA Services, said in a press release.
“Many textile technology builders are using these couple of years to consolidate their business, and to advance their research and development efforts to stay competitive. As such, by the time ITMA 2023 is held, they will be ready to showcase their latest innovations in Milan,” Beauduin said.
“In the meantime, we are also looking at various ways to help textile and garment industry players maximise their participation at ITMA 2023. Exhibitors will be able to explore additional avenues to promote their latest machinery and solutions through our new digital platform, which will help to connect exhibitors and visitors before their face-to-face meetings at ITMA 2023, and after the exhibition. We have also expanded and refined our product index to reflect opportunities in the marketplace,” Ernesto Maurer, president of Cematex said.
ITMA 2023 will feature 20 chapters. A new chapter on machinery for textile reinforcement structures for composites, auxiliary machinery and accessories, has been created to address the needs of buyers in this growing sector.
“ITMA 2023 features solutions for an entire textile and garment manufacturing value chain. The composite industry is bursting with opportunities. While composite solutions have been showcased at past ITMA editions, we are now making it easier for buyers to source these technologies by clustering them in one sector,” Beauduin said in the release.
“It’s great to learn that technology for textile composites which have been showcased at ITMA for many years, has now been established as a separate product chapter to give the sector more visibility. At the last exhibition in Barcelona, we successfully launched our P2 rapier weaving machine. The machine was very well received by visitors from various industry sectors, ranging from clothing, home and technical textiles, to composite material manufacturing,” Peter D Dornier, chairman of the board of management, said.
Other past ITMA exhibitors excited about the new sector include Luke Vardy, managing director of Cygnet Texkimp. “As a regular ITMA exhibitor and established manufacturer of fibre processing machinery for the technical fibre markets, we feel that the dedicated composites chapter will present us with more focused opportunities to showcase our solutions to the existing wide array of visitors from various industries such as aerospace, automotive, defence and medical,” Vardy said in the release.
Chapter 11 will feature machinery for textile reinforcement structures for composites, as well as auxiliary machinery and accessories. Included in the chapter are: machines for the production and treatment of special fibres, such as carbon, glass and aramid fibres; filament winding machines; fibre spreading machines; tape laying machines, fibre placement lines; coating and impregnation machines for prepreg production; other machines for the production of reinforcement structures; special testing equipment for textile reinforcement structures; and auxiliary machinery and accessories for machines for textile reinforcement structures
Further reflecting current industry demands and needs, the ITMA 2023 product index has been updated to feature equipment for textile recycling, such as textile sorting systems and chemical recycling technology.
The chapter on software and automation for design, data monitoring, processing and integrated production has been expanded to include digital platforms for textile and clothing production, procurement of textile materials and B2C platforms for retail. There is also a bigger range of solutions for automation of production processes, and tracking and tracing of products.
The last ITMA exhibition, held in Barcelona in 2019, featured exhibits from the entire textile and garment making value-chain, including raw materials and fabrics. It drew record-breaking participation of 1,717 exhibitors from 45 countries and visitorship of over 105,000 from 136 countries.
