The sixth edition of ITMA Asia + CITME 2018 exhibition opened yesterday (15 October). With the changing economic and manufacturing landscape, this year’s show has a focus on intelligent and environmentally-friendly manufacturing.
At the ITMA Asia + CITME press conference, held on the opening day of the show, Liang Pengcheng, general manager of Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition Co and vice president of CCPITTEX, said: “Innovation and environmentally-friendly technology is a particular focus of the exhibition.”
Following this, Wang Shutian, president of the China Textile Machinery Association, commented that this is the biggest exhibition ITMA Asia + CITME has ever had and that exhibitors have made new records. He said: “The textile machinery industry is very important in China. The industry is getting bigger and the transformation and upgrade of the industry has become a trend.” The kind of processes, as well as the products companies provide, has become more important, he added.
Environmentally-friendly technology and the making of machinery are increasingly focused on the reduction of emissions. “Environmental requirements are becoming more demanding, so we will see a lot of new products [that meet these requirements] at the exhibition,” continued Shutian.
Also, he revealed that with the worldwide and Chinese government strategy to reduce emissions, new products and technical solutions are being introduced at the show that will aim to meet these targets.
Another important part of the exhibition, which can help with reducing energy resources and meeting environmental standards, as mentioned by Shutian, is digitalisation. Shutian believes it is incredibly important that textile machinery manufacturers adopt internet and connected technologies into their daily production adding that the industry must ‘make its machinery intelligent’.
There is already some technology out there that is IoT (Internet of Things) enabled and Shutian notes that these companies are role models for the rest of the industry.
Ernesto Maurer, first vice president, CEMATEX, The European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, also discussed the importance of innovation in the textile machinery industry. He said: “This is not just a tradition, it has become a success story. We have surpassed all of our records. However, as explained, the times of bigger, faster and heavier production are over. Now is the time for more specialised, cleaner and environmentally-friendly technology. This is the theme for this show. As the markets and the textile manufacturing industry are changing, the machinery manufacturer is changing.”
Also in attendance were Federico Pellegata, director, Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT), and Alan Little, director, British Textile Machinery Association (BTMA).
The combined show makes up 180,000 sqm of exhibition space and has attracted a total of 1,733 exhibitors from 28 countries and economies to showcase a wide array of latest technology solutions that will help textile makers to become more competitive, according to show organisers.
Fritz P Mayer, president of CEMATEX, says: “Each ITMA Asia + CITME edition features an interesting presentation of the latest technologies by European exhibitors. On show this year will be a wide range of solutions for automation and sustainable production, as well as those for the production of technical textiles and nonwoven materials.”
At the event, China has the largest number of exhibitors, covering over 68,000 sqm of exhibition space. When it comes to European participation, Germany has taken the largest space at almost 6,400 sqm. This is followed by Italy with over 5,200 sqm and Switzerland with over 2,600 sqm. Outside of Europe, Maurer gave a special mention to Japan as the nation has taken up 3,500 sqm of exhibition space, with 35 exhibitors. He says: “This teaming up of Japan with China and Europe has been a very successful element of this show.”
With the rise of digital printing, the printing sector has doubled in size, compared to the last edition of the show in 2016, which Maurer says is proof of the importance of this sector. However, traditional textile sectors, such as spinning and knitting, have also seen growth at the show. In fact, spinning is the largest sector at the show, occupying 22% of the total exhibition space. Finishing machinery forms the next biggest group with 20% of the floor space, and the knitting sector taking up 19% and weaving 17%.
