ITMA opened its gates on June 20 in Barcelona, and for seven days visitors at the world’s primary textile machinery trade fair were provided a first-hand look at the high quality of the technology proposals of roughly 360 exhibiting Italian machinery manufacturers. The overall surface area occupied by Italian exhibitors, nearly 30,000 sq.mtr (fully 26 per cent of the total surface area), confirms Italy’s leading role among exhibiting nations.
Alessandro Zucchi, President of ACIMIT (the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers) states, “Yet again, Italy’s textile machinery industry played a leading role, with a manifestly large number of participants at the largest international showcase for textile machinery products. This is an absolutely significant sign to customers and confirms the vitality of our industry, especially with regards to the qualitative and technological levels that Italy knows how to express.”
Sustainability and digitization were the buzzwords at this edition of ITMA. The textile sector is having to face up to new trends in which the end consumer is increasingly at the center of the buying process. Focusing on process and product sustainability and greater digitalization within manufacturing businesses is essential in order to allow textile companies to remain competitive at a global level.
Italian textile machinery and digitalization
The digitalization of production processes in the textile sector is an indispensable response to new trends requiring faster timeto- market and just-in-time production. “The current commitment of our manufacturers,” comments ACIMIT’s President, “is to provide a suitable response to clients who are facing difficult challenges in developing new production processes and business models within the textile industry. Our product ranges are increasingly compliant with 4.0 technologies.”
There are numerous examples of these types of technologies in Italian machinery offerings on display at ITMA Barcelona. Among these we can cite the use of intelligent management platforms, on-board machine sensors for data acquisition allowing the monitoring of both the machine and products, predictive maintenance, for a reduction in costs obtained through less downtime, and augmented reality applications supporting the operator in the various production phases.
Support from the Ministry of Economic Development and ICE Italian Trade Agency
At ITMA Barcelona. Italy’s textile machinery sector has once again been able to rely on the support provided by the Italian Government, through the Ministry of Economic Development and Italian Trade Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies.
Roberto Luongo, General Director of Italian Trade Agency states, “This year’s ITMA trade fair exhibit in Barcelona is once again an essential international showcase for Italy’s textile machinery industry. Textile machinery represents the excellence of Made in Italy industrial technology, with an acute propensity for internationalization in its entrepreneurial fabric, requiring innovative, global and high level outlets to consolidate its business. For this reason, we have lent our support to the entire textile machinery chain with a significant investment in the promotional program and, in collaboration with ACIMIT, supporting all companies exhibiting at the trade fair with a structured activity plan, aimed at enhancing the keywords of the 2019 edition: Sustainability, digitalization and technology.”
Sustainability: ACIMIT Rewards Excellence in Textile Machinery Manufacturing with the Italian Green Label Award
At the press conference held by ACIMIT and the Italian Trade Agency at ITMA Barcelona, two ACIMIT associated textile machinery manufacturers, Loptex and Tonello, were awarded the Italian Green Label Award for their commitment to reducing their machinery’s carbon footprint.
The commitment of textile machinery manufacturers in researching and developing technology solutions capable of improving the energy consumption and/or environmental performance of their machinery is implemented through the Sustainable Technologies project. Promoted by ACIMIT since 2011, the project’s focus is on the Green Label, through which machinery manufacturers can communicate their engagement.
The quantity of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions produced during the operation of the machinery (CFP) is the parameter chosen to give value to the environmental efficiency of the machinery subject to the special labelling.
Eight years after launching the Sustainable Technologies project, which occurred right here in Barcelona at the 2011 edition of ITMA, ACIMIT has now instituted the Italian Green Label Award, to reward companies that have shown the most commitment in pursuing the project’s aims. Loptex S.r.l., a company based in Montano Lucino (CO), specializing in quality control systems in textile fibre, both in the spinning and non-woven sectors, was awarded a prize as the company that achieved the best results, expressed in terms of percentage reduction in the value of CFP for its machinery. Tonello S.r.l., of Sarcedo (VI), which manufactures technologies for finishing garments, for its part received the award as the company that showed the most engagement in exploiting all the functionalities of the tool dedicated to generating the Green Label, producing numerous labels for a variety of different machinery and updating them over time, in an effort to communicate continuously up-to-date information on the path to sustainability undertaken.
“With the Italian Green Label, ACIMIT intends not just to reward those companies that have been most intensely engaged in our project, but also bears witness to what we have achieved as a sector on the issue of sustainability,” states ACIMIT’s President Alessandro Zucchi. “I believe that the search for sustainable technology solutions is an indispensable element for textile manufacturers who are intent of providing a response to the market’s needs. And Italian machinery manufacturers are leaders on this issue as well.”
The winning companies expressed their satisfaction. Renato Gerletti, owner of Loptex: “We’re obviously very pleased to have received this award. The Italian Green Label Award recognizes just how much we have achieved so far on the issue of sustainability. It will to motivate us to do even more, dedicating additional resources to researching and developing sustainable solutions for our customers.”
Flavio Tonello, CEO of Tonello, “We have joined the Green Label project since its start. Tonello has always focused on sustainability in building our machinery, and our Research and Development team have always endeavoured to provide innovative, sustainable solutions”
