Looking back at the Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference 2019 in Dresden

Professor Chokri Cherif, host of this year´s conference, was delighted about the continuous interest in ADD-ITC. “This year was dominated by Techtextil and ITMA, two of the most important conferences of the textile sector; thus, we are extraordinarily glad that so many participants are joining us for ADD-ITC despite of this eventful year to enjoy the many excellent presentations from industry and research throughout the next two days.”

Since 2007, this conference for innovations and technological strategies has become the most important meeting ground for exchange between executive management, experts & young professionals from industry and science at the three locations Aachen, Dresden, and Denkendorf. The conference´s success is mainly based on its broad range of topics, including current developments, market strategies, and global trends along the entire textile process chain, environment and resources, energy, mobility, health and digital communication through the development of key technologies by using novel materials and advanced production technologies. Digitization, industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, ma-chine learning, tactile internet, and sustainability are among the topics that were presented in exciting lectures.

Professor Cherif, being this year´s main organizer of the conference, highly appreciates the interdisciplinary character of Dresden, where CEOs and decision makers meet developers from different sectors. In addition to representatives from SMEs, experts from market leaders – including Boeing, Bosch, Daimler, Rolls Royce, or Siemens – were also attending since high-performance textiles offer innovative solutions for all industrial branches. Over all, this conference is a platform with a focus on industry. Therefore, both days of the event included lectures in four parallel sessions featuring topics that are particularly relevant to the industry.

As well-established part of the first conference day, the transfer session "Best Practices: Transfer – from idea to practice“, was once again be organized by Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V. The focus was on current innovations (e.g. products, technologies, procedures) that were generated by research cooperations, in particular through IGF/ZIM, and successfully transferred into industrial practice by start ups.

Moreover, promotional awards generously provided by the Circle of Friends and Supporters of the ITM at TU Dresden e.V. were granted for excellent theses.

Also, as organizing team of the conference, it was our great pleasure to announce that the VDMA, Textile Machinery Association, selected ADD-ITC for their annual award ceremony by the Walter Reiners-Foundation of the German Textile Machinery Industry supporting young engineers. Prof. Cherif is convinced that all laureates made a valuable contribution with their innovative ideas, thus being promising candidates for future leading positions in the textile sector.

ADD-ITC AT A GLANCE

Since 2007, the textile research institutes of Aachen, Dresden, and Denkendorf have successfully organized the International Textile Conference, with the three institutes taking turns in organizing the event: the DWI Leibniz-Institut für Interaktive Materialien in Aachen, the ITM – Institute for Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology in Dresden, the DITF - Deutsche Institute für Textil- und Faserforschung in Denkendorf. They are supported by further research institutes, most of which are part of the Forschungskuratorium Textil.

Hence, this conference is one of the most important events in the textile sector in Europe and has become a national and international platform for the textile industry, textile mechanical engineering, textile finishing, textile chemistry and application-oriented disciplines, such as lightweight engineering, bio and medical technology, civil engineering as well as electro- and information technologies.

Moreover, the institutes received valuable support from renowned company representatives and associations during program preparation. Special thanks goes to the Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V., the Gesamtverband Textil + Mode e.V., and the VDMA, Textile Machinery Association.