ITM's award-winning presence at the leading international trade fairs Techtextil and Texprocess 2024 in Frankfurt/M.

The Institute of Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology (ITM) at TU Dresden can look back on a successful time at the Techtextil and Texprocess 2024 trade fairs in Frankfurt am Main with many highlights.

The ITM would like to thank the numerous visitors to the ITM stands for the profound interest and the expansion of the professional network. The diverse, cross-industry exchange is a great enrichment for the ITM.

One highlight at the ITM stand was the successful presentation of a revolving weft insertion module in an RR Raschel machine for the production of innovative contour-adjustable connection implants for medical applications. This innovation, as well as numerous other demonstrators, attracted many visitors to the stand.

The demonstration of a sensor-integrated fiber composite wind rotor blade produced in a contour-compatible manner and load-path-compatible woven preforms using a variable-width reed aroused great interest. Research activities on the circular economy, sustainable fiber materials, the recycling of textiles and carbon fibers, and carbon concrete structures were presented and discussed intensively with visitors.

Interactive exhibits with integrated sensors and actuators were very popular. For example, an operable FKV Soft Robotic Arm with shape memory alloys was exhibited. Furthermore, a wind blade with lifetime monitoring using integrated sensors and the recording of gait data using a knee cuff attracted numerous visitors.

New, functionalized clothing demonstrators such as a suit with abrasion protection elements were presented.

The topic of deformable human models for digital clothing development was also met with great interest.

The areas of automation and robotics in the field of joining technologies and the handling of textiles attracted a great deal of attention. Gripper developments for handling and transporting textile materials and developments in the digitalization of production were presented.

Of particular note was the receipt of two Innovation Awards, which were achieved through special research results by ITM employees. Firstly, we would like to congratulate Paul Penzel from ITM (Chair of Textile Technology) and the Institute of Concrete Structures (IMB) at TU Dresden on winning the Techtextil Innovation Award in the "New Concept" category for a new manufacturing process for precast concrete elements with a carbon-based mesh lattice girder.

On the other hand, we congratulate Ann-Malin Schmidt from ITM (Chair of Development and Assembly of Textile Products) for the Texprocess Innovation Award in the category "Digitalization + AI" for a new evaluation method for 4D body scans.

We would also like to congratulate the students Katharina Maria Ernst and Lena Fink on winning the Sustainability Award and the German Textile Machinery Industry Sponsorship Award from the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Textile Machinery Association. These prizes were awarded during the Techtextil trade fair.

Finally, 48 students from TU Dresden were given the opportunity to discover numerous highlights of Techtextil and Texprocess 2024 as part of a three-day excursion. For example, the students from various degree programs and specializations visited the stands of Lindauer DORNIER GmbH, Groz-Beckert KG, Tenowo GmbH, Dilo Systems GmbH and many more.

The students and the ITM would like to thank the Friends and Sponsors of the ITM, the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering at TU Dresden and the VDMA Textile Machinery Association for their technical and financial support for the excursion.