The 19th edition of the world’s largest textile and garment technology exhibition, ITMA 2023, concluded on 14 June, 2023, in Milan, showcasing cutting-edge technologies presented by an impressive list of 1,709 exhibitors from 47 countries.
Spanning 2,00,000 square meters of Fiera Milano, ITMA 2023 can be easily labeled as the biggest textile machinery exhibition in the post-pandemic era. Featured on the show floor was an entire gamut of solutions on advanced materials, automation and digital future, innovative technologies, and sustainability and circularity under the theme ‘Transforming the World of Textiles’.
Ernesto Maurer, President of CEMATEX (the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers) which owns ITMA, says, “ITMA continues to be a sought-after platform for textile machinery manufacturers, with this year’s exhibition receiving a 3% increase in net exhibit space compared to ITMA 2019. Interestingly, we also welcomed new exhibitors from Estonia, Ireland, Norway, Tunisia, Ukraine, and as far as Honduras, Panama, and Peru.”
ITMA 2023 featured strong participation of European bellwethers in the textile machinery sector. Exhibitors from CEMATEX countries continued to have a strong presence, with the largest contingent of 422 exhibitors coming from Italy, followed by Germany with 198 exhibitors. Among non-CEMATEX countries, China and India had sizeable participation with 231 and 181 exhibitors, respectively.
With digital printing making its presence felt in practically every industry – from paper to glass, from plastic to textiles – and with the global market projected to surpass $49.7 billion by 2030, one of the highlights of ITMA 2023 was, not surprisingly, digital technology and its modern advances. This was evident at ITMA with the printing sector represented by 146 exhibitors, the third largest product sector in terms of participation, displaying a wide variety of digital printing machines, auxiliary machines, screen printing and digital printing inks, and accessories.
The show saw a lot of innovation on live display, being the textile industry’s first post-pandemic mega event and the best place to introduce them to a vast global audience.
Chairman of ITMA Services Charles Beauduin, says, “At this year’s ITMA, there is a lot more opportunity to show how the world is changing and how the textile industry is adapting to the demands of sustainability by working with more environmentally friendly processes and products.”
Printing equipment maker Brother displayed its latest GTX600 direct-to-garment printer. With a maximum print size of 61x61cm and print resolution up to 1200dpi, the DtG printer has been built for industrial-level performance, processing mass volumes of printed garments with high-quality design reproduction.
Mimaki made a debut of its new, compact size Tiger600-1800TS sublimation transfer printer having higher printing speed with a renovated high-speed printhead and Mimaki’s proprietary image quality enhancement technologies.
Kyocera with its sustainable FOREARTH digital printer and Konica Minolta with its AccurioTex700 solution, unveiled their first entries into the delivery of an integrated digital textile printing system. Kyocera’s aptly-named FOREARTH is an All-in-One inkjet textile printer that aims to eliminate virtually all water usage from fabric printing and combines patented inkjet, ink, and printing equipment technology to solving environmental problems such as water wastage and water pollution. Konica Minolta’s AccurioTex700 is equipped with a sublimation technology on transfer paper and with Variable Dot technology to ensure a better print resolution and colour brilliance.
Italian companies MS Printing Solutions and JK Group showcased digital printers and innovative inks. ZIMMER AUSTRIA introduced some of their latest innovations including the brand new COLARIS digital inkjet printer that comes with a vision camera detection system, along with several models of coating and screen printing lines, together with different rotary screen printing heads and squeegee devices. Israeli companies Kornit Digital and Stratasys showcased their pigment ink based inkjet printers and direct-to-textile 3D printer, respectively. Other major exhibitors included DuPont, Epson, Fujifilm, Inkcups, and Sun Chemical, displaying a vast array of digital printing technologies including direct to fabric, direct to film, direct to garment, dye sublimation, as well as hybrid solutions combining two or more of these capabilities in a single printer.
Besides printers, new and improved inks and coatings, especially pigment inks for digital printing that require minimal or no pre- and post-processing, including virtually no water usage, and technical coatings that add value and can extend the life of garments and other textile products were on display. Other related products included transfer papers designed to transfer prints onto a wide range of natural and blended textiles.
Other than printing machines and accessories, ITMA covered an entire spectrum of industry technology including machines for spinning and man-made fiber production, winding, texturing, twisting, web formation, bonding and finishing, felting, weaving, tufting, knitting and hosiery, embroidery, braiding, washing, bleaching, dyeing, drying, finishing, cutting, rolling and folding, garment making, and textile processing, as well as software and automation for design and integrated production, colourants, and fibres and yarns.
Technology was not the only attraction at Milan. The ITMA Textile Colourants and Chemicals Forum discussed the need to minimize the carbon footprint in chemical treatment, improve dyehouse output treatment, achieve safe and sustainable chemistry, and fibre fragmentation. One more event organized on the sidelines was the ITMA Nonwovens Forum that threw light on the growth in nonwovens textile sector, increased investments in R&D and innovative manufacturing, and the latest innovations and solutions amidst supply chain disruptions. Innovator Xchange was another hit programme designed by ITMA that helped visitors to learn about the latest innovations on display, and gain insight from industry experts on trending topics, including automation and digital future, and sustainability and circularity.
Italian denim manufacturer Candiani did a repeat this year by winning the ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award 2023. Candiani, which had won the same award at the last 2019 event in Barcelona, took the honours this time for its Candiani Custom project, the first urban micro-factory specialized in eco-friendly, custom jeans. Yet another attraction was the ITMA 2023 Start-Up Valley, a new initiative by CEMATEX that threw the spotlight on nascent companies with new and game changing solutions and technologies to support and inspire innovation for the textile, garment, and fashion industry.
Cornelia Buchwalder, Secretary General, Swiss Textile Machinery, sums up the event. “ITMA is the greatest show on earth. It is vitally important and a major element in the overall development of the textile industry worldwide. ITMA continues to be a milestone in technology, where industry visitors rightly expect to see the best and latest ideas from their suppliers. Ultimately, ITMA is a celebration of the achievements of the global textile community, and an opportunity to foster the kind of innovative developments that future generations would be proud of.”
