Knitting & Hosiery

2015-12-10

ITMA 2015 – great feedback for the new Groz-Beckert world

Enormous demand and a record number of visitors – that applied to the ITMA 2015 as well to Groz-Beckert's booth at the show. From November 12 to 19, 2015, with all its diversity and performance, the textile industry was on show at the ITMA 2015 in Milan, Italy. Groz-Beckert also used this leading trade fair as a platform to showcase its ever-growing range of products, but also to present the professional public with innovations for the first time.

Groz-Beckert's slogan at the trade fair was "Living in a Textile World", and across a 1,400 square-meter area, the company showed visitors how it sees and designs the world of textiles. We take a look back at a successful and fascinating trade show.

Reality exceeded expectations – ITMA registered an exhibitor and visitor record

Exhibiting at the world's largest textile machinery trade show is increasingly becoming a matter of course for the industry. More than a year before the show started, the planned booths were all booked and a further hall was needed. According to the organizers, with its total of 11 halls the trade show achieved a record number of visitors and exhibitors. Nearly 123,000 people from 147 countries were counted – almost 23,000 more than at the last ITMA Europe in Barcelona during 2011. The Top 4 countries from which visitors came were Italy (18%), India (9%), Turkey (8%) and Germany (7%). Overall, the exhibitors rated the quality of visitors and customer discussions as very high, and buying interest was at a high level.

Pic:Transparent machines showing Groz-Beckert products in an entirely new way were a real talking-point at the trade fair.

More insights, greater product variety: The latest from the Groz-Beckert world

Over 10,000 visitors from around the world took the opportunity to gain an insight into the Groz-Beckert world. Of particular interest to the booth visitors was the new product sector Carding, with products and services for carding that complement Groz-Beckert's textile expertise. The new corporate design and the modern, open booth concept also received positive feedback. A 20-meter video screen at the entrance introduced visitors to the theme of the trade show presentation. The textile worlds – the typical Groz-Beckert motifs of textile landscapes and photorealistic elements – were consistently developed into moving images. When viewed close-up, the highly detailed and elaborate implementation of the textile landscapes created numerous surprise effects.

Transparent exhibits and "info-cocoons"
How could the characteristics and advantages of Groz-Beckert products be demonstrated at the booth in the most vivid manner possible? By showing them in action – on transparent machines of almost the same size as the originals. For the first time, the company presented its acrylic-glass exhibits in their full diversity. In each product sector, the acrylic textile machines provided "live" demonstrations of the specific benefits and the interplay of Groz-Beckert products - and this sparked off numerous interesting conversations. In addition to the acrylic-glass exhibits, the new information points, designed as cocoons, were also real eye-catchers. Here, video-clips showed visitors how intelligently designed products lead to higher efficiency and productivity gains.

From Knitting to Carding – a very successful trade show for Groz-Beckert

For all the product sectors of Groz-Beckert, the fair was a great success. There was a great deal of positive feedback from visitors:

The Knitting sector welcomed many guests from Asia. There was particular interest in the new litespeed® needle generation, the litespeed® plus. At the corresponding exhibit their benefits were impressively illustrated: the litespeed® plus delivers up to 20% energy savings.

In the Weaving sector, in addition to the loom made from acrylic glass and the new Jacquard healds, the improved litespeed carbon shaft was in great demand – its exterior, made completely of carbon, gives it high flexural strength. The special heald TWINtec was presented at the ITMA 2015 for the first time with a low-wear ceramic thread eye that is especially gentle on thread. The Technical Weaving sector received a noticeably high proportion of visitors.

Felting delighted the visitors with a "Needle Machine", presenting needling solutions for filter media and distributing samples to match. The majority of visitors came from Europe, but guests from the US were also surprisingly well represented.

The product range in the Tufting sector was vividly illustrated by means of animations, combined with the Tuft system made of acrylic glass. The main focus was on the advanced Gauge Part System consisting of tufting needles, loopers, reed fingers, and tufting knives.

Carding, the company's latest "growth sector", met with great interest at its first trade show appearance and presented its product range with two acrylic-glass exhibits. The functional and visually fascinating card and card clothing were a definite attraction at the booth – and not only for the numerous visitors from the spinning and nonwovens sectors.

The product range also organized a raffle of eight iPad minis. The contestants had to guess the combined weight of the two Carding exhibits.
In the Sewing sector, the focus was on the 5-star service concept "Sewing5" and on the Online Customer Portal. In addition, animations showed different stitch formation techniques and the respective needles.