With the establishment of ‘touchpoint textile’ drupa 2024 has created a special forum to showcase pioneering applications in digital textile printing. The highlight will be the Digital Textile Micro Factory – a fully connected, integrated process chain starting with the customer enquiry and design through to large-format digital textile printing. The special forum revolves around the opportunities and challenges of digital textile printing, brings together renowned exhibitors, industry partners and brand owners and provides scope for cross-industry cooperation, new projects as well as product and manufacturing ideas.
The operational content partners of touchpoint textile include the German Institutes for Textile and Fibre Research Denkendorf (DITF), as Europe’s largest textile research centre, as well as ESMA, the European Specialist Printing Manufacturers Association. In cooperation with 12 partners from industry and research the DITF will demonstrate a Digital Textile Micro Factory live at drupa and, hence, a fully connected, integrated process chain from design to finished product. The companies on board include: Assyst/Germany (3D simulation for digital apparel twins)’ Multi-Plot Europe/Germany (large-format textile printing); LEONHARD KURZ Stiftung/Germany; Zünd/Switzerland (digital cutting), Brother/Japan (for small-format textile printing and bonding technology), etc.