HIGHTEX 2010: 3rd Istanbul Technical Textiles
and Nonwoven Trade Fair

The third edition of Hightex, Istanbul Technical Textiles & Nonwoven and Weaving Technologies Trade Fair will be held on 15-18 May 2010 at Tuyap Fair, Convention and Congress Center, Istanbul - Turkey. HIGHTEX 2010 will bring together the raw material, intermediate product, finished product and production technologies of technical textiles.

HIGHTEX exhibitions

The first edition in 2005, attracted a lot of interested visitors, with 318 participants out of which 162 of which were foreigners. HIGHTEX 2007 attracted 320 companies from Turkey and 20 from other countries. In total visitors from 35 other countries mainly from China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Uzbekistan, Korea, Taiwan, Greece, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France and The Netherlands visited the exhibition.

The third edition will present weaving technologies, as new innovations for technical textiles and new technological investments, created the need to showcase weaving machines and technologies at Hightex 2010.

Product highlights

The product types to be displayed at Hightex 2010 are as follows:

• Technology:

            Airlaid, Crosslapper, Drypad, Meltblown, Needlepunch, Spunbond, Spunlace, Stitchbond, Thermobond, Weblaid, Waterlaid.

• Machines:

            Flame retardant technologies, waste packaging machines and recycling technologies, bonding and separation technologies, printing machines, dyeing- general finishing, narrow fabrics weaving, converting machines, fiber tearing machines, flocking-impregnation systems, embossing machines, needling machines, coating and lamination systems, cutting and separation systems, drying systems, laboratory measurement equipment, micro-organism protection technologies, multi-filament systems, nonwoven processing machines, plastics and other hardening materials, plasma application technologies, robot technologies, technical textile weaving machines, tufting machines, braiding machines, adhesive mixture and implementation systems.

• Raw materials:

            Polymer chips and granules, bands and elastic, bind-latex and foams, fibers and filament, super absorbent, reinforcement textiles and fibers, tampons, structural composites and patterns, adhesives, hot melts, adhesive films and coating powders, adhesive and pattern materials, surface processing chemicals, acrylic fibers, biodegradable fiber materials, glass fibers, natural fibers, recycled fibers, flame retardant fiber, carbon fibers, metallic fibers, polyester fibers, melting yarns, filament yarns, high-tech yarns, polypropylene yarns, polyester fibers, polyamide yarns, cellulose and synthetic yarns, carded yarns and textile glass fibers.

• Finished products:

            Agrotextiles, construction textiles, clothing textiles, road and ground textiles, decoration textiles, industrial textiles, food textiles, medical and hygiene textiles, cleaning and cosmetics textiles, transportation industry textiles, environment protection textiles, packaging textiles, protective textiles, sports textiles.

• Smart textiles:

            The smart textiles, which aim to facilitate people's lives, are used in many fields.

Turkey's developing market: Technical textiles

Turkey is one of the most important centers of world textile industry,  especially Meltblown, Spunbond, Spunlace, Thermobond, Waterlaid technologies which are preferred in Turkey. Technical textile sector produces raw material or intermediate products, mainly for construction industry, ready made clothing, geotextiles, home textiles, cleaning/cosmetics/hygiene applications, automotive, packaging and food industries.

The approximate production of intermediate and end products in Turkey, according to their sectors amounts to following:

• Annual production capacity of agrotextiles; 1 million tones.
• Annual production capacity of construction textiles, 1.3 million tones.
• Annual production capacity of ready made clothing textiles, 900 thousand tones.
• Annual production capacity of geotextiles, 600 thousand tones.
• Annual production capacity of home textiles, 2.7 million tones.
• Annual production capacity of industrial textiles, 2.3 million tones.
• Annual production capacity of textiles used in cleaning/cosmetics/hygiene sectors, 1.6 million tones.
• Annual production capacity of automotive textiles, 2.4 million tones.
• Annual production capacity of packaging textiles, 650 thousand tones.
• Annual production capacity of protective textiles, 215 thousand tones.
• Annual production capacity of sports textiles, 400 thousand tones.
• Annual production capacity of food textiles, 670 thousand tones.

Applications of technical textiles

Agrotextiles: These days various kinds of technical textiles are required for protection, harvesting and storage in agriculture, forestation and fishing. In this category, the consumption of technical textiles, which are developed especially for fish farm equipment and agriculture applications, is increasing rapidly. Also carrying the plants together with the soil in erosion prevention and forestation studies are realized with technical textiles. In greenhouse coatings, climatizing textiles replace conventional plastic coatings rapidly.

Construction textiles: Today the prevalence of technical textiles in construction applications is not just limited to insulation; various applications have emerged thanks to their flexibility and elasticity. Technical textiles replaced classical filling materials with their stable position between two separate surfaces.

Much more composite materials are used in the recent years, in building applications is resistant to earthquake. Similarly, special fibers are added in to the mixture of ready-mixed concrete in order to increase its resistance.

Clothing textiles: Interlinings, paddings, which are commonly used in ready made clothing. In view of new technologies and changing costs, special clothes that can be worn daily. Another development is the increase of technical textiles use in shoes and leather wear sector with comfort and ventilation purposes.

Geotextiles: The fastest growing product range of the recent period among the others is geotextiles. Despite low product diversity, high consumption speeds up the pay back period of the initial investment. Geotextiles, which were only used in the developed regions of the world in the past, now finds their application almost in any part of the world with the profit and price ratio they offer. The infrastructure investments of developing countries bring higher amount of geotextiles than expected. Geotextiles are increasingly used in the building floors for the purpose of insulation and stability. The mandatory use of geotextiles in highway contracts in the recent years shows that the demand in this market will increase in future

Decoration textiles: The percentage of technical textiles at home also increased in the last 10 years. From carpet backing to furniture frames, from beds to kitchen and bathroom materials, the use of technical textiles and nonwovens is increasing. On the other hand, the use of synthetic fibers increases in home textiles and furnishings. The new trend in home textiles market is flame retardant fabrics, among the other new technological products

Industrial textiles: The most common application of technical textiles is industrial applications. Technical textiles with special structures are required for the transportation of the material and also different filtering requirements. New environment regulations highlighted the filters made of technical textiles almost with limitless applications. Technical textiles provide solution not only for dust, but also for liquid, gas and oil filtration.

Food textiles: In the recent year, the use of technical textiles in food packages increased. Some of these products are also edible textiles. Now easy-clean technical textiles are preferred for the transportation of food in the production and transportation and while they are kept in shelves. Also the first examples of protective technical textiles received great attention during the heating, boiling and serving of the food. This is expected to be the fastest growing product group of food textiles since it is a very novel category and offer hygienic benefits.

Cleaning and cosmetics textiles: The use of disposable products in cleaning and cosmetic products sector bring the changes in consumer user habits. This is a rapidly growing sector parallel to increasing production capacities. Technical textiles completely replaced the textile products in home, factory, office and outdoor cleaning products.

Medical/hygienic Textiles: Generally the market of health and hygiene products grows parallel to world's increasing population. High standard and complex textiles are required in medical operations and hygienic textiles market shows development with the new products and applications.

Transportation textiles: Transportation sector constitutes the most important market for technical textiles in many fields from automobiles to trains, from boats to air crafts. While the usual applications are generally for insulation and coating, currently comfort and smartness also stand out in various new applications. Coatings of fabrics used for personal cars, trucks and sailing clothes in order to resist better against climate and other environment constraints is another sector which shows remarkable growth.

Ecological textiles: Although ecological textiles shows promise in terms of diversification and development, it has the smallest market share. Ecological textiles also includes technical textiles used in environment protection studies, such as different products for dust and smoke filtration, prevention of erosion, covering the toxic garbage and the control of harmful liquids. Ecological textile products also offer high profitability due more stringent environment protection standards.

Packaging textiles: Sacks and bags made of natural fibers such as jute and cotton are being replaced by modern synthetic fibers. Technical textiles have begun to show up in low weight packaging processes, heavy load envelopes and food packaging markets. The spacer knitted textiles have shown an increasing in consumer packages.

Protective textiles: Industrial protective products are preferred increasingly. From heat resistant gloves to heat or cold resistant clothes, from protection bands to protective materials in the shoes.

Sports textiles: The comfortable, reliable and performance oriented garment for sportsmen and amateurs. The increase of interest in active sports over the world increases the use of technical textiles in sporting goods.