Touchpoint textile at drupa

Touchpoint textile, a new Touchpoint textile at drupa special show for digital textile printing applications, is premiering at drupa 2020 in Hall 4. With the textile industry spawning technologies for numerous industries, touchpoint textile connects these various sectors, offering them a platform for cross-industry collaboration, new projects, as well as product and manufacturing ideas that will be demonstrated on-site in a micro factory.

As the world’s leading trade fair for printing technologies, drupa is providing this forum to reflect the rising significance of digital textile printing and to underline its importance as a driver of innovation and growth in new fields of business for the printing industry. The special show is an indicator of how drupa tries to gain ground in new markets, which apart from textile printing include packaging, large format printing, industrial and functional printing. All of these segments are going through the same transformation processes, offering tremendous potential for growth.

Touchpoint textile is backed by two main partners: the German Institutes for Textile and Fibre Research (DITF) as Europe’s largest textile research centre, and the non-profit European Specialist Printing Manufacturers Association (ESMA).

Demonstrating new possibilities for digitalisation and direct customer interaction, such as 3D garment simulations with direct data transfer to virtual and augmented reality applications, the micro factory shows how digital textile printing, cutting and colour management can be integrated in a fully connected production environment.

ESMA, in turn, is in charge of the conference programme, inviting speakers from research, development and industry to discuss printing and finishing technologies, workflows, market developments and sustainability. “Textile printing is expanding rapidly thanks to innovations in printing processes. Both, digital and conventional technologies, can contribute to this change”, says ESMA General Manager Peter Buttiens. “We’re looking forward to demonstrating our expertise and know-how in textile applications to visitors at drupa’s touchpoint textile.”

“Continued digitalisation and cross-sectional technologies are accelerating innovation”, comments Sabine Geldermann, Director of drupa and Global Head of Print Technologies at Messe Düsseldorf. “drupa’s role is to be a source of momentum for our industry, fostering and shaping change. We’re committed to identifying all relevant issues and integrating them in our forums. The growth potential in textile printing is phenomenal. It’s against this backdrop that we are dedicating a special platform to these applications.” Even beyond the touchpoint textile special show, digital textile printing will be an important focus of many exhibitors. drupa visitors are thus assured of getting a 360-degree view of current developments and trends in this important sector.