STRESA – ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers, will have a major presence at the INDEX 2023 nonwovens show in Geneva from April 18-21 – and naturally an even bigger one at ITMA 2023 in Milan this June.
At a special press conference ahead of both events held in Stresa, northern Italy, on March 15th, ACIMIT president Alessandro Zucchi announced that over 40 Italian machinery manufacturers would be present in Geneva, with an Italian Pavilion in Hall 4. Major companies taking part include Bematic, Bombi, Bonino, Dell’Orco & Villani, Ferraro, Loptex, Ommi, RF Systems, Texera and Zappa Macchine.
“At the 2023 INDEX edition, the presence of a significant number of Italian machinery manufacturers testifies to their desire to play a leading role in the production of machinery for nonwovens,” Zucchi said.
Strong results
The association reported convincing preliminary results for 2022 at the Stresa event.
Textile machinery with a total value of over €2.6 billion was produced in Italy last year, up 11% on 2021, with exports up 12%, with a value of approaching €2.3 billion.
China remains the biggest export market for Italian machines but 2022 sales worth €244 million were flat compared to 2021. Major gains in sales last year, however, were recorded to India, up 86% to €153 billion, Vietnam, up 119% to €49 billion, and Uzbekistan, up 197% to €53 million as a result of that country’s major modernisation drive.
This performance was achieved despite the well reported problems facing machine builders globally.
“Critical issues following the Covid-19 pandemic have been amplified by the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” said Zucchi. “Moving into 2023, unfavourable conditions continue such as high inflation, constraints on the functioning of value chains and above average energy prices. However, forecasts from our Economic Office give us cause for some optimism.”
Digital Ready
A recent ACIMIT initiative is Digital Ready certification, designed to simplify production processes by exploiting a standard language and a data reading system that allows different types of machinery to interface within production systems.
It has been developed in partnership with the Manufacturing Group at Politecnico of Milano to provide standardisation of the machine’s management and production data and simplify use.
The international certification body RINA, a long-standing ACIMIT partner, is authorised to issue the certification to associated member companies based on a framework that includes identification of the machine and collection of data, an analysis of all documents and on-the-spot audits and verifications. The certification has a duration of five years.
“For the textile sector, digital transformation involves achieving a complex balance between modernisation and technological advancement while maintaining a focus on the creativity and craftsmanship that remains crucial to securing success in the international arena,” said Zucchi.
“Much progress has been made by Italian textile machinery manufacturers since the last ITMA in 2019 in enabling digital transformation in the three critical stages of design and planning, production and machine and parts maintenance. We believe that the future of the textile industry we want to shape lies in a sustainable and digitised supply chain, starting with the technology, and visitors to ITMA 2023 will see many concrete examples of the progress ACIMIT member companies are making.”
