The Center of Excellence in Nonwovens is always available to you as a reliable partner for your research and development work. We see the manifold know-how in the field of technical nonwovens, the extensive and complex equipment in three associated pilot plants as well as the interdisciplinary cooperation with the other research areas of the institute as a guarantee for successful cooperation.

The diversity of samples and experience from almost 30 years of textile research, our technical equipment, which can be used for hand samples, small series and semi-industrial project tests, the in-house certified test lab for validating our research results and the variety of problem-oriented solution options are indispensable building blocks of our joint research and development work.

Thanks to our broad network of fibre, filament and nonwoven manufacturers, converters, finishers, research institutes and countless other stakeholders, we are happy to support you in transferring the results to commercial success.

Get to know us and let us discuss your ideas together - or find new ones.

The Center for Textile Lightweight Engineering including its technology lines and existing know-how is available to one-time customer orders, bilateral research projects and small batch series as well as joint research activities within consortia and clusters.

Development tasks defined by the customer could be fully supported and solved by linking the existing in-house competencies. The Center for Textile Lightweight Engineering offers services, starting with the selection and characterization of raw materials, the development and testing of textile semi-finished products up to the development of composite materials and the determination of their characteristic values. Based on the test results, optimized processing parameters are provided and concepts for transferring from pilot scale to industrial scale are established.

The technical equipment is also used to produce small series, especially for SMEs, for the sampling of first customers and the subsequent market entry of new products.

The research department for technical woven and knitted fabrics has a wide range of machines. -Thereby customer enquiries, bilateral contract research and publicly funded research projects can be processed. With our know-how in the field of textile surface formation from various materials it is possible - to support you actively and in an advisory capacity in the implementation of your development or research tasks. We are at your side from the selection of materials and machines to patterning and prototype production. Through a lively exchange with you, the desired product can be manufactured in optimisation loops from the preliminary tests. If desired, the results obtained can be adapted to industrial plants and thus a transfer to your company can be worked out.

For your innovative ideas we are a competent and a very well technically equipped partner with a wide-ranging know-how in the field of manufacturing technical textiles. Feel free to contact us.

With our experience we support you in the optimisation of process parameters and formulations as well as the transfer of the ideas in recent technical processes of your company. Depending on material properties and requested effects we select and develop suitable coating, printing and laser structuring processes up to final semi-industrial roll-to-roll processes. We realise your research and development tasks within bilateral contract research or together in publicly funded projects in small or large consortia.

With our semi-industrial equipment, we are able to make samples, prototypes and small pilot productions. Please feel free to get in contact.

The Digitisation & Industrie 4.0 research area has two research and test fields on the topics of "networked production" and "self-optimising nonwoven production" with state-of-the-art machines, a variety of software systems and numerous practical demonstrators. The technical expertise of the STFI staff is applied in research and practice on a daily basis. The close exchange with companies in the textile industry and with technology partners makes it possible to find solutions to today's digital challenges and thus contribute to the future viability of the industry. In addition to feasibility studies, the STFI advises and supports companies in funded and individually commissioned research projects.