The shortage of skilled workers requires new approaches for companies. If the search for qualified specialists remains unsuccessful, the path often leads companies to lateral hires. If they are hired, they have to be trained or, even better, qualified in their field of work. Companies are facing various challenges in this process.

New developments in textile research, innovative research projects, as well as exciting news from textile testing and certification – stay up to date with our newsletter!

Hendrik Beier, Deputy Managing Director of STFI, was elected to the Board of Directors of the Association of Innovative Companies (VIU), Berlin, on July 6, 2023. With the completely newly elected board, the VIU heralds the generation change in order to position itself strongly for the future.

In the course of the project, a technical prototype for the desizing of carbon fibres was developed. The research project was implemented in the area of Textile Lightweight Engineering at STFI together with the partners Nomaco GmbH, Cobes GmbH and the Chair of Forming and Joining at Chemnitz University of Technology.

On 15 June 2023, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) invites you to the Innovation Day for SMEs. The open-air event illustrates the forward-looking successes of innovative SMEs as well as the effectiveness of the federal government's innovation funding, which is open to all topics and sectors.

This year's international lightweight construction trade fair JEC WORLD will take place from 25 to 27 April 2023 in Paris. The Sächsische Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI) will present its latest highlights from textile lightweight engineering and textile recycling at the stand of the Saxony Trade & Invest Corporation.

SME industry is currently facing complex challenges: Energy and raw material costs are rising, new legal regulations are affecting supply chains and the circular economy, work is becoming digitalised and now requires employees to have the right qualifications. How do small and medium-sized enterprises meet these challenges? The Sächsische Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. supports SMEs in turning these challenges into opportunities for the future through digitalisation.

The world's leading nonwovens fair INDEX^TM is taking place at Lake Geneva from 18 to 21 April 2023. A trade fair team from the Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstituts e.V. (STFI) will be on site presenting news from nonwovens research at STFI, such as a bio-based hygiene nonwoven, the recycling of high-performance fibres using the example of the VliesSMC project, an innovative tubular liner system and water-jet nonwovens made from recycled fibres will be on show.

As part of the EU project BIONANOPOLYS, an innovation platform is being developed consisting of an OPEN INNOVATION TEST BED (OITB) with 14 modernised pilot plants and complementary services to support technological and economic activities. STFI is a project partner and joins the OITB with a meltblown nonwoven plant and a fibre nonwoven plant. The aim is the production of innovative nano-products from sustainably obtained raw materials for packaging and textiles as well as for the agricultural, cosmetics, pharmaceutical or food sectors.

The aim of the research project was the development of a process for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly production of artificial leather by using UV-curable coatings. The focus was set on the application of artificial leather in the field of technical textiles for use in automobiles and as contract textiles. The aim was to develop a soft, elastic, scratch-resistant, durable and dirt-resistant material.

The research project "CarboDesize – Inductive Desizing of Carbon Fibres" was implemented together with the partners Nomaco GmbH, Cobes GmbH and the Chair of Forming and Joining at Chemnitz University of Technology. In the course of the project, a technical prototype for the desizing of carbon fibres was developed.

On 14 and 15 March 2023, the Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI) invites you to the 16th Symposium Textile Filters in Chemnitz. Filtration experts will meet for professional dialogue in the appealing atmosphere of the Hotel Chemnitzer Hof. The topic of sustainability will particularly determine the opening of the symposium.

Since the beginning of this year, the STFI has been listed as a joint training partner in the field of textiles and clothing at the Chemnitz Chamber of Industry and Commerce. In our module, we support your trainees specifically in the field of textile chemistry.

The Automotive Lightweight Technology Expo is one of six specialised exhibitions of AUTOMOTIVE WORLD and Asia's leading trade fair for automotive lightweight technologies. STFI and Rucks Maschinenbau GmbH, Glauchau, presented the results of their long-standing cooperation at a joint exhibition stand from 25 to 27 January 2023.

Das EU-Projekt BIONANOPOLYS startet einen offenen Aufruf zur Einreichung von Projekten für die Entwicklung, Erprobung oder Skalierung von Bionanomaterialien auf seinen 14 Pilotanlagen.

Project futureTEX funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the "Twenty20 – Partnership for Innovation" programme ended last year. Since its launch in 2014, more than 30 research projects have been set up to make a decisive contribution to the transformation from the traditional textile industry to the TechTex industry in Germany.

In our next webTalk on February 15, 2023 (10:00 to 10:30 a.m.), our colleague Dirk Zschenderlein, Head of Intelligent Production Systems, Modeling and Process Management at STFI, presents the research project and informs about its beginnings as well as important milestones.

Qualified skilled workers are also becoming increasingly difficult to find in the textile industry. The STFI therefore offers modules and courses for specialist qualification and further training under the name "STFI Akademie". Jens Stopp and Denise Braun, both long-time employees of the STFI, manage the Akademie. In the following interview, they present the new field of competence.

For the first time, the company Rucks Maschinenbau GmbH, Glauchau, and the STFI are presenting themselves on a joint exhibition stand. The results of the long-standing cooperation will be presented at the Automotive Lightweight Technology Expo in Tokyo (Japan) from 25 - 27 January 2023.

The Aachen - Dresden - Denkendorf International Textile Conference 2022 is one of the most important textile conferences in Europe. Connecting research and industry, it offers a concentrated exchange on the latest developments in the fields of textile chemistry, finishing and functionalisation, textile machinery, processes and composites.

The energy crisis is plunging the German textile industry in 2022 into the most severe crisis since the 1980s and 1990s, when production in Western Europe largely collapsed and migrated on a large scale. Nonprofit textile research is no less affected by current price trends and limited raw material availability. To highlight the precarious situation, STFI is currently seeking dialogue with local political representatives. On October 28, 2022, Bernhard Herrmann, Member of the German Parliament, and Gerhard Liebscher, Member of the Saxony Parliament, from the German Party BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN visited the STFI to gather information on the situation of textile research.