Industrial companies of the Textile-Apparel network must deal with far reaching mutations in their activities in order to remain competitive. The acceleration of collections, requests for personalized products and the internationalisation of productions require taking into account the priority of innovation and design.
If not in possession of an industrial tool, it is essential to find solutions in order to control the design of one's product and its pre-industrialisation so as to ensure the best development possible and maintain its level of quality. Innovation is a formidable weapon to conquer markets.
This is even truer for finishing. Even if the visual, tactile and functional aspects of textiles are inseparable from their success, they are less and less manufactured by the hundred or so companies remaining on French soil.
By creating a Finishing Engineering platform, IFTH makes available shared means of quick prototyping and pre-industrialisation to companies that do not have the means (equipment or skills) or the desire to set up design/prototyping structures.
The platform also provides support to designers that have ideas for products or activities, but who do not know how to realise their initial prototypes. Inaugurated on 3 March 2006, in the presence of Mr. François Loos, Minister of Industry, the platform was created and subdivided into three main workshops and one product characterisation laboratory:
- The dyeing and wet treatment laboratory for all types of fabrics, having widths of up to 1m60: skeins, bobbins, colour wovens, knitted fabrics, nonwovens, manufactured objects, and accessories (buttons, fastenings, etc.)