Facts / Figures / Trends

The total number of participants from around 30 nations continued at record levels like last year. The number of participants from Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, France, Portugal, and Italy grew over last year.

The new cooperation with the national organizations in Japan – JCFA and Korea – KOFOTI is gaining importance. Both countries were represented through high-ranking delegations and lecturers. The traditionally excellent cooperation with AFMA/USA, CIRFS/Brussels, IVC/Frankfurt and EURATEX/Brussels was underlined by some parallel meetings during the DORNBIRN-MFC.

The rapid proliferation of man-made fibers in new and more complex fields of applications was reflected in the topics of the lectures.

The opening speech in the plenary session was given by the President of the AUSTRIAN MAN-MADE FIBERS INSTITUTE (AUSTRIAN-MFI) Mr. Friedrich Weninger, who gave an overview about current factors and developments that will influence considerably the further economic success of man-made fibers.

Mr. Karlheinz Rüdisser, Vice Governor of the Province of Vorarlberg delivered a welcome address to the participants of the DORNBIRN-MFC. A representative of the ITMF (International Textile Manufacturers Federation) holding their annual meeting in Bregenz immediately before the start of DORNBIRN-MFC delivered another welcome address. For the first time it was possible to have an exchange of ideas between users of cotton and man-made fibers.

Mr. Bonazzi, president of CIRFS (European Man-made Fibres Association) spoke about the European man-made fibers industry and how they are going to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s world, followed by Prof. Hilmar Fuchs, STFI/ Chemnitz and member of the Paul Schlack/Wilhelm Albrecht foundation.

He awarded the Paul Schlack Prize 2013 to Mr. Stephan Walter, RWTH Aachen for his work “Development of piezoelectric sensor fibers based on polyvinylidene-fluoride” which he presented in a short version.

The honorary prize was awarded to Mr. Till Batt, ITV Denkendorf for his work on “Economical production of ultrafine thermoplastic fibers for filtration”. This work too was presented in a short version during the poster-session on Thursday.

Mr. Yoseung Ho, Huvis Corporation, Seoul / Korea held a lecture about the current status of the Korean man-made fibers industry and trends in the development of technology. Prof. Meike Tielebein from the German Centre of Management Research, Denkendorf presented a lecture on the topic “The new textile revolution – Trends and challenges at the new start of the textile industry”.