09/05
Aplimatec'06 promotes the Spanish Textile Industry's competitive edge
Dr. Joaquim Detrell. President of the APLIMATEC’06 Congress’s Scientific Committee.

There are certain abstract words, generally ending in “ty” or “ship” such as liberty, solidarity, friendship, relationship and even loyalty that apart from being overused are also interpreted at will by those that use them, with the result that their true meaning is often lost.

In the language of business management the same happens with words such as quality and flexibility: they are so often touted as solutions to the challenges generated by changes in the commercial landscape that their intrinsic meaning and, worse still, their practical interpretation are no longer able to be defined.

One such word is “competitivity”. What makes a product, company or sector of industry competitive? With the battle against production costs in third countries a lost cause, innovation is one viable way of remaining competitive, along with brand prestige, customer service and constant adaptation to customer requirements.

But how does one become innovative? Where and how is innovation generated? Where can innovation be seen? The APLIMATEC Exhibition was born in 2002 with the aim of offering the Spanish textile industry a clear insight into emerging trends in innovation. It also set out to be an environment in which all the players in the textile industry could meet distributors, opinion leaders and end users.

The event’s dual perspective on the industry gave rise to twin concepts: MATEX and APLITEC, the names being contractions of the full title, APLICACIONES TÉCNICAS DE LOS MATERIALES TEXTILES or TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS FOR TEXTILE MATERIALS.

- The MATEX section is not an exhibition in the classic sense of a display products. It is instead a meeting point for supply and demand where exhibitors – the owners of materials and technology that can potentially be used to make finished or semi-finished products for diverse uses – and visitors, manufacturers and users of technical textiles may find opportunities to originate innovative projects and exchange ideas and suggestions for developing new products. What the event attempts to do, essentially, is uncover applications and markets for the potential of available and developing technology.

- The APLITEC section is a conventional exhibition area for finished textiles for technical applications. Exhibitors here are textile manufacturers such as yourselves. Their product portfolios are dominated by technical textiles and their product offer is aimed primarily at visitors that use these materials. At APLITEC exhibitors and visitors design solutions together to meet the increasingly specific demands of the various areas of application: personal protection, the automotive industry, transport, civil engineering, composites, filtration, medicine and so on.

With its Exhibition, Scientific Congress and Awards for Innovation in Textiles, APLIMATEC has become an essential event for suppliers and specifiers, manufacturers and customers, suppliers and buyers up and down the value chain of the textile industry.

Feria Valencia’s promotion of APLIMATEC, of textiles for technical applications and of innovation in textiles was neither impromptu nor a reaction to a particular set of circumstances. It is part of a strategic approach that has the support of both the Authorities and opinion leaders.

One aim of the third APLIMATEC, which is set to take place from 23rd to 25th May 2006 at Feria Valencia, is to be even more conducive to different areas of the industry making contact with each other. Another is to be the leading, if not the only spearhead for the innovative product offer of a textile industry that certainly has to think globally yet needs to act locally.

This mission statement does not pretend to be either original or clever: almost 45% of textiles for technical use and in some instances over 50% of this kind of product that is sold in Spain are imports. “Imports” or, rather, the result of trade between Spain and European Union countries, basically Germany, France, Italy and even the United Kingdom.

APLIMATEC’06 is designed to be a new opportunity to break into, sound out or strengthen neighbouring or concentrically located markets that are also similarly structured. The exhibition also seeks to be a new opportunity for those that supply and those that demand innovative products to meet. Lastly, the show aspires to contribute to honing the Spanish textile industry’s competititve edge.

source: Aplimatec