Itema, the Italian global leading provider of best-in-class weaving solutions, held a press conference at ITMA 2019, introducing to worldwide media representatives the core strategy behind the latest company updates and the weaving innovations on show.
Mr. Carlo Rogora, Itema Group CEO, and Mr. Christian Straubhaar, Itema Group Sales & Marketing Director, went through the last key stages of the Itema history, such as the acquisition of majority stakes in Lamiflex in 2017 and the establishment of Itematech, the new Itema technical textiles division launched in April last.
With the clear target to build a stronger group, the company carried out a series of strategic operations aimed at broadening its spectrum of activities, both through vertical and horizontal integration and diversification.
The acquisition of Lamiflex, a leading producer of advanced composites materials, allowed Itema to create high added value sinergies to further enhance innovative in-house solutions for the Itema core business: weaving machines manufacturing.
On the other side, the recent agreement reached with Panter that led to the launch of Itematech aimed to increase the competitive advantage in specific market segments through technological leadership established by merging top field expertise and knowhow.
Mr. Straubhaar also gave some insights into the weaving machine market, pointing out that, despite the negative market trend. Itema manages to maintain stable and positive results, thanks to its healthy and solid structure. He underlined the Itema ability to provide the ideal machines portfolio to meet the requirements of mills that need to maximize their investment by choosing advanced equipment guaranteeing money saving and maximum return on investment.
Itema rolled out at ITMA 2019 a series of brand-new weaving innovations that took the central stage. It exhibited for the first time the Loom of the Future in a move to demonstrate its full dedication to innovate the weaving industry. The Itema Discovery developed by Itemalab™ was the real star of the show. Introduced at ITMA as a concept, Discovery attracted the attention of weavers worldwide, thanks to its completely new operation based on the mechatronic principle.
Moreover, two brand-new airjet weaving machines were presented – the A9500-2 and the A9500-2bedsheeting. Bed Sheeting represents one of the biggest market segments. Itema developed the A9500-2 to meet bed sheeting weavers’ specific needs and leveraging the company strategy to provide the market with loom models perfectly tailored for sector-specific requirements such as the already famous R9500-2denim and R9500terry.
Key machine components such as main and tandem nozzles have been redesigned along with the whole pneumatic platform to ensure superior performance in terms of speed coupled with superior fabric quality and textile efficiency.
Absolute new launch and core advancement featured on the A9500-2bedsheeting are the brand-new heald frames SKYFRAME – Itema exclusive proprietary technology – made of aluminium and carbon and designed by Itemalab in co-operation with Lamiflex. Itema invested on the development of its own airjet heald frames to meet its customers’ specific needs. In fact, heald frames represent key components of airjet technology, and the Itema SKYFRAME, thanks to its superior lightness and sturdiness, allows to run at the highest speed.
The A9500-2, the second generation of the Itema airjet A9500 and A9500p, sums up all the best features of its predecessors and further enhances machine performances, cost savings and textile efficiency. Thanks to a new and optimized pneumatic platform, the weft insertion cycle has significantly improved leading to a quicker system response when handling air load and pressure guaranteeing least vibration and higher structural reliability.
The whole machine structure has been revised to increase the air tank capacity, ensuring superior textile performance even at the highest speed.
Mr. Rogora also focused on the Itema mission to provide its customers with tangible and concrete innovations, constantly ensuring the most advanced weaving solution in the market.
Treasuring digitalization and Industry 4.0 principles, Itema exhibited never-before-seen preventive maintenance solutions such as iBOOSTER and iCARE. Featuring an innovative sensors system coupled with an extensive material study, made in co-operation with Lamiflex, iBOOSTER and iCARE allow to run extremely fast. In fact, iBOOSTER guarantees extended key components lifetime and iCARE provides a real-time tapes and sprocket wheels state of health monitoring, leading to the machine’s self-diagnostic and productivity optimization.
In his words: “Feel the Future is not only our motto but our promise to the market.”
He added: “Innovation, customer centricity, tangible concrete solutions. These are the core added values that we provide to our customers. We are structured and organized to provide a flexible, real-time support to our worldwide customers through our branches and our agencies networks. At Itema we never stop at doing things well, we always strive to do them better”.