#Associations

2025-12-09

Young researchers recognised for cutting-edge work in recycling, fibre technology and textile mechanics

Caption: 2025 award winners with the foundation chairman and professors © 2025 Image source: DITF

At the Aachen-Dresden-Denkendorf International Textile Conference held in Aachen at the end of November, Peter D. Dornier, Chairman of the Walter Reiners Foundation of the VDMA, honoured five successful young engineers. Promotion and sustainability prizes were awarded in the categories bachelor/project theses and diploma/master theses. Academic theses that develop solutions for resource-saving products and technologies, for example, are eligible for the sustainability awards.

The Walter Reiners Foundation awarded a sustainability prize worth 3,000 euros in the bachelor's category to Jasmin Roos. In her thesis, written at RWTH Aachen University, Ms Roos dealt with the development of sustainable solutions in textile recycling. Her approach was to replace non-recyclable elastane with melt-spun yarns.

Raphael Wiederkehr, DITF Denkendorf, received a promotion award worth €3,500 in the master's category. In his thesis, he evaluated the influence of a carding machine on the quality of mechanically recycled fibres. The aim is to reduce the proportion of yarn and fabric residues and increase the proportion of recycled material in the spinning process. His topic was the automation of the process chain for the production of welded textile hard goods.

Another promotion award, worth €3,500, went to Janne Marie Warnecke, RWTH Aachen University. In her work, she focused on the topic of FEM analysis of stresses and deformations in a fabric during winding in a weaving machine.

A promotion award in the diploma category, worth €3,500, was presented to Lena Fink, TU Dresden. Ms Fink addressed a highly topical challenge: the forming of multiaxial fabrics into profile preforms.

Yuanjing Cai, TU Dresden, was awarded a sustainability prize worth €3,500 in the diploma category. In his work, Mr Cai shows how the production of carbon fibres (CF) can be made more sustainable by substituting the precursors.

VDMA members at ITMA ASIA + CITME in Singapore

With 69 exhibiting member companies, ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025 is once again marked by a strong presence of VDMA companies. Altogether 82 companies from Germany will exhibit at the show, covering about 3,500 square meters of exhibition space, topped only by China and Italy. VDMA initiated a German Pavilion with two group stands (spinning in hall 4 and finishing in hall 7) with a total of 30 exhibitors.

VDMA member companies on display at ITMA ASIA

ITMA ASIA + CITME end of October in Singapore will see a strong participation of around 70 VDMA member companies. They will cover nearly all different machinery chapters along the textile value chain including spinning and man-made fibres, nonwovens, weaving, braiding, knitting & warp knitting, finishing & dyeing as well as technologies for textile recycling and processing of recycled material. VDMA initiated a German Pavilion with two group stands (spinning in hall 4 and finishing in hall 7) with a total of 30 exhibitors.

Smart technologies for green textile production

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Engineering depth and diversity for composites

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FITA, ABIT and EURATEX underline strategic importance of Mercosur – EU Partnership Agreement for the textile and apparel industry

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Circulose restarts commercial-scale production at Ortviken plant in Sundsvall

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VIATT 2026 to debut German Pavilion, strengthening European participation alongside key Asian textile hubs

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Sustainable, lightweight, and sound absorbing: Polyester-based front trunk solution for BEVs

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