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Textile Innovation Programme

Yorkshire’s textile manufacturers are set to become world leaders thanks to a £6 million investment from Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund.

Weaving aircraft components and anti-counterfeiting for the fashion industry are just two focuses of the Textile Innovation Programme, which will provide practical and financial backing for manufacturers to work with experts from universities and research organisations to create new high-value, ‘high tech’ products.

The Programme, which is being run through the Textile Centre of Excellence, follows a series of feasibility studies conducted earlier this year and will significantly increase the region’s capacity to operate in the Advanced Materials sector.

The value of the technical textiles market, which covers a wide range of sectors including medical, engineering, construction, automotive and aerospace has grown to an estimated £30 billion. New technologies, coupled with increasing environmental concerns, are opening up major opportunities for companies that can create lighter, stronger components, and materials that can sense and adjust to their environment.

Boeing is currently developing its new 787 which is to be made of woven carbon fibre and laminates. The Textile Innovation Programme’s feasibility studies demonstrated that woven aircraft components can outperform titanium and aluminium, and the potential market opportunity for these strong, lightweight components is vast.

Another area where the Programme is set to make an early impact is anti-counterfeiting. Currently the high quality textile and fashion markets, along with other key regional sectors like pharmaceuticals, are facing a growing crisis where counterfeit products are accounting for up to 10% of sales.

The Centre is already working with APDN, an American company based at Stony Brook University in New York, and has succeeded in impregnating fabrics with botanical DNA so they can be authenticated with 100% accuracy using the same testing methods used by forensic labs for criminal investigations.

Jim Farmery, Assistant Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward, has explained why the RDA has invested in the Programme: “Yorkshire Forward is very pleased to invest in new platform technologies that will foster growth and, ultimately, reap positive economic benefits to the Yorkshire business community, and the UK and European public at large.”

The Textile Innovation Programme will also support a wide range of environmental improvement activities through the University of Leeds, which will allow manufacturers to use more environmentally friendly chemicals in wool processing and reduce the use of power and water at all stages of production.

Other applications from the Programme include the use of nano and plasma technologies to produce fabrics which are self-cleaning, conductive fibres to make ‘smart’ clothing that can monitor the wearer’s body functions and dressings that monitor wounds, prevent infection and deliver medication.

Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield and Chairman of the environmental charity Urban Mines, said: “This is a massively important Programme for our region. It is a fantastic vote of confidence in our manufacturing industry by Yorkshire Forward and a recognition that our future lies in the production of high-quality, technical and specialist products. This Programme illustrates how collaboration between industry and academia breeds innovation, and where a shared goal of creating new commercial products can sustain our competitive advantage for years to come.”

Updates on the various projects can be viewed in our latest e-Newsletter from the link below:

e-Newsletter (October 2011)

Tender Notification for the Procurement of a Laser

Tender documentation can be downloaded here until 24th February 2012. Tender responses must be received by noon on 5th March 2012. Further details regarding the tender can be found on the website of the Official Journal of the European Union.

Applications

The links below will take you to examples of documents used in our procurement process. We would encourage organisations who supply services or equipment that may be relevant to the Programme to contact us with a view to being included on our Approved Supplier List.

Approved Supplier Questionnaire
Scoring Criteria / Evaluation of Tenders