European Grant for TenCate Digitex Project
Dutch specialty chemical company TenCate has reached an agreement with the European Commission on the Digitex project it submitted. The project relates to the technological development of digital textile finishing, which enables functional characteristics, such as fire resistance and self-cleaning properties, to be applied to fabrics. It is hoped this digital technology will also make it possible to develop new applications for textile materials and to achieve advantages relating to processes, which will increase the competitiveness of the European textile industry.
A significant additional advantage is the reduction of environmental impact and energy costs. One characteristic of the textile industry in general is its large-scale consumption of water and the costs that this entails. Even though environmentally-friendly chemicals are already being widely used within the sector, the costs involved in doing so will also be reduced as a result of the project.
This innovation project comes within the framework of the Europe-wide promotion of innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises.
In this project TenCate is acting as the initiator and coordinator of 26 partners (ten universities and 16 companies). The total budget for the project is €12.7 million, for which €6.8 million will be received in subsidy. The timescale is four years.
On the one hand, the project will focus on the development of hardware and software, enabling the surface treatment of textile materials for finishing processes on a nanoscale. On the other hand, developments will be set in motion that are aimed at expanding the technology to new areas of application in the market.
