Saxon Textile Research Institute e.V. STFI

Saxon Textile Research Institute e.V.
affiliated institute of Chemnitz University of Technology
Annaberger Str. 240
09125 Chemnitz

Geschäftsführung:
Dipl.-Ing.-Ök. Andreas Berthel

Telefon +49 371 5274-0
Fax +49 371 5274-153
E-Mail stfi@stfi.de

www.stfi.de

The research activities at the Centre of Excellence in Nonwovens and the Innovation Centre for Technical Textiles at STFI cover everything from fiber preparation, yarn processing and fabric formation as well as different ways of finishing up to the recycling technologies of technical textiles and developments thereof. The Centre for Textile Lightweight Engineering including its technology lines and existing know-how is available to one-time customer orders, bilateral research projects and small batch series as well as joint research activities within consortia and clusters.

Textile lightweight engineering has become one of the main research areas with all its facets at STFI in recent years. This includes the entire value chain, starting with the development of semi-finished textiles, going to formation of new, partly hybrid materials and ending with recycling and reuse. Carbon fibers reinforced plastics used for many applications like transportation and automotive sector or mechanical engineering take a large share of the research work. Other reinforcement materials, such as glass, basalt, aramid and natural fibers are also considered in various matrix systems. Topics reach from classic thermoset and thermoplastic systems to elastomers and mineral matrices. In addition to new material and process research, development of test-methods and more complex evaluation criteria is carried out in parallel supported by an in-house testing and certification body.

The accredited textile testing lab of STFI is constantly expanding its range of tests, also extending it to the testing of non-textile raw materials, such as composites made of glass, aramid, carbon and basalt. Furthermore, Notified Bodies for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and for Geosynthetics (0516) are carrying out certifications. STFI is a service provider for European companies and open for customers worldwide.

 

The application and product-oriented research and development of the Saxon Textile Research Institute (STFI) has been geared towards technical textiles and nonwovens right from the very beginning. It has given important impulses and opened up new market opportunities for the textile industry and textile machinery industry. Based on the tradition of Saxon textile research, the STFI has contributed to the fact that Chemnitz has become a modern, internationally recognized location for the development and production of technical textiles for various applications.

Andreas Berthel, Managing Financial Director

Main focus in the field of “Textile Lightweight Engineering”:

  1. Recycling of high-performance fibres
  2. Technology development for the processing of recycled fibres into nonwoven fabrics, slivers and yarns
  3. Preforming by means of weaving and knitting
  4. Load-path-oriented design of textile semi-finished products, including textile integration of sensors and actors
  5. Developement and Production of textile preforms
  6. Composite production and demonstrator construction
  7. Testing from fibre to composite