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Hélder Rosendo made his mark on the final day of the iTechStyle Summit with the motto that ‘durability is the best way to guarantee sustainability’. The business director of TMG Textiles emphasised the importance of benchmarking the durability of products and described the company’s efforts to find solutions that combine synthetic and natural raw materials.
‘It’s impossible to replace polyester in car interiors. It’s hard to beat polyester for its abrasion resistance, UV resistance (…) what we can do is take a hybrid approach that incorporates natural fibres. That’s what we’re working on,’ he said.
As introduction, Hélder Rosendo presented the main market trends in the automotive sector: new types of vehicles, more sustainable and with an attractive cost/efficiency ratio are just a few examples. ‘Fashion has a big impact on what goes inside the car, fashion fabrics are used in car interiors,’ he said based on his experience.
The speech then focused on the company’s strategic R&D topics, in terms of materials, simulations, functionality and customisation. In a detailed presentation, he put forward aims such as: virtual prototyping, intelligent labelling, small-scale production, functionalities such as self-cleaning capacity, being biodegradable, intelligent from a thermoregulation point of view and introducing biodegradable coatings.