CETI, which means European Centre for Innovative Textiles, is a research centre for the development, innovation, experimentation and application of state-of-the-art textiles.

THE CETI OPENS ITS DOORS IN OCTOBER 2012
 

The CETI is the world’s most recent research and prototyping centre dedicated to new textile applications. At the heart of a first-class scientific network, the CETI uses creativity techniques that accelerate the innovation process leading from uses to solutions. Bringing together state-of-the-art equipment in one place allows industrialists to quickly advance from research to prototypes and small series as soon as possible. The CETI’s inauguration is scheduled for 10th and 11th October 2012.
 
  

The CETI's mission

The CETI’s mission is to promote innovation through applied research by bringing universities, laboratories and industry closer and creating links with the markets in order to offer textile materials excellent prospects for the future.
This involves understanding innovation by rethinking its applications, combining skills, pooling resources and optimising solutions..
 

The CETI’s objectives

The CETI’s priority is to place innovation at the forefront of winning strategies by facilitating technological development and industrial transfer. By creating a unique technological platform in Europe with all technologies for developing innovative textiles, the CETI has set itself several objectives:
•Developing new applications for intelligent textiles,
•Boosting the textile sector by diversifying technological research in various sectors,
•Developing cross-sector collaborative projects,
•Favouring interdisciplinarity and exchanges between application research and industrial production,
•Accelerating the innovation transfer processes with concrete and rapid applications (prototyping, small series, etc.)
 

The CETI's players

Initiated by the UP-tex cluster, the CETI brings together various regional, national, European and international players. The CETI is co-funded by Europe, the State, the local authorities, the Ville Renouvelée semi-public limited company, the Union, the Caisse des Dépôts and Batixia. It is supported by its historical partners: ENSAIT, HEI, Ecole des Mines de Douai, the IFTH (French textile-apparel institute), Lille 1 University, the Nord Textile Industries Union and CLUBTEX.
The CETI participates with them in an active network established with researchers from business schools, universities, UP-tex competitive clusters, Techtera and Natural Fibre Clusters.
  

The CETI’s means

The CETI, a scientific research and development pool situated at the crossroads of Northern Europe in the new Roubaix/ Tourcoing/Wattrelos eco-district of “L’Union”, the CETI is housed in a daring and high-performance multi-purpose architectural complex comprising:
•A unique 8000 m² research platform equipped with high-tech laboratories, state-of-the-art equipment intended for prototyping and small series and independent workshops equipped with the latest machines.
•A 6000 m² building housing the UP-tex competitive cluster, the CLUBTEX business cluster, the Pole of Textile Excellence, the INNoTEX incubator, the IFTH (French textile-apparel institute) ; the site is equipped with a conference room, meeting rooms, offices and various exhibition areas for welcoming companies and private laboratories.
 

The CETI’s equipment

The spinning tool (Phase 1) is used to develop tomorrow’s new high-performance fibres essential for markets such as ultra-filtration, medical devices, intelligent textiles. There are only 4 tools of this kind in the world.
The Non-woven fabrics tool (Phase 1) is used to develop new industrial solutions with new technological combinations. This market is expected to grow by 21% by 2017.
Phase 2 planned for 2013 and 2014 focuses on the manufacturing processes (knitting, weaving, braiding), especially for the composite or technical fabric markets.
The CETI works with the PIVERT and IFMAS IEEDs (Institutes for Research Excellence in Decarbonated Energy) to develop textile applications from the biopolymers that will be developed there. This responds to a strong demand from companies in search of new raw materials (biocompatible PET, biocompatible PP, biocompatible PLA, etc.).

The CETI’s customers

The CETI in the world

From Phase 1, the CETI positions itself as an exceptional world-class centre. It can be compared in terms of equipment to the “Non-Woven Institute” (NCRC) which federates over 60 major companies around the development of new textile materials from Raleigh in the USA. This centre generates an annual turnover of over $ 4m.
In Europe, the offer is split between the major German centres (STFI (Saxon Textile Research Institute) in Chemnitz and ITV (Institute of Textile Technology and Process Engineering) in Denckendörf) and the CENTI (Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials) in Portugal which also has Hills tri-component spinning equipment.
It is in Phase 2 that the CETI comes into its own as it will then be the only platform in the world to bring together in one place as much technological equipment associated to cutting-edge research as is mainly found in the Advanced Textile Materials scientific interest group (GIS MTA).
   

The CETI’s challenges 

Beyond its commitment to the future of an entire sector, the CETI is going to:
• Change the image of textile in order to make it an innovative material turned towards the future in diverse leading markets (health, transport, protection, industry, environment, etc.)
• Create richness and jobs with new profiles and equip the region with an internationally renowned high-performance tool
• Attract investors and generate collaborative projects for developing tomorrow’s textile.
  

Key figures

The CETI has invested € 40m for Phase 1, with € 25m for the building and € 15m for the equipment. It is funded by Europe, the State, the Nord-Pas de Calais Region, Lille Métropole, the Nord Departmental Council and the private sector.
 
      
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