If the turnout at last month’s Private Show at Shima Seiki Italia is anything to go by, then the Italian knitwear industry is in fine shape and looking to invest in the very latest knitting technology to help it maintain its competitive advantage over other global knitwear manufacturing centres.

Over 600 visitors attended the three day event which took place at Shima Seiki Italia S.p.A. in Segrate, Milan from 6th-8^th March – with visitors coming from Veneto, Lombardia, Piemonte and Liguria on day one and Central and South Italy on day two.

A wide range of visitors from different locations attended on day three, together with leading universities and polytechnics including Milan’s Fit (Fashion Institute of Technology). Visiting companies included the globally known Brunello Cucinelli, Max Mara, Calzedonia, Gran Sasso, Cariaggi, Tollegno and Tessitura Monti.

Marking occasions

Shima Seiki Italia’s Private Show was held to celebrate Shima Seiki’s 50th Anniversary, to mark the official opening of the company’s newly renovated Show Room in Segrate and to launch the Japanese company’s new NSSG122SV 05G flat knitting machine – a coarse gauge addition to the NSSG range.

Exhibits

On show in the Segrate showroom were the following machines and design systems:

• M153X 18L – MACH2X series WholeGarment machine in 18 gauge
• F15421 – FIRST series ultra fine gauge (21 gauge) fully fashioned, rib shaping, integral knitting, 3-dimensional shaping and WholeGarment machine.
• SIR123SV 07G – Three system variable gauge intarsia model from Shima’s new generation workhorse shaping machine in 7 gauge
• SCG122SL 03G – Three gauge high speed SlideNeedle machine for ‘hand-knit’ look knitwear
• NSSG122SV 05G (New) – newly introduced 5 gauge version of Shima’s ‘new global standard’ shaped knitwear machine
• SSR112SV 14G – High speed entry level fully fashioned flat knitting machine in variable 14 gauge
• SWG-091N 15G – Shima ‘Mini’ series WholeGarment machines – 90cm needle bed in 15 gauge
• SDS-ONE APEX3 - 3D design workstation supporting 3D mapping and simulations

Over 200 Shima Seiki 50^th Anniversary samples were shipped in by Shima Seiki headquarters in Japan for the Milan show where visitors attended demonstrations of Shima’s Knit-Paint software as well as displays of Virtual Knit Sampling with 3D simulations on the SDS-ONE APEX3.

In addition to flat knitters, a number of textiles manufacturers attended the event, many of whom are said to be very interested in Shima’s SDS-ONE APEX3 for non-knitwear applications.

With around 600 visitors attending over 3 days, CAD demo rooms, machine showrooms, garment display areas  and catering areas were all packed with visitors – especially on day two.

“This is the first time we have had a Private Show at Shima Seiki Italia in Segrate, since we renovated our showrooms and it has been very well attended,” Mr. Nobuyuki Sasamoto, President of Shima Seiki Italia told Knitting Industry.

“Our own staff together with our eight Italian distributors and agents invited all of our customers and our competitors customers, leading fashion brands, companies in other parts of the textiles industry and of course the leading Italian textile schools. With over 600 visitors and good business prospects resulting from the show, we are very pleased.”

“With the presentation of the 50th Anniversary Shima Seiki WholeGarment samples, we once again emphasised the importance of our WholeGarment technology and showed our future direction in the market,” Mr Sasamoto added.

Digital Yarn Project

Visitors to the Shima Seiki Italia show also watched a presentation on a Digital Yarn Project the company had recently completed with leading Italian knitwear yarn spinners Cariaggi and Tolegno (Lana Gatto).

The project involved the development of virtual yarns and shade cards (see image below) using Shima’s SDS-ONE APEX3 design system. Yarns are created digitally and simulated knit swatches and yarn wrappings are created to populate the digital shade card.

The traditional process for creating a shade card for a range of yarns can involve the dyeing of fibres, spinning of a range of colour way yarns, knitting swatches for each colour way and finishing, cutting and mounting the swatches – all in all a huge piece of development work. The digital yarn project does away with most of this – allowing massive savings – as most of the work is carried out on the design system and then printed onto card.

The digitally created knitted swatches and yarn wrappings are created in highly accurate colours as per the Cariaggi Digital Yarn shade card in the image below. The card shows Cariaggi’s Jaipur range from its Fine Yarns Collection.

“Under Shima Seiki Motto ‘Ever Onward’, we have been continuously developing something new on hardware, software and know-how. Our Digital Yarn Project with Cariaggi and Tollegno (Lana Gatto) is highly attractive to our visitors for reducing development time and for cutting costs during sampling,” Nobuyuki Sasamoto concluded.

View more images from the show on our Facebook page.

www.shimaseiki.eu