R&D focussed on a sustainable textile industry

Centexbel is the Belgian Textile Research Centre. As a collective research centre, Centexbel desires to reinforce the market position of the Belgian textile companies by promoting and supporting innovation.

Sustainability is not only an overarching objective of the European Union, it has become a business imperative and begins with R&D in how we design products, select raw materials, choose for eco-friendly production processes and plan for the use and disposal of the product.

Until a few years ago, economic progress was identical to increasing the labour and production efficiency. The mission was to produce more with less people. Natural resources were seen as endless. However there are limits to what our planet may endure and to our stock of natural resources. Therefore the idea of “progress” needs a new definition.

Since a very long time, Centexbel is aware of the necessity of sustainability and is therefore fully engaged in many research projects on a variety of interesting themes and approaches in order to develop more sustainable technologies and products to be implemented in the textile industry in the short and middle term.

Testing textiles for better results

Thanks to the combination of the intrinsic textile properties and the growing possibilities to add extra functionalities, textiles are now a truly industrial product, submitted to strict performance, safety and quality requirements.

Because of the increasingly stringent governmental regulations and the customer’s growing concern about health and environment, textile testing is also a key element in minimizing risks in the fields of human health and ecology.

With its 4 accredited and internationally recognized laboratories and highly specialized staff, Centexbel runs an almost complete set of textile tests, giving priority to a constant updating of the technical equipment and professional skills.

Prototyping and product development

With its semi-industrial pilot lines for product and process development Centexbel assists textile companies in their search of new, original and successful (niche) products and/or applications of new technologies. To this end, Centexbel has put up several platforms that are constantly updated. The platforms and our experts are at your service to produce new materials and to search for new applications on a small scale that can be rapidly translated into successful industrial products thanks to the semi-industrial nature of the platforms.