ITMA in Milan

Textiles go into everything. Not just the clothes you wear, but they are in your car, your home, medical products or in many things you might buy or use.

Every 4 years, ITMA or the International Textile Machinery Association runs one of the worlds largest trade fairs for this important industry. The fair moves from city to city, and this year it is in Milan, Italy.

New House was there because we design and manufacture yarn-breakage detection systems, designed to stop a creel if a yarn should break.

NHT -10 is an advanced optical system :

NHT-58 is a well-proven mechanical system that we have made for years :

These are a legacy from our knitting plant that we had from 1930's until the late 70's. My grandfather ran German Liba warp-knitting machines and needed to find new ways of handling the then latest man-made fibres. Today we still supply our systems to German or French original equipment makers, so it is great to see everyone at ITMA.

The Ascotex stand who is displaying our units :

A huge Jacquard carpet making machine :

Beams on an advanced Picanol weaving machine :

These devices are positive feeders that give a smooth flow of yarn to the airjet shuttles :

This weaving machine went at a tremendous rate of 3500 picks per minute, hence the crowd that gathered ;

It is well known that cellulose yarns like cotton become stronger and easier to weave when damp (that's why Manchester was such a center for cotton production). Here a steamer increases the air's humidity :

German Stoll is a famous brand of V-bed knitting machines. I took quite a few images as my Norwegian godfather used to run a plant of Stoll's , and was curious as to how they look these days :  

Dad on the Stoll stand ;

Next to each machine was a complicated knitted piece that the machine had made. As the show was in Italy, this one had a knitted pizza that took the machine around 30 minutes knitting time to create each slice : 

Karl Mayer bought Liba last year, and dominate warp-knitting machinery today :

 

When I was a school kid, I used to thread-up these machines in the same way that this technician is doing :

In creeling these are Karl Mayer tensioners. We developed something similar a few years ago, but never put the units into production. :

This manikin with her wonky paper lips is probably why you may not want textile machinery technicians doing your window dressing :

These are harnesses that control the heald-shafts of a loom. I think they are from a Jacquard by Bonas. : 

BBSA Showcase

We launched our new collection at the BBSA Showcase event in Coventry this week, and here are a few images of the build. Guy and Nigel are having a well-earned coffee break after putting the walls up, while Melanie is busy sorting out what goes onto the shelves :

I took these photos the night before the show opened, and believe it or not, never got time to take anymore! :

The colour was actually a gorgeous super-trendy chartreuse colour, but this doesn't seem to have come out in my photos all that well. Our stand was in a great spot next to the cafe, and we won Best Stand Award. This is me accepting the trophy and being interviewed afterwards  :

The show was a great sucess, and New House will be kept busy for ages sending out new collection books and orders for our new fabrics. Congratulations to our designers Melanie, Charlotte & Laura, and all the good people behind the scenes, especially Sam, Linda, Maz and Kerry!

It's always a sad moment at the end of a good show when the whistle blows, and your home for the last three days gets taken down : Guy and Nigel appeared immediately, and 24hrs later our stand was stored at the back of our 300yr old Herefordshire buildings, ready for the next show.

Preparing our new collection for launch

This Sunday at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, we will be showing our gorgeous new important roller collection for the first time.

The collection has been redesigned and rethought from top to bottom, with our clever designers Melanie, Charlotte and Laura doing what they do best - putting their heart and soul into good design.

Here are a few images  :

 

To physically launch a collection, a huge amount of background preparatory work takes place. Peter & Guy, our father & son exhibition team have built NHT stands for over 20 years, and they have been at it again :

Our stand will be in an ultra-trendy chartreuse colour that'll set our new fabrics off just fine. Meanwhile, I have been making picture frames and painting-up display boxes :

 

Mum & Dad (now in their 80's, but 20yrs younger in their sprightlyness) have been stitching and making mini-blinds for display  :

Our good chums Granley Blinds in Cheltenham have made our show blinds, while both Roll-Ease and Qmotion have kindly supplied their incredibly advanced hardware which works so well with our fabrics.

In time with the BBSA showcase Coventry show, we were happy to begin shipping the very first new collection books to customers who pre-ordered.

Our new binder has been printed in floro orange so it stands out from the crowd 

 We have shelves full of samples being assembled into more books :

And also....we have a new logo too!: