Top left Seeing spots For more daring mattress manufacturers, Sunds Textiles’ Steffen Rømer showed bold, playful stretch knits. Top right Reinforced core Grégoire Moll of Sapsa Latex tests the extra support in the hybrid latex core with polyurethane rods.
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BedTimes July 2011
er demand for a clean, fully recyclable product,” said Marc Doktor, Enkev commercial director. “In Europe, many types of fibers are widely used and accepted and, in the U.S., fiber gives mattress makers the opportunity to differentiate themselves.” The Vita Group, headquartered in Maastricht, Netherlands, added breathable Intuition Talalay latex to its offerings. It’s available for sale to non-U.S. mattress makers. The product’s open-cell structure is coupled with phase change material. “Intuition is meant not just to cool you down—it’s about temperature regulation,” said Cees Zielman, Vita Group general manager. “The phase change material is incorporated into the latex itself, providing thermal energy storage and increased temperature stability.” Latexco featured Theta Comfort, which has a topical coating of “phase change microcapsules” that ensure that the sleeper is neither too warm nor too cold, according to the Tielt, Belgium-based company. Latexco also rolled out Oxygel, a latex coated with a bright green breathable, pressure-relieving gel. Some polyurethane foam producers spoke of moving beyond traditional memory foam, touting highly breathable foam formulations designed for both the bed’s core and its top comfort layers. Gommagomma, a foam producer in Caronno Pertusella, Italy, said its customers were impressed with WaterGel, a new open-cell foam. Unlike other polyurethane foam gels, WaterGel has no “skin” and is therefore far more breathable, according to the company. Textile suppliers touted breathable fabrics that incorporate natural yarns and unique knitting techniques. Ateja, a fabric supplier based in Bandung, Indonesia, offered the new Zentouch collection, which blends natural yarns, as well as carbon fiber, to create a cooler, anti-static sleep surface. Its new Flexsil fabrics
also incorporate anti-bacterial silver-imbued yarns. Ticking producer Boyteks, which has headquarters in Kayseri, Turkey, focused on several collections grouped together as “exclusive concepts.” Most are engineered for temperature control and breathability. In addition, the textile maker showcased its Quantech collection, which the company says “energizes sleepers.” Innofa’s Airvent fabric earned notice from show organizers, wining an Interzum award. (See story on Page 42.) The unique fabric from the Tilburg, Netherlands-based knit producer has four-way stretch and knit patterns featuring “air grids” that act as portholes for the mattress foam core, allowing it to breathe.
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aster, easier production Behind closed doors on the show floor, GSG walked mattress makers down a memory lane of mattress quilting. At the end stood its new Gribetz International V16, which the company calls “the world’s fastest quilter.” The machine was engineered to remove some of the complexity of its Paragon M+ series quilters. “The V16 is designed to be a staple of lean manufacturing, giving you 20% to 40% more yield,” GSG’s Bowman said. “Engineers eliminated over 250 parts, enabling the V16 to operate at a true 1,600 rpm in tack-and-jump mode all day. It has an arrangement of 16 fixed needles in the industry’s most popular needle setting and it shortens the thread path dramatically, enabling the machine to sew at speeds nearly twice as fast as the average quilt machine.” GSG unveiled another half-dozen new machines at the show, including the “world’s fastest packaging machine.” The Merello ME-105 Auto Mattress Packaging System can finish five pieces per minute. It tightly wraps mattresses of any size and type, automatically detecting the length and width of each piece. www.bedtimesmagazine.com