Development and tasks

The International Federation of Knitting and Warp Knitting Professionals was founded in 1956 and from the outset did not see itself as a professional organization for a specific group of persons, but rather, according to Art. 3 of its statutes of 1960, was intended "to unite factory managers, technicians and experts in the warp knitting industry of different nations by means of friendly ties, in order to jointly promote the general interest of the warp knitting industry and to serve its professional development".

This membership structure, which was intended by the founders, is still valid today, with female members also being present from the beginning. Anyone involved in knitting technology or knitted fabrics can become a member.

The counting of the annual conferences, from 1958 International Congresses, begins in 1956, but because of the many members from the textile machinery industry, International Congresses are no longer held in the years of the International Textile Machinery Exhibitions.

Previous organizers of international congresses were

• Belgium
• Bulgaria (2 )
• Germany (5)
• England (3)
• France (2)
• India
• Israel (3)
• Italy (2)
• Canada
• Croatia
• Austria (5)
• Poland
• Russia
• Sweden
• Switzerland (3)
• Spain
• Czech Republic (2)
• Hungary (3)
• USA (2)

The office of the International Secretariat is always located at the seat of the International Secretary, who is elected by the General Assembly.

Since 2010 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marcus Weber has been the International Secretary of the office.

The International Federation of Knitting and Warp Knitting Experts now has national sections in Austria, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.

What are the advantages of membership in IFWS / IFKT?

Today, not only professional and technological competence is required, but also creativity to develop new products. This makes it all the more important to provide the employees responsible for further development and production with the maximum amount of information. Although in some areas the state of the art can be accessed on the Internet, the more important background information is provided by personal contacts with specialist colleagues at conferences, where new business relationships can also be established.

After all, it is precisely these employees in the companies who are responsible for optimising collection products, which are often manufactured individually with a lot of manual work, for series production in terms of quality, production costs and availability on schedule in order to successfully market the product and thus achieve economic success. Since many companies move part of their production abroad, but the direction is initially taken over by the home company, attending a symposium offers the opportunity to get to know foreign companies not only with regard to their technology, but also their employees and the ethical environment. Without knowledge of the local customs, it is difficult to motivate employees to do high-quality work.

Anyone who feels a connection to the knitting industry is invited to become a member of the International Federation of Knitting and Knitting Professionals.