Digital Surface Modification of flat surfaces and textiles Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digital Surface Modification of flat surfaces and textiles

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

The project Digital Surface Modification of flat surfaces and textiles was successfully carried out at the very right moment as in recent 3 years there has been significant increase of demand on the market for different printing patterns. This has made it possible to differentiate products by making them more diverse and thus significantly increasing the value of the product in the eyes of the customer. Greater use of digital printing technology in the textile and clothing industry ensures the specific nature of mass production and gives it a greater competitive advantage.

Smart specialization in the production of materials has led to new technologies where the pattern is printed on a flat surface using a digital method. The constant development of technology and rapid access to information via the Internet have also made EU entrepreneurs think about the introduction of new digital printing technologies. For this purpose the new paradigm of manufacturing has been developed – mass customization. It is called the new industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) where new business models, IT- technology, Internet of things, intelligent adaptable manufacturing processes, smart functional materials, etc are the main topics. The new needs in manufacturing are interdisciplinary thinking, more complex and sophisticated workplaces and processes, new skills and complex knowledge, a lot of collaborative and cross-cultural competences, on-line support for decision making.

Taking into account the above this project has successfully developed high level integration of educational institutions and companies (supportive structure); the smart intellectual outputs (innovative subject, executive training course for specialists and other case-based learning supportive tools) as a bases for offering output oriented higher education level education in digital surface modification of flat surfaces and textiles.

The following intellectual outputs were achieved during the project :
– new innovative subject of digital surface modification on flat surfaces and textiles IO1
– executive training course for specialists of digital printing in the field of textile and clothing IO2

Outputs that were worked out in the project considered and used the modern teaching methods and tools for smart education. The best practices, novel approaches in education, needs of partner countries’ industries, possibilities and competences of partner educational organizations have been taken into account in development of intellectual outputs. Partners of this project were 2 highly skilled HE institutions Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, the Swedish School of Textiles at the University of Borås, and representing the industry, the Sportswear Manufacturing Company of Estonia Trimtex Baltic OY.

In order to achieve project results, partners fields of subjects related to Digital Printing were studied. Digital Printing industry was contacted to learn their problems in the field. This material enabled to build up the subject and training course. The subject was built up 8 themes and laboratory works. In order to guarantee the quality the subject was piloted to students. The course was built up with 8 themes that can are useful for the industry. In order to guarantee the quality the course was piloted to specialists of the industry. In LTT events entrepreneurs explained their problems in the industry and thus we were able to collect data for future case studies. Depending on the level of difficulty, they can be interpreted either in a subject created for students (I01) or in a course for business professionals (I02).

This project involved various participants:
– students and staff, who benefit from new innovative subject, which is added to the curricula of textile and clothing. The innovative subject makes the curricula more attractive for students in each educational institution that participated in this project.
– expanding businesses, who will have better educated workforce provided by educational institutions and by the research done by these institutions.
The most significant indirect impact of the project was the rise of international cooperation between industries and universities, higher qualification of the workforce of the participating institutions.

The outputs of this project were disseminated for companies as well as other educational institutions to broaden the possibilities of advanced trainings offered for employees of the companies working in that industry. As human resources are one of the most important resources in the company, education and training that responds to the needs of the industry will provide companies with competent employees thereby increasing the productivity, effectiveness and competitiveness of the companies and the industry as a whole.

Strategic international partnerships in the field of education and training are extremely important in order to increase the quality of education and training, which was the main goal of this project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 302611,49 Eur

Project Coordinator

TALLINNA TEHNIKAKORGKOOL & Country: EE

Project Partners

• STICHTING SAXION
• HÖGSKOLAN I BORÅS
• Trimtex Baltic OÜ