The collocated IFAI Expo and CAMX shows brought the biggest and best of the industrial and specialty fabrics and composites industries to Dallas.

By Jim Kaufmann, Contributing Editor

Another year, and another tradeshow — well, two actually, given the collocation of CAMX 2018 and IFAI Expo 2018 — are in the books. And as an astute textile industry executive once suggested: “The textile industry is the most incestuous industry I’ve ever been a part of. Your customers are your suppliers. Your suppliers’ suppliers may be your suppliers or competitors or customers. Your competitors could be your best allies on any given day, or not! It’s crazy! Everyone knows everyone or knows someone who knows everyone else. That six degrees of separation theory is really maybe at most two or three degrees in the textile industry, if that.” The recent collocation of IFAI Expo and CAMX 2018 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas proved to be a further example of the blurring of lines between the textile industry, the applications it serves and how business lines continue to evolve in the 21st century.

IFAI Expo is organized by the Roseville, Minn.-based Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), and CAMX, the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo, is produced by the American Composites Manufacturers Association and Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering. Together, the events made for a good fit and a rather compelling view of one segment of the textile industry’s future. “Being a first time visitor, this was an eye-opening experience for me,” noted Jacob Chess, who will soon obtain his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University. “Understanding how companies from all facets of the textiles and composites industries meet to discuss business and share technologies was extremely useful and inspiring for my impending career.”

Overall the composites segment of the textile industry continues to expand and prosper and this was evident in the size of the CAMX portion of the show featuring roughly 550 exhibitors ranging from inputs and fabric suppliers to molding components and end-product manufacturers.

IFAI reported more than 800 exhibitors between the two shows, and therefore hosted fewer booths compared to previous independently-held shows. However, it could be easily argued that numerous companies exhibiting on the CAMX side typically were regular participants at IFAI shows.

Regardless of the numbers, Steve Clarke, president of TEAM Inc., Woonsocket, R.I., felt: “CAMX and IFAI both had lots of new companies and products, or at least ones I hadn’t noticed at previous shows. Both shows provided plenty of opportunity to meet people, either existing contacts, old friends or new people for the first time.”

Both shows also offered the requisite assortment of specific seminars, workshops and informal gatherings and technical sessions throughout the show floors along with numerous industry specific awards targeting a variety of honors. For complete listings of award winners, please visit the IFAI and CAMX websites.

The general consensus of most attendees and exhibitors at both shows was that attendance seemed on the lighter side this year, which could partially be attributed to the weather in Dallas which was cold and raining throughout. But overall, the mood was positive both on the show floor and at the after parties where Texas brisket, music, mechanical bulls and armadillo races — yes, there were real armadillos — welcomed invitees. According to Steve Warner, former IFAI President and publisher of the BeaverLake6 Report covering the technical textiles industry: “Even though this event left me wanting more, the most positive take away was the simple fact that the IFAI and CAMX organizations had the market savvy to get together. It’s a natural fit and these shows should absolutely collocate again.”

November/December 2018

INDA’s recent RISE® Conference offered attendees a look at new applications and market segments for nonwovens and engineered materials.

By Rachael S. Davis, Executive Editor

With an arsenal of quality control technologies to choose from, textile manufacturers have all manner of ways to control product quality. But there is one thing that will always remain beyond the industry’s control, and that’s the weather. Many a meeting, conference and trade show have been impacted by weather-related events over the years — think Techtextil North America 2015 in Houston, CAMX 2017, or the National Council of Textile Organization’s 2018 Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, the Cary, N.C.-based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA), was the latest group to deal with weather woes, as the dates for its 2018 Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics (RISE®) Conference collided with the impending landfall of Hurricane Florence.

However, proceedings for the eighth edition of the conference — held at the Raleigh Marriott City Center, Raleigh, N.C. — suffered only minor disruptions as INDA worked to retool the program and accommodate speaker’s and attendees’ travel needs ahead of the hurricane. All presentations were given on the first two days of the conference so the third day could be used as a travel day. According to INDA, the weather threat did not significantly impact attendance with almost all preregistered guests participating in the conference as planned.

RISE focuses on emerging technologies and ideas with the aim of connecting innovations with real-world applications. Attendees were treated to presentations on a wide variety of topics including biomimicry, medical nonwoven developments, material science developments, web formation technology, e-textiles and standards, and microfibers in the marine environment.

“RISE is a valuable eye-opener for new applications and market segments,” said Paul Latten, director of research and development, SENW – Southeast Nonwovens Inc., Clover, S.C.

During the conference, attendees listened to presentations from each of the three RISE Innovation Award finalists — DiviDiaper Inc., Freudenberg Performance Materials’ Evolon® New Generation – Bedding Application; and Suominen Corp.’s Suominen Intelligent Nonwovens™ — and voted for their favorite innovation. DiviDiaper took home the top honor for its divided diaper design created to separate solid and liquid contents for infection and sores reduction and prevention. “We are delighted to win the award,” said Tivon Jeffers, inventor and CEO, DiviDiaper.

“With nonwovens being engineered materials that provide solutions for performance challenges that are continuously developing, the RISE conference serves the need to expose industry technology scouts to new approaches and open minds to new concepts,” said Dave Rousse, president, INDA. “This year’s focus on biomimicry hit that mark, as did our other content. Everyone charged with bringing new thinking to their company’s product development activities should have RISE on their ‘must attend’ list of events.

The next RISE conference will take place in September 2019.

November/December 2018