San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) has announced a new operating model — Project F.L.X. (future-led execution) — that focuses on a more sustainable supply chain and a cleaner jean. The company will transition to automated jeans finishing processes that will allow it to reduce the number of chemical formulations from thousands to a few dozen. The company previously had announced it was committed to achieving zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020. In addition to eliminating the use of chemicals, it is anticipated that Project F.L.X. will reduce textile waste by better predicting market demands, and will save water.
LS&T’s Project F.L.X. focuses on using laser finishing technology to reduce chemicals and water use and produce a “cleaner jean.”
“Thirty years ago, jeans were only available in three shades — rinsed, stonewashed and bleached,” said Bart Sights, vice president, technical innovation, and head, Eureka Innovation Lab, Levi Strauss. “We’re designing a cleaner jean for the planet and the people who make Levi’s® jeans, and we’re doing it on a scale that no one else has achieved to date.
LS& Co. has leaned on long-time partner Spain-based Jeanologia to help unlock the benefits of digitally enabled design and development.
It wasn’t so long ago that consumers had only a few demands of the companies with which they chose to do business: they wanted a quality product at a reasonable price. Whatever the company did beyond that was none of their concern.
Then millennials came along and turned everything upside down. Today, to earn consumer trust, a company must treat its employees well, embrace diversity, be environmentally responsible, and offer complete transparency.
Traceability
Those industries that manufactured product components were not initially subjected to the same level of consumer scrutiny that befell retailers, food producers, big pharma and others. But that is now changing. The textile and apparel complex — from fiber, to fabric, to finished product — is among those industries from which consumers now are demanding social responsibility, including traceability and sustainability.
“Consumers now want to know where and how everything is sourced,” noted one supply-chain expert. “For organic products, fish, meats, plants, seeds and such, they want to know how it was planted or farmed, fertilized or fed, harvested or butchered. They want to know if any drugs or chemicals were used and for what reasons.”
For a long time, the focus was mainly on food and drugs, he said. Recalls of food products or counterfeit or tampered pharmaceuticals prompted widespread fear and demands for more information. From “farm to fork” became a common description of transparent traceability. “And now traceability is something every single manufacturer needs to be aware of,” said an industry observer. “If you make a product from cotton or wool, for example, at some point you are going to have to document every action that occurred, from the moment the seed was planted, or the sheep shorn. If you make a synthetic product, you will have to account for the origin and composition of every chemical and the environmental impact of every process. In the coming years, complete transparency in product origin is going to be the new normal.”
From the traceability perspective among yarn manufacturers, one company, Mount Holly, N.C.-based American & Efird (A&E), recently announced it is collaborating with Applied DNA Sciences Inc. Stony Brook, N.Y., to manufacture industrial sewing threads that incorporate anti-counterfeiting technology. “The (CertainT® anti-counterfeiting) program is an innovative solution for brands and retailers in their supply chain,” said Les Miller, A&E CEO. “A&E and Applied DNA Sciences together are creating new security applications for sewing thread. Our customers are increasingly more vigilant and security minded. DNA technology can protect a wide range of products, from luxury consumer brands to industrial applications where integrity of components is mission critical.”
Sustainability
Sustainability is another issue that is receiving considerable attention from governments, companies and consumers. Sustainability is, simply, the maintenance of critical and limited natural resources for future generations. Already, yarn companies are moving to become more environmentally responsible. For example, A&E has partnered with a major manufacturer of multifilament and nylon textured yarns, Greensboro, N.C.-based Unifi Inc., to introduce new industrial sewing threads — Perma Core® and Magic® — that feature Unifi’s 100-percent recycled polyester fiber, REPREVE® made from plastic bottles. Perma Core can be dyed, finished and delivered from any of A&E’s global manufacturing locations and is available across A&E’s global color range. Magic is sized appropriately for the athletic wear and performance apparel markets.
Sustainability in yarn manufacturing goes back further than just the spinners. For example, the Sustainable Cotton Project is a California farm-based program dedicated to changing the way cotton is farmed and traded. The project connects growers, manufacturers and consumers in order to develop a Cleaner Cotton™ supply chain in California’s Central Valley. The project works with innovative growers to produce a high-quality fiber without using the most toxic pesticides and herbicides in agriculture.
Collocated U.S. editions of Techtextil and Texprocess will showcase the best of the technical textiles, nonwovens, traditional textiles and sewn products sectors in Atlanta.
TW Special Report
Techtextil North America 2018, the show representing the technical textiles and nonwovens sectors, returns to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta for its 15th edition to be held May 22-24, 2018. The show will be collocated with the fourth edition of the sewn products event Texprocess Americas 2018, formerly known as SPESA Expo.
Techtextil North America is produced by Atlanta-based Messe Frankfurt Inc.; and Texprocess Americas is coproduced by Messe Frankfurt and Raleigh, N.C.-based Sewn Products Equipment & Suppliers of the Americas (SPESA).
“Each year, the collocation of Techtextil North America and Texprocess Americas provides a diverse offering of products, services and technologies that represent the entire value chain for technical textiles and sewn products,” said Dennis Smith, president, Messe Frankfurt. “We look forward to returning to Atlanta with an expanded show agenda, and even more features and networking opportunities for visitors to take advantage of.”
In an event first, on Wednesday, May 23, organizers will host a joint reception open to both exhibitors and attendees with the goal of encouraging further networking and interactions between all participants. Attendees are encouraged to purchase tickets — which cover food, drinks and entertainment — in advance as an add-on to all registration types. Availability is limited, and prices will increase on-site.
Techtextil North America
In 2018, the show again will assemble all vertical aspects of the technical textiles and nonwovens industries including research and development, raw materials, production processes, conversion, further treatment, and recycling.
Visitors will see a wide variety of product groups at Techtextil representing the entire value-added chain in the technical textiles and nonwovens sectors including fibers; yarns; woven fabrics; laid webs; braiding; knitted fabrics; nonwovens; coated textiles; canvas products; composites; adhesives and bonding; research; development; planning; consultation; technology; machinery; and accessories.
Techtextil North America exhibits are classified according to 12 application areas: Agrotech; Buildtech; Clothtech; Geotech; Hometech; Indutech; Medtech; Mobiltech; Oekotech; Packtech; Protech; and Sporttech.
This year, Techtextil North America will feature a High-Tex from Germany area where some 66 companies will gather on the show floor to highlight their high-performance textiles and fibers, as well as machinery. This area of the show floor will host its own set of lectures, demonstrations and multi-media presentations during the event.
Texprocess Americas
Texprocess Americas is promoted as the largest North American trade show displaying equipment and technology for the development, sourcing and production of sewn products.
Product groups and services covered include: computer software and information technology; contract manufacturing and sourcing; cutting, spreading and ancillary equipment; digital, screen, transfer printing and ancillary equipment; embroidery, monogramming and ancillary equipment; laundry, finishing and ancillary equipment; pressing, fusing, vacuum and ancillary equipment; product identification, labeling and ancillary equipment; sewing and ancillary equipment; other supplies and equipment; fabrics and materials; findings, trimmings, components and accessories; manufacturers; recycling and sustainability; services, associations, publications and academia; supplies; supply chain services; and warehousing, distribution and materials handling.
A Supply Chain USA pavilion will join pavilions featuring companies from Germany, Italy, Taiwan, Belgium and China on the Texprocess show floor.
In addition, Texprocess Americas will host a “20th Century Fox’s The Greatest Showman Costumes Brought To You By Gerber Technology,” exhibit, which will feature replicas of the costumes worn in the recent movie by actors including Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams and Zendaya.
Education
Visitors to Techtextil and Texprocess also may take advantage of several educational opportunities through its symposium sessions, Tech Talks and Graduate Student Poster Programs.
Presentations at this year’s Techtextil North America Symposium include “Technical Textiles: Enabling Future Mobility in Electric and Smart Cars,” “New Standards & Certifications: What Do They Mean for Textile Manufacturers and Consumers,” and “Novel Medical Textiles,” as well as two sessions on smart textiles.
An advisory council comprised of Margaret Bishop, Fashion Institute of Technology; Dr. Magali Brown, Nicca USA; Sam Buff, Textile Technology Center at Gaston College; Dr. Wei Gao, N.C. State’s College of Textiles; Ben Mead, Hohenstein Institute Americas; Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi, The Nonwovens Institute; and Dr. Gang Sun, University of California, Davis, worked to develop the Techtextil presentation sessions and will moderate the sessions.
The Texprocess advisory council includes: Mel Berzack, Sewn Products Equipment Co.; Yoram Burg, EFI OptiTex USA Inc.; Dr. Michael T. Fralix, Textile Clothing Technology Corp. and SoftWear Automation Inc.; Dave Gardner, SPESA; Ed Gribbin, Alvanon Inc.; Mark Hatton, American & Efird; Frank Henderson, Henderson Sewing Machine Co. Inc.; Kilara Le, LMI Consulting; Nina McCormack, DAP America Inc.; Sam Simpson, Gerber Technology Inc.; and Michael McDonald, SPESA.
Presentation titles from the Texprocess Americas symposium include “Fit, Sizing & Virtual Try-On Technologies,” The Cutting Room – Connecting the Value Chain for Every Textile You Touch,” and the bonus session “Industry Talent & Skills Gap Assessment.”
As always, the collocated shows will feature a graduate student poster program highlighting research performed by students enrolled at some of the top textile engineering and manufacturing programs in the country. The students’ work will be on display throughout the event, and live presentations will give students the opportunity to engage attendees and share their research.
Tech Talks will return to the Techtextil show floor, and be held on the Texprocess show floor for the first time. The Raleigh, N.C.-based Nonwovens Institute will host the complimentary daily mini sessions on the Techtextil side; while The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City, in collaboration with Voice of Insiders will host Tech Talks on the Texprocess show floor.
“This year’s programming is packed with special features and events we think everyone will enjoy and really get a lot out of,” said Kristy Meade, show director. “Not to mention, our exhibitors are really bringing their A-game with product launches and new technology. We can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been up to!”
Show hours are from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Thursday. Attendees are encouraged to register in advance to receive an early-bird discount. Prices for the exhibit halls and symposiums will increase for attendees who register on-site. Visitors need only purchase an exhibit hall badge for one of the shows to gain access to both Techtextil North America and Texprocess Americas. Attendees who purchase a one- or two-day symposium pass will receive a complimentary three-day pass for the show floor.
To learn more about Techtextil North America and Texprocess Americas as well as register, visit techtexilna.com or texprocessamericas.com.
DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products LLC, a joint venture between DuPont and Tate & Lyle, announced plans to expand production of bio-based 1,3 propanediol by 35 million pounds at the Loudon, Tenn.-based facility. The expansion, already underway, is anticipated to be complete by mid-2019.
Bio-based 1,3 propanediol is used in a variety of markets through the Susterra® and Zemea® brands. In addition, its Bio-PDO™ is a key ingredient for DuPont™ Sorona® high-performance polymers.
“Our continued growth is a testament to our ability to meet the performance requirements of demanding applications with our plant-based ingredients,” said Todd Sutton, president, DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products. “The versatility of the product has powered the Sorona fiber business growth as well as fueled the expansion for Zemea and Susterra propanediol.”
Germany-based Kelheim Fibres reports it has been awarded a Certified Biobased Product label from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The certification includes Kelheim’s DANUFIL®, GALAXY® and VILOFT® products, which now may display a USDA label highlighting their biobased origin. The USDA BioPreferred® Program administers third-party verification for the products.
“Our fibers are completely made of pure wood pulp,” said Horst Wörner, business manager, Kelheim Fibres. “They combine perfectly the advantages of a product from renewable raw materials with the possibilities of industrial production such as a consistent quality and tailor-made design for meeting the customers’ exact needs. A clear and correct labeling of biobased products helps to create awareness for the benefits of these articles.”
“We applaud Kelheim Fibres for earning the USDA Certified Biobased Product label,” said Kate Lewis, USDA BioPreferred Program. “Products from Kelheim Fibres GmbH are contributing to an ever-expanding marketplace that decreases our reliance on petroleum.”
GE Aviation Corp., Evendale, Ohio, has announced it will create 146 full-time jobs over the next four years at its facilities in Asheville, N.C., and West Jefferson, N.C. The Asheville plant was GE Aviation’s first plant to mass-produce CMC components for jet engines.
Salaries for the jobs — 15 in Ashe County and 131 in Buncombe County — will vary based on the position, but will average $48,214. GE will receive a performance-based grant from the One North Carolina Fund to help the expansion efforts.
“Our site continues to grow as we win components for our next generation of engines such as the GE9X and the CFM LEAP,” said Michael Meguiar, Asheville plant leader. “We continue to build on a great workforce, culture and community that supports advanced manufacturing jobs in western North Carolina.”
“GE Aviation and their North Carolina employees have a long history of accomplishment in our state, and this expansion will put even more people to work building the next generation of innovative products for the aerospace industry,” said Governor Roy Cooper.
Bally is targeting aerospace and aviation applications with its latest woven webbings
Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM), Bally, Pa., has introduced a line of woven webbing products for aerospace and aviation applications. According to the company, its latest introductions including the 2-D and 3-D Thermoplastic Composite Materials (TPCM™), and E-WEBBINGS® narrow woven fabrics, meet the strength requirements for structural components. TPCM products are engineered for localized reinforcement and provide impact resistance, increased flexure and interlaminar shear resistance, according to BRM. The E-Webbings product line — made using a wide variety of fibers and conductive elements — was designed for the Internet of Things technology sector and may be used as integral products in commercial, personal and military aircraft.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based Crowley Maritime provides shipping and logistics services, among other functions, to the textile industry. Photograph courtesy of Crowley Maritime Corp.
Part one in a two-part feature focusing on the technical textiles industry in the United States
By Steve Warner, Contributing Editor
As the United States enters the 9th year of economic recovery from the recession, the outlook for technical textiles is strong. In fact, 2018 may be the start of the most defining period for the industry since the introduction of man-made fibers in the 1960s opened tremendous opportunities in markets such as aerospace, military, medical and construction.
What’s happened? It’s not sudden. The industry usually tends to experience gains from evolutionary trends rather than specific market disrupters. There are several converging factors, though, which lead to the faster positive outlook:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 2.3 percent in 2017 — compared with a 1.5 percent increase the previous year — and stable commodity pricing gave consumers spending confidence;
Two of the largest consumers of technical textiles — military and infrastructure — are about to receive huge new government financial infusions;
Pent up demand after years of cutbacks;
Non-technical textile companies are paying attention to the industry such as Alphabet (Google) in its development of smart textile consumer applications; and
U.S. trade policy is moving more towards bilateral rather than multilateral agreements which tend to allow more focus on protecting domestic sourcing.
The United States continues to see declines in textile manufacturing employment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the 2017 job loss was 4,100 or 1.5 percent. What is notable is that imports are not considered to be a significant factor in the decline as has been the case in previous years. The biggest factor accounting for job loss is modernization and automated assemblies. It takes fewer people to operate a plant. It’s time to start thinking declining employment is not a sign of failure. Success should not be measured by how many are employed compared to 30 years ago.
The technical textiles industry is broad and diverse and almost impossible to define. In general, technical textiles represent the largest segment of the domestic textile industry’s output. Currently, about 42 percent of the wovens, knits and nonwovens are going into technical textile end-product segments. The largest markets are automotive, military/law enforcement, healthcare and construction.
The U.S. technical textiles industry provides many products to the U.S. armed forces including army uniforms. Photograph by Air Force Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman
Trade Issues
What a difference a couple of years can make. One of President Barack Obama’s legacy programs was the National Export Initiative (NEI), which was established with the hopes of greatly expanding U.S. exports, including new trade agreements. As part of the push, the passage of the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and Trade Preference Extension Act was observed, as well as the likely passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and its European counterpart Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (T-TIP).
The Trump administration, however, is operating under the mandate that reciprocity in trade implies that as we grant access to U.S. markets, the U.S. gains access to foreign markets. In his “2018 Trade Policy Agenda and 2017 Annual Report,” President Trump laid out his position that past and pending trade agreements leave U.S. workers and businesses at a disadvantage in global markets because other nations benefit from market-distorting practices, and these agreements prevents the United States from responding to changing market conditions.
The first act of the new administration was to withdraw the already negotiated TPP agreement from Congressional consideration. Further, the change in administrations, plus the unsettled business of the European Union (E.U.) dealing with Britain’s Exit from the European Union (BREXIT), has cooled interest in continuing T-TIP negotiations.
While TPP contained some concerns for the technical textiles industry such as illegal shipments passing through the participating countries, most issues for textiles addressed manufacturers in the apparel value chain. The Washington-based National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), the domestic textile industry’s lobbying organization, had successfully negotiated adding the “yarn forward” rule of origin into the TPP agreement in exchange for NCTO’s support of TPA.
T-TIP is more worrisome because of the passed TPA, which prevents Congress from making any changes once negotiations are finalized. Unlike TPP, T-TIP is a bilateral negotiation between the United States and the European Union, an organization representing the interests of its 27-nation members. The E.U.’s textile objective in T-TIP is to lift the restrictive criteria of the Berry Amendment and allowing its members access to source technical textile products to the U.S. military.
To be fair, the Obama administration had publicly opposed giving up the Berry Amendment; however, U.S. trade negotiators have a history of trading away the textile industry to gain concessions that protect other industries such as pharmaceutical, steel and automotive. Losing protection provided by the Berry Amendment would have a devastating impact on the U.S. technical textiles industry because the U.S. military has been a reliable market through periods of industry economic and trade challenges.
The United States may not be done with either T-TIP or TPP — now renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. T-TIP has merely been set aside; the talks have not ended. And President Trump has indicated he is open to pursuing a revised TPP agreement though it’s unclear what revisions he wants. Some 25 Republican Senators recently sent President Trump a letter urging him to get the United States involved again in the negotiations.
While T-TIP is sidelined at least for a while, a Canada-E.U. free trade agreement (FTA) went into effect September 2017. The agreement puts the United States at a disadvantage relative to Canada with a relaxed rule of origin for textiles and also the specific inclusion of reciprocal opportunities between the countries on government procurement. Going forward on trade, the Trump administration has stated its preference for bilateral rather than multinational agreements. It has set its sights on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and possibly the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).
One positive factor as trade negotiations that affect the U.S. textile industry move along, is that Wilbur Ross is the secretary of the Department of Commerce (DOC). Until recently, Ross owned the Greensboro, N.C.-based multinational textile manufacturer International Textile Group (ITG).
The challenge in articulating the technical textiles industry’s positions in trade negotiations is that most of the industry’s end products are component parts of larger items such as cars and recreational items. They are not as easily identifiable as products in the apparel and home furnishings markets.
Union City, Ga.-based TenCate Protective Fabrics makes inherently flame-resistant fabrics used in the outer-shell of firefighter turnout gear.
NAFTA Status
In the NAFTA negotiations, NCTO has focused on textile manufacturing issues that are predominantly apparel-oriented, but also may offer benefits to the technical textiles industry. The organization has identified four key points from the current agreement that should be reconsidered including:
eliminating tariff preference levels (TPLs) on apparel, non-apparel sewn products, fabrics and yarns;
requiring use of NAFTA-origin components beyond the “essential character” of the fabric — sewing thread, pocketing and narrow elastics for example;
strengthening Buy American laws for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) textiles and clothing by closing the Kissell Amendment loophole for Canada and Mexico; and
strengthening customs enforcement.
But the key NAFTA renegotiating issue for the technical textiles industry isn’t with TPLs and probably not even yarn forward; it’s what could happen with the end products covered within the agreement, specifically in automotive manufacturing. The Trump administration is pursuing a tricky course because the automotive industry in Mexico is the largest export market for U.S. technical textiles.
In the current NAFTA agreement, approximately 62 percent of component parts in a vehicle made in North America must be from one of the three countries — Mexico, Canada or the United States. The Trump administration has proposed raising that threshold to 85 percent, of which half would have to come from the United States and the rest be divided equally between Canada and Mexico. Since textile products are found in numerous vehicle applications such as seating, headliners and airbags, changes to NAFTA could be a serious market disrupter with disastrous implications if Mexico doesn’t accept U.S. demands and pulls out of the agreement altogether to protect its growing automotive industry; or if auto makers themselves decide that new higher thresholds of U.S. components could make the vehicles more expensive and decide to push more production back overseas.
An intriguing aspect of the negotiations is that Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto’s term ends this year and elections will be held in July. The likely winner at this point will be his party’s opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. As strained as the relationship already is with Mexico, Lopez has promised to get even tougher on trade with President Trump. Canada and the United States also will hold elections in 2018, so it is probable that nothing will be accomplished until at least next year when the dust settles from the elections.
Impact Of Trade Agreements On Domestic Preference Laws
Trade agreements like NAFTA, as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO), can undermine the intent of other domestic preference laws. The Kissell Amendment enacted in 2009 is supposed to restrict DHS from using its funds to procure certain fibers, textiles, and clothing that are not grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced in the United States. A recent study by the General Accounting Office (GAO) found, however, that because of multiple trade agreement factors, foreign textile product procurement is prevalent by DHS. From September 2014 to June 2017, 58 percent of the $164.6 million of DHS textile items procured were foreign-sourced, including uniforms for Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
As of Textile World’s press time, the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, which has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, had not yet been passed by the Senate. The trade bill includes a correction for certain inputs that can affect Berry waivers.
Export Focus
Looking at exports, DOC’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has identified four sectors that it watches for technical textiles: specialty and industrial fabrics; medical textiles; protective apparel; and nonwovens.
ITA also ranked the top five countries for U.S. exports, which are:
Mexico;
Canada;
China;
Germany; and
the United Kingdom.
Mexico accounts for almost 50 percent of the domestic technical textiles exported. Canada is the second largest with its demand coming from the oil and gas industry, construction and healthcare markets. China is a country to watch. Although it ranks a distant third after Canada, U.S. exports to the country have seen double-digit increases over the past few years.
It’s interesting to note, that according to latest China government statistics, the United States is considered the fourth largest region exporting technical textiles to China, after Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Editor’s Note: Steve Warner is the publisher of BeaverLake6 Report, a web-based newsletter reporting on trends, data and issues that influence the global technical textiles industry. He can be reached at beaverlake6@hotmail.com. All trade information was current as of TW’s press time. Part two of this article — focusing on automotive, military and law enforcement applications for technical textiles — will appear in an upcoming issue of TW.
Firestone Fibers & Textiles Co.’s Kings Mountain location currently is in the process of expanding to accommodate equipment and capacity from another location.
Firestone Fibers & Textiles is growing beyond its traditional tire and building textile products into highly-specialized industrial and composite fabrics for sale outside the company.
By Rachael S. Davis, Executive Editor
Firestone is a name and a brand synonymous with tires, various forms of racing and the Indianapolis 500® Mile Race. The company has a long history with that famous race, and since 2000, has been the sole tire supplier to the Verizon IndyCar® Series. However, Firestone also happens to incorporate a textile division dedicated to the development and production of textile products for a variety of end uses.
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was established at the turn of the 20th century by Harvey Samuel Firestone. Shortly after its inception, the company produced the first mass produced automotive tires. Then, in 1935, Firestone Fibers & Textiles Co. LLC (FSFT) was created to supply tire cord and related materials to the growing tire business. During World War II, FSFT produced items for the U.S. military including artillery shells and rubberized military products. In the more than 80 years since it was founded, the company has accumulated significant amounts of manufacturing experience making tire cord, as well as fabrics for tire linings and building products.
Flexible Composites
A typical passenger car tire is a flexible composite product made of numerous layers including a liner, body ply, side wall, beads, apex, belt package, tread and cushion gum. Other components can be incorporated depending on the tire’s use, performance level and price point. Each component layer is built up on a drum form before it is cured using heat and pressure. Tire cord is incorporated in the body ply and bead, and textiles also are integrated into the lining.
Tire cord is a polyester- or nylon-based unidirectional fabric woven using just 1.3 picks per inch to hold the cords together for processing. Once woven, the cord is treated with a resorcinol/formaldehyde/latex (RFL) coating that allows the cords to bond to rubber as the tires are heated. RFL is a strong, heat resistant and highly flexible adhesive that is well suited to rubber-to-textile bonding. For years, tire cord has been one of FSFT’s primary products.
FSFT also has traditionally produced woven fabrics for mechanical rubber goods, industrial hoses as well as tires; and polypropylene multifilament/monofilament woven fabrics used as liner fabrics. The company also produces weft insertion fabrics primarily used in roofing products. Its TireTough™ fabrics are used in many applications including automotive belts, brake diaphragms, conveyor belts, roofing, coated fabrics, military/party tents, cargo/safety netting, pillow tanks, industrial hoses, air ducts, sign fabrics, tires, truck covers and inflatables. The fabrics are used primarily in-house by Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, Firestone Building Products – Commercial Roofing Systems, and Firestone Industrial Products businesses.
The company processes some 90 million pounds of yarns each year and processes enough yarn each day to circle the earth 13 times. While all yarn is purchased from outside sources, FSFT has direct cable twisters and ring twisting equipment allowing it to ply anywhere from 2 to 12 ends of yarn. On the weaving side, the company has air-jet machines to weave the tire cord, weft-insertion capability, and rapier machines for industrial fabrics.
Reconfiguration
FSFT is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., and has operations in Kings Mountain, N.C., and Gastonia, N.C., as well as Woodstock, Ontario. In October 2017, FSFT announced it will close its Woodstock plant following careful consideration and thorough assessment of its business model and the plant’s fit within its production portfolio. Production began to ramp down at the end of 2017, and the plant will cease operations completely by the end of 2018. As part of an ongoing effort to optimize its portfolio, processes and culture, FSFT will increase the production and output of its Kings Mountain plant. Production will begin to ramp up at the end of 2018, and continue to increase through March 2019. To facilitate the increase in capacity, FSFT is adding a 100,000-square-foot structure that will house equipment that is being transferred from another operating location.
“We are in the process of ramping down our operations in Woodstock, but we are expanding here in Kings Mountain,” said Marty Luebbers, product development manager, FSFT. “By the end of this year, we plan to be up and running in Kings Mountain with the volume of products Woodstock was running. Basically, from a tire cord standpoint, we’ve primarily been the polyester producer and Woodstock was the nylon producer. But moving forward, we’ll be producing all the polyester and nylon tire cord products here in Kings Mountain.”
The Kevlar fabric may then be treated with a resorcinol/formaldehyde/latex coating before it is bonded to rubber to be used in industrial applications.
Quality, Environmental Emphasis
The company’s Kings Mountain and Gastonia facilities are ISO 9002 certified and have been ISO 14001 certified since 1999. More recently, the company’s ISO certificate was updated to include design and development in advance of ramping up its outside sales efforts.
FSFT maintains modern quality control laboratories to support company-wide quality initiatives, and recently received a Carolina Star for Safety through a program “designed to recognize employers and employees who have implemented effective safety and health management systems and maintain injury and illness rates that meet the criteria for participation.”
On the environmental side, FSFT was recognized by the North Carolina Environmental Stewardship Initiative as a Steward, which is the highest level in the program. In 2013, Kings Mountain was awarded a Wildlife at Work Certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council; and in 2014, the company achieved zero waste to landfill status. In addition, the company currently uses a proprietary process to apply the RFL coating to the tire cord, but is working to develop a new process that removes formaldehyde from the equation.
Growing Beyond In-House Consumption
More recently, the company has been working to grow sales outside of Firestone, especially in technical fabrics. The focus now for FSFT is to transition beyond traditional mechanical/rubber goods into industrial and technical fabrics.
“We are innovating by combining non-traditional fibers and mixing fiber types,” Luebbers said. “Nylon and polyester processing is the traditional business for us, but we’re now getting into aramids, UHMWPE [ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene] and have the ability to process metal fibers. We’re expanding into markets we didn’t play in before, and going out to the marketplace to show our capabilities and the hybrid possibilities.”
FSFT is experimenting with many different hybrid fabrics. “We define a hybrid product as one where dissimilar yarns are combined to give the final product properties that one stand-alone fiber cannot give,” Luebbers said.
“Every fiber has a positive and a negative. Whether it is strength, stretch, cost or some other property. Creating a hybrid product requires the ability to take advantage of the positives of one fiber with the positives of a different fiber while offsetting the negatives of both fibers if they were standing alone.
“We can create hybrids in many various ways,” Luebbers continued. “We can combine the fibers prior to weaving to produce a blended cord or yarn. Or, we can combine them during weaving. The process is really dependent on what the final properties are that we want to achieve.”
Firestone Fibers & Textiles’ Senior Process Engineer Prudence Dabruzzi assists in developing new hybrid fabrics for technical applications.
The company has extensive capabilities and has produced numerous hybrid products including polyester/carbon blends for antistatic applications, texturized carbon/nylon fabrics for absorption applications, RFL-treated nylon aramids blends, aramid/low melt polyester blends for resin-free bonding applications, and RFL-treated nylon/aramid hybrid fabrics used in European passenger train bellows. The list of possibilities is long and growing.
Innovative Solutions
Innovation and development at FSFT often starts with a request from Bridgestone’s Americas Technical Center located in Akron, Ohio, or from customers who are looking for fabrics with specific properties. FSFT then drives the development forward as it looks for innovative solutions to fulfill the requests.
“Some of our projects begin with a request from Akron for a product that hits certain properties based on how they know they want the cord to function in a tire,” Luebbers said. “They may need a certain strength per weight or specific weight or elongation. We can then take those same ideas and concepts and utilize them in non-tire projects for the open market.
“One example is a nylon and hybrid cord we worked on for tire applications that is now also used in a woven fabric that is RFL treated and used in an industrial application in Europe,” he added.
FSFT also works with customers to develop innovative products that fulfill customers’ requirements. “Most of the requests brought to us are for lighter, stronger and lower gauge products,” reported Luebbers. “Then I get to design a fabric that meets their criteria. That’s the fun part!”
The company continually updates machinery and adds new technologies to stay modern and at the forefront of technology. FSFT recently added new rapier looms for industrial weaving and plans to add more as volumes dictate. That investment allowed the company to develop and produce innovative hybrid products.
A significant investment also was recently made at the Gastonia facility to convert a warehouse into a space dedicated to carbon processing for composite products. At the moment, the facility features a pilot line and laboratory-scale equipment including specialized twisting machines, braiding machinery, cutting equipment and freezer space for storing prepreg materials. In addition to carbon weaving, FSFT also is experimenting with Vectran™ liquid crystal polymers and basalt materials. The company has the capability to quickly scale and ramp up production when the time is right.
“We attended CAMX in Orlando in 2017 and were excited about the amount of interest we had in the composite samples we were showing,” Luebbers reported. “There was a lot of interest in some of the hybrid composite reinforcements we had on display, and we left the show with some great contacts and potential partnerships that we are working to develop.”
Given the company’s strong brand, a clear path forward and the resources to get there, FSFT certainly appears to be heading in the right direction.
