ELKHART, Ind. — June 11, 2018 — Patrick Industries Inc. announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Marine Accessories Corp. (MAC) and has expanded the size of its credit facility.

MAC is a manufacturer, distributor and aftermarket supplier of custom tower and canvas products and other related accessories to OEMs, dealers, retailers and distributors, as well as direct to consumers within the marine market. MAC is headquartered in Maryville, Tenn., and has eight manufacturing and distribution facilities located primarily in the United States. MAC’s trailing 12-months revenue through May 2018 was approximately $50 million and the company expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to net income per share.

“MAC’s innovative marine products, and design, engineering, manufacturing, and aftermarket expertise provide us with an excellent opportunity to further penetrate the marine market and leverage our existing capabilities within our marine platform,” said Todd Cleveland, chairman and CEO, Patrick.

“We are excited to partner with the MAC team and its high quality brand platform which is a seamless fit within our entrepreneurial, brand-based model,” said Andy Nemeth, president, Patrick. “MAC’s industry reputation for product quality, customized style and innovation, and consistently reliable just-in-time delivery has been instrumental in expanding its customer base within the recreational boating market. This acquisition is aligned with our strategic initiatives and capital allocation strategy and we look forward to working with the MAC team to help further drive value, growth and synergy realization. Consistent with previous acquisitions, we will support MAC with a financial and operational foundation that will allow it to capitalize on its core competencies while preserving the entrepreneurial spirit that has been so important to its success.”

Rick Reyenger, CEO, MAC, said: “We are very pleased to partner with Patrick and strengthen our presence in the marine industry as we continue to expand our footprint across multiple markets. The combination of Patrick’s strategic and capital resources with MAC’s energy, vision and foundation will help to further leverage our opportunities to bring innovative solutions to our customers.”

The acquisition of MAC includes the acquisition of accounts receivable, inventory, prepaid expenses, and machinery and equipment, and was funded under the company’s newly expanded credit facility. Patrick will continue to operate MAC on a stand-alone basis under its brand names in its existing facilities.

Credit Facility Expansion

On June 5, 2018, the company amended and restated its credit agreement to expand its senior secured credit facility to $900 million (the “2018 Credit Facility”) from $500 million.  The 2018 Credit Facility is comprised of an $800 million revolving credit facility and a $100 million term loan with pricing, maturity, and material provisions remaining unchanged.

“The increased credit facility positions us with capacity and a strong financing foundation to continue to support the company’s long-term strategic initiatives and disciplined capital allocation strategy. We look forward to our continued partnership with our bank group as we execute on our strategic plan, with the ultimate goal of providing exceptional products and service to our customer base and driving shareholder value,” stated Nemeth.

Posted June 11, 2018

Source: Patrick Industries

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — June 11, 2018 — Faurecia today signed a strategic partnership framework agreement with one of the leading Chinese automobile manufacturer, FAW Group, to develop cockpit of the future technologies and sustainable mobility solutions.

Within this strategic cooperation, several fields have been defined:

• Develop Cockpit of the Future solutions and services for a personalized and intelligent user experience in particular for the Hongqi (Red Flag) luxury FAW brand. In addition, the two groups will cooperate on the industrial design and perceived quality for this brand.
• Develop connected, versatile and predictive seat solutions for different use cases and driving mode scenario.
• Provide zero emission and air quality technologies for commercial and passenger vehicles in the fields of battery pack and fuel cell systems and lightweight composite solutions.

Patrick Koller, CEO, Faurecia declared: “We are very honored to have signed this strategic partnership with FAW, a leading OEM with a strong desire to disrupt the Chinese automotive industry. Faurecia is uniquely positioned to provide smart, predictive and connected technologies for a unique user experience. This collaboration will continue to reinforce our intimacy and collaboration with Chinese OEMs”.

FAW Group is a leading global manufacturer of quality passenger cars, trucks, and buses. Established in 1953, the company is one of China’s largest automotive groups. In 2017, annual sales exceed three million units.

Posted June 11, 2018

Source: Faurecia

TEL-AVIV, Israel — June 11, 2018 — Avgol, a global producer of high-performance nonwoven fabric solutions, launched its pioneering new antimicrobial solution, beneFIT™ Control, at ANEX 2018.

The tailored next-generation technology has been developed to aid in contamination, discomfort and odor by controlling the microbial activity within hygiene applications, including diapers, adult incontinence and feminine care.

beneFIT Control is part of the beneFIT family of functional skin wellness technologies, a new range of chemistries and processes developed by Avgol to deliver superior performance and comfort to consumers. beneFIT Control can be used in tandem with other of Avgol’s FIT technologies to enhance functionality even further.

Nick Carter, director, Market Business Intelligence and Intellectual Property, Avgol, said: “Significant financial losses are encountered globally through infection, contamination and spoilage caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and molds. Nonwoven fabrics have a growing role to play in hygiene, medical and industrial applications to limit the impact these microbial pathogens have.

“beneFIT Control is an adaptable solution, with a unique ability to minimize the impact on natural and normal skin flora while maximizing effect on troublesome organisms. Most other antimicrobial technologies are not selective in their function, resulting in all the microbials being killed or limited all the time.  We want to avoid a lingering broad spectrum performance as this can often causes new, and sometimes worse, problems for user wellness as well as potential issues in slowing the rate of decomposition when hygiene products are disposed of in landfills. Avgol’s beneFIT Control solution delivers a managed antimicrobial performance for ultimate consumer care and confidence.”

beneFIT Control technology has been designed with the disposable hygiene product specifically in mind. During testing, beneFIT Control has demonstrated multiple advantages in comparison to conventional solutions. Fabrics utilising the new technology provide a fast response ideal for the short duration of use that hygiene products typically have and retains a bright white appearance desired by consumers.  Slow to perform, non-white fabrics from older generation technologies are now a thing of the past.

Visitors to ANEX 2018 can find out more about beneFIT Control and other technologies in the Avgol innovation pipeline on stand 3E-6. ANEX 2018 runs from June 6-8, at Tokyo Big Sight, Japan.

Posted June 11, 2018

Source: Avgol Industries

BADINIERES, France  — June 11, 2018 — As a manufacturer of fabrics for paragliding, the Sports and Leisure Business Unit of Porcher Industries is working with sailing legend Yves Parlier on an ambitious new project that could soon see cargo ships sustainably powered by kites, saving 20 percent of fuel costs.

In the 2000 Vendée Globe single-handed race, Yves Parlier was setting a hectic pace which kept him well ahead of his competitors for the whole of the first month. Then disaster struck.

A week before Christmas, ferocious winds sent the mast of his boat, Aquitaine Innovations, crashing down, breaking it into pieces.

The rules of the race prohibit competitors from seeking outside help, but Parlier was determined not to be beaten and sent a defiant telex to that effect.

He was then obliged to nurse the boat for three weeks and four thousand kilometres to remote Stewart Island, just off the coast of New Zealand.

There, drawing on his past experience in the metallic composites industry, he carried out an ingenious repair job by joining the shattered mast together in two places — with resin cured in a makeshift oven powered by light bulbs as the air temperature was so low. During the weeks of repair work, he eked out his rations with mussels collected from rocks below the tideline before setting off to sail more than halfway around the world under a makeshift rig half the size of the original, surviving on fish and seaweed.

Hero’s welcome

Yves returned to France — six weeks after the other competitors — to a hero’s welcome, earning the nickname ‘The Extra-Terrestrial’ for his exploits and being elected the nation’s top sports personality in 2002. He was also awarded the Chevalier Medal of the Legion of Honor and went on to set two offshore 24-hour distance sailing records in 2006, before a broken ankle made competitive racing difficult for him.

That long, arduous Vendée Globe journey back to France, however, kept haunting him.

“I kept thinking that if only I’d had a kite on board, it would have been a much better way of returning to France,” he says today, “and how useful a kite could be generally in an emergency, and also for cutting down fuel consumption.”

Advantages

In exploring alternatives to the vast amounts of pollution that bigger boats cause through fuel consumption, sails set a historic precedent — at least when the wind can be fully exploited.

There are, however, a number of advantages kites have over sails, Parlier explains — not least the fact that they don’t require a mast that is always vulnerable to the elements.

“They are also easy to pack away into a relatively small container on board when not in use,” he says. “On bigger cargo ships and container vessels there is certainly no place for a mast on the bridge between the cockpit and the front of the boat. It would cause too much of an obstruction. A kite, on the other hand, could be packed away into a container and would cause no such obstruction when flying above the vessel.”

There are also considerable aerodynamic advantages to be gained from the kite being flown at height above the vessel, through the exploitation of drag, which Parlier has researched in detail, assisted by his son, Nico, who just happens to be the 2017 Formula Kite World Champion with a new tubeless kite using skytex 27.

Beyond the Sea

From these initial ideas, a purposeful consortium called Beyond the Sea has emerged. It brings together Yves Parlier’s company, Yves Parlier Océa, with the Marseille-headquartered shipping group CMA CGM, the Ensta Bretagne engineering college in Brest, Cousin Trestec a leader in rope manufacturing of Wervicq-Sud, and technical textiles leader Porcher Industries.

The project is an excellent fit for Porcher Sport, as the leading supplier globally of materials for paragliding. The company’s Skytex® brand is the world’s lightest fabric available for this end market and they also have a large portfolio of brands for spinnaker sails, parachutes and hot air balloons plus a new generation of high performance reinforcements based on pure cellulose fibres that are highly compatible with bio-based resins.

LibertyKite

With a 15 euro million grant from regional authorities for development work, Beyond the Sea has now reached the stage of launching its first product, the LibertyKite, intended as an emergency system for small boats of up to 18 metres or so in length.

“The fabric we are currently producing for the LibertyKite is a lightweight, high tenacity polyester ripstop fabric that is specially woven and finished in-house by Porcher Industries,” says Daniel Costantini, Sports and Leisure, Head of Sales.

“The LibertyKite is a very simple system which doesn’t need an auto-pilot or electronics, but it could be very useful if a mast should break or an engine fails,” Yves Parlier says. “In fact, it could save your life, or that of your boat, allowing you to steer clear of any dangers and get back to shore. It’s very robust, but also extremely light and packs very small.”

In the long-term, however, he is thinking big – envisaging electronically-controlled kites of up to 2,000 square metres in size becoming part of a new hybrid propulsion system for cargo ships.

Challenges for Porcher Industries

For Porcher Industries, however, this poses challenges relating to more than simple scale.

“We are developing proprietary fabrics based on a new fibre for the larger kites for cargo ships, specifically to improve the resistance of the material which would be very heavily loaded,” says Daniel Costantini. “There are many design details to be considered. Some parts of the kite would need to be inflatable in case the kite falls into water, but at the same time, there need to be areas of reinforcement based on composites to protect the structure against potential damage”.

Trials

“We are already now trialling kites of fifty square metres on two 30-metre-long fishing boats off the coasts of Canada and France,” Yves Parlier says. “The system employed is much more complicated than LibertyKite, involving electronics, and an on board computer connected to the motor. It’s intended for much more automatic and high performance operations, but I don’t want to say too much about how it works yet, as it’s very much an essential part of our intellectual property, but we have developed accurate software simulation for how the bigger kites can be operated and how they will respond to wave movements.

“There are challenges on both the technical and financial sides,” Yves Parlier concludes, “but we intend to have a viable system within a couple of years. After that, it’s a question of convincing the cargo companies of the system’s viability. We believe it can save around 20% of the fuel costs involved.”

It hardly needs pointing out that Yves Parlier is a man who has overcome some very considerable obstacles in the past. Sceptics should beware The Extra-Terrestrial.

Posted June 11, 2018

Source: Porcher Industries

FRANKFURT — June 11, 2018 —  Asia’s largest biennial event for the entire technical textiles and nonwovens sector will feature some of the industry’s biggest overseas machinery brands. Held on the earlier date of September 4-6 this year, the fair will feature an expected 500-plus total exhibitors from around 20 countries and regions.

As the world’s largest producer of technical textiles and nonwovens, China’s demand for production machinery is insatiable. As such, this September’s Cinte Techtextil China has attracted some of the world’s leading machinery brands, particularly in the nonwovens and weaving machinery sectors, ensuring a wide range of sourcing options for both domestic and international buyers.

Overseas producers respond to strong Chinese demand

As the Chinese domestic and export markets’ demand for quality technical textiles and nonwovens products continues to increase, overseas machinery brands continue to enter the country, using Cinte Techtextil China as their starting-out platform. ANDRITZ Nonwoven is just one of those who see the growing potential. “Chinese nonwovens manufacturers are increasingly requiring higher capacities and top-class quality for their nonwovens products for local and export markets,” Laurent Jallat explained. “China is the biggest market in terms of installed capacity, and shows quite promising potential for the future. In the past years, we’ve seen rapid growth in products such as disposable face masks.” ANDRITZ responds to this demand with their neXline spunlace eXcelle line which features state-of-the-art TT card web forming and JetlaceEssentiel hydro entanglement units for high capacity and speed.

The DiloGroup also report an increase in demand for their products in China. “China is one of our biggest markets,” explained Dominik Foshag. “We have procured huge orders from China, as Chinese customers are considering German technology more frequently nowadays. The visitor quality of Cinte Techtextil has been very good in this past, and we think this year’s fair will be also successful as we know many of our customers are going to visit.”

Oerlikon will introduce its spunbond technology to the Chinese market this year, and is expecting to conclude initial contracts at the fair due to increased demand for overseas products. “The Chinese market for nonwovens products is by far the largest and fastest growing national market. Chinese manufacturers are no longer satisfied with lower product quality, but want to exceed Western quality levels, for example. The products must now meet stricter customer requirements and legal standards, some of which are significantly higher than other international standards,” Lena Kachelmaier said.

Truetzschler Nonwovens has also noticed this trend. Jutta Stehr commented: “In the last two or three years, China became one of the pacemakers in the field of nonwovens used in beauty, skin care and hygiene applications. Asian markets have set new standards concerning quality in nonwovens. For instance, making disposable wipes from cotton fibres is a trend originating in Asia. The luxurious feeling of cotton combined with the requirement for eco-friendly products will further drive demand in China and elsewhere. Accordingly, Truetzschler Nonwovens anticipates more inquiries at Cinte Techtextil for its proven carding and spunlacing solutions for cotton nonwovens.”

Weaving machine supplier Itema has also noticed strong demand in China for products made in Italy. “Generally speaking, and especially for technical fabrics, imported machinery is highly evaluated and appreciated by Chinese customers. In recent years, Itema experienced significant growth in the sale of its Made-in-Italy weaving machines in China, and in other APAC countries. Imported machines are synonymous with quality and reliability, and we believe this positive trend will be constant in the future,” Matteo De Micheli outlined.

Nonwovens machinery exhibitor highlights

• ANDRITZ Nonwoven: Its specialty is technologies for drylaid, wetlaid, spunbond, spunlace, needlepunch and textile calendering. At Cinte Techtextil, it will highlight their aXcess product portfolio, which has been especially designed for medium-capacity production. ANDRITZ has developed this range to fit the demands of producers with medium-capacity requirements, particularly in emerging markets. It includes lines and individual machines for needlepunch, spunlace, wetlaid and calendering processes.
• Autefa Solutions: Visitors to its booth will experience the company’s expertise as a full line supplier for carded- crosslapped needlepunch lines, aerodynamic web forming technology, spunlace and thermobonding lines. The nonwovens lines meet customers’ requirements for quality web formation, bonding, active weight regulation and minimal maintenance.
• DILO Systems: A leader in the field of staple fiber nonwoven production lines, DiloGroup will present its latest developments at the fair, including staple fiber production lines, card feeding and cards and crosslappers and needlelooms.
• Oerlikon: It will showcase spunbond solution lines for the production of polypropylene geotextiles. According to the company, spunbond geotextile applications are on the rise as the market is increasingly demanding more efficient processes and products, which means the product requirements are often the same or greater, but with a lower raw material input. Spunbonds are progressively replacing classical carded nonwovens due to their technical and commercial benefits.
• Truetzschler Nonwovens: Concentrating on solutions for producing a broad range of hygiene nonwovens including wipes at the fair, it will focus on thermobonding and spunlacing processes and the respective machinery, from fiber preparation down to winding.

Weaving machinery exhibitor highlights

• Itema: Making its debut at Cinte Techtextil, Itema is a leading supplier of weaving machines for technical fabrics production. According to the company, it is the only weaving machine producer to offer technical textile manufacturers the top three technologies for weft insertion: Rapier, Projectile and Airjet.
• Picanol: It uses its leading position as a producer of weaving machines for other textile products to expand into machines for woven technical textiles by investing heavily in state-of-the-art technology, as well through the modular design of their machine platforms which allow it to serve different industry sectors effectively.
• Lindauer Dornier: Featuring in the German Pavilion this edition, it offers a number of weaving machine varieties including rapier, air-jet, open reed weave (ORW) and more. Its rapier weaving machines have set the technological standard in the high quality wool textiles market for decades, and this quality will be on display at their booth with the DORNIER P1 rapier weaving machine.

Domestic brands to watch out for

In addition to these leading overseas brands, a strong line-up of Chinese machinery producers will also feature at the fair, including Changshu Weicheng Non-Woven Equipment and Shijiazhuang Textile Machinery.

Cinte Techtextil China is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA).

Posted June 11, 2018

Source: Messe Frankfurt