BRUSSELS — July 18, 2017 — Following the announcement made earlier this month by the European Union and Japan about the political agreement on the main elements of an Economic Partnership Agreement between those two partners, the Japan Textile Federation (JTF) and the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (EURATEX) welcomed wholeheartedly those results and urged their respective authorities to implement as soon as possible the agreement for the benefit of their companies.
On 10th July 2017, the EU and Japan Textile and Clothing industries met in Brussels to exchange views about their respective industries’ status, their relationships and the political conclusions of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between
Japan and Europe. During that meeting, both JTF and EURATEX reiterated their support to the agreement reached that should increase the opportunities for their companies to grab market openings with their innovations.
“Since the start of the discussions the EU and Japanese textile and clothing industries worked together on tariffs and rules to ensure that the negotiators deliver the right framework for our products. Though, we still need to see the details of the text of the agreement, we are confident that such ambitious and industry driven deal will allow our companies to reap rapidly the benefits of this agreement”, said Klaus Huneke, President of EURATEX.
Indeed, both industries did issue two joint statements in support of those negotiations (November 2013 and November 2016) providing suggestions of possible area of agreement for their products both for tariffs and rules of origin. Both industries are greeting their authorities for having taken duly into account their proposals made during the negotiations to reach an agreement that should foster the textile and clothing bilateral relations.
Mr. Masanao Kambara, JTF President concluded that “The immediate abolishment of customs duties with full reciprocity and no exceptions as well as the rules of origin prone to promote industrial relations should be concluded and put into effect as soon as possible in order to allow this future-oriented agreement to deliver the expected benefits to our companies”.
Posted July 18, 2017-07-18
Source: European Apparel and Textile Confederation (EURATEX)
FRANKFURT, Germany — July 18, 2017 — On the occasion of its 125th anniversary, the VDMA has put together a series of multimedia reports. Published on the new website https://humans-machines-progress.com the reports show: Machines are not an end in itself for the machinery engineering industry. Regina Brückner, vice-chairperson of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association and managing associate of Brückner Trockentechnik, explains: “Machines are the means to make progress come true for people and to meet challenges like energy, mobility, infrastructure and health. Textiles and textile machinery play — sometimes hidden — a major role in improving daily life.”
Textile machinery is, for example, a starting point for resource-efficient construction. Lightweight construction materials based on knitted, woven or nonwovens fabrics enable enormous savings potential in aerospace. 1,974 liters of kerosene can be saved per aircraft per year with 20 kilograms less weight on the A320.
Infrastructure maintenance is currently time consuming and costly because the reinforced concrete that has been used in many structures, contains steel reinforcing bar that can corrode, making the concrete structure crack. Textiles offer a robust alternative by replacing steel with carbon. Carbon concrete is durable and versatile in its uses. The carbon used to reinforce concrete is even stronger than steel, but at the same time much lighter and more durable since it does not corrode. Building elements made of carbon concrete can thus be thinner, reducing demand for raw materials and, as a result, energy use and CO2 emissions are cut almost by half. These materials that help maintaining bridges and buildings are made on warp knitting machines, where yarn is processed into net-like cores or even three-dimensional spacer fabrics.
In medical technology, textiles play a vital part, too. The use of textile-based implants, such as stents, heart valve replacements and artificial cartilages or tissues, is growing strongly in modern surgical techniques. Garments with integrated sensors are already commercially available, including T-shirts that can measure pulse, breathing and body movement.
In the working world, textiles are both ubiquitous and practically invisible: Even in modern production sites, workers need professional and protective clothing to protect them from injury and safeguard against hazardous environments. Air conditioning is meanwhile becoming widespread in the modern working world – even in regions with no weather extremes. Air and dust filters made of nonwovens are most of the time not visible but they are there and help to protect staff, as well as sensitive equipment, in production plants.
The stories Materials and Health on humans-machines-progress.com show more exciting examples of mechanical and plant engineering being the driving force for lightweight construction and how medical textile technology ensures good health and quality of life.
DALTON, Ga. — July 17, 2017 — Beaulieu Group LLC (together with certain of its domestic subsidiaries, collectively, the company) doing business as Beaulieu Group LLC, a family owned flooring company, today announced that it has commenced a formal proceeding to restructure its balance sheet to better position itself for the future. To facilitate this restructuring, the company filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Rome Division.
The company’s existing lenders have agreed to continue to support the company by providing debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing that will be combined with its cash from operations to ensure and support continued business operations.
“Beaulieu family members and our board of managers believe pursuing a restructuring through chapter 11 is the best path forward at this time,” said Michael Pollard, president, Beaulieu Group LLC. “We have evaluated alternatives to address Beaulieu’s capital structure, and believe that restructuring through the chapter 11 process will best position all of Beaulieu Group LLC’s businesses for future success.”
“This is a necessary process as we continue to execute our long-term strategic plans for the business. Our business model has changed with the industry and our client base since our current capital structure was put into place,” continued Pollard. “This restructuring will allow us to invest in the business going forward and emerge a stronger organization. We remain steadfast in our commitment to our customers and employees throughout this process. I am confident that we have the talented and committed team capable of executing the reorganization plan. We appreciate the support of our vendors and customers as we move through this process.”
The Company has a 40-year legacy of providing innovative solutions to the flooring industry.
BOXMEER, the Netherlands — July 18, 2017 — MA Textiles, a Pakistan-based textile printing manufacturer, is enhancing its service flexibility and design offerings after installing an SPGPrints JAVELIN® digital printer, at its Shahdara facility, near Lahore. The installation is the first Javelin to go into full production in the country.
The Javelin printer, which uses scanning print technology, was ordered at ITM Istanbul last year. MA Textiles was looking for a digital solution to meet today’s rapidly changing demands.
“Digital printing is able to handle shorter runs and faster job changeovers, and this was something we knew we needed,” said Naveed, MA Textiles. “We decided to invest in the SPGPrints Javelin because of its advantages in terms of quality and reliability.
“First, we print a significant amount of cotton. Working with cotton results in the formation of lint that can clog nozzles of the print heads. With SPGPrints’ patented technology, ink is circulated in the print head. This makes the print heads more durable and longer-lasting,” he said.
“Secondly, SPGPrints offers a 30-month warranty, which is much longer than the other systems we were looking at. This was also the most important factor affecting our Javelin investment.”
The Javelin digital printer uses the proven Fujifilm Dimatix Samba print heads. The ink circulation function inside the print heads is part of SPGPrints’ Archer® technology that enables variable ink drops (from 2pL-10pL) to be fired up to 4mm from the substrate. This enables the use of a very wide range of textiles because the high jetting distance means that thicker, coarser and piled textiles can be printed, without damaging the print head.
“Colour is another reason for printing digitally,” continued Naveed. “With conventional printing, the number of colors that can be printed is limited; with digital, there are no limits, and smaller designs can be printed with fine detail.”
MA Textiles is a family business that began as a dyeing house in Karachi. As it added customers, it also added printing and finishing services. Its products include towels, home textiles, apparel and fabrics. Each of the the company’s departments is capable of cutting and stitching up to 15,000 meters per day.
The addition of the Javelin will give MA Textiles a digital printing capacity of two million linear meters per year. Moreover, thanks to the pinter’s minimial setup times, the company will be well-placed to offer shorter production runs and reduced lead-times, cost-effectively.
“We are planning to bring our digitally printed textiles to the retail market at the end of 2017. Our dyeing customers have reacted with enthusiasm to our digital printing investment, and the value it brings them. Explaining the benefits of SPGPrints’ technology is not so difficult, as the company has a strong reputation for high-performance textile machines in Pakistan.”
“MA Textiles is a leading Pakistani textile supplier, and its knowledge of all aspects of textile production gives its selection of the Javelin printer a special significance,” said Salman Hydrie, managing director of SPGPrints Pakistan Pvt Ltd. “The Javelin will give MA Textiles a powerful tool to meet today’s demands for fast turnarounds, short runs, and crisp detail.”
LONDON — July 18, 2017 — Based on its recent analysis of the automotive leather-cutting equipment market, Frost & Sullivan has conferred Lectra with the 2017 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership.
Lectra has leveraged more than 10 years of experience in connected manufacturing to offer Versalis®, an innovative digital solution designed to cut leather without compromise on quality. Featuring a powerful automatic nesting system for overall improvements in efficiency, the fully automated solution enables automotive leather suppliers to cut costs, improve productivity and minimize waste while also establishing a pathway to value-added Industry 4.0 processes.
Currently, almost 90 percent of leather used for automotive applications is cut using manual die presses, which require designers to build a physical prototype and finalize the design through trial and error. Lectra offers a fully digitalized leather solution from prototyping to cut parts — when used in combination with Lectra’s 3D prototyping and pattern-making software, Versalis digital leather cutting solution enables a 12-16 week reduction in development and launch cycles for vehicle seating models.
During the leather-cutting phase, the latest release of Versalis LeatherSuite allows automotive leather suppliers to achieve up to 15-percent greater productivity. Lectra’s end-to-end automotive leather offering furthermore guarantees optimal uptime through an extensive worldwide support network of field engineers and technical experts.
“Lectra focuses on a consultative approach that allows it to fully understand the customer’s needs before building a solution comprising software, hardware, consulting, training, and after-sales support,” said Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Kamalesh Mohanarangam. “Lectra’s equipment is fitted with more than 200 sensors that predict failure and immediately report issues to its call centers. This product feature and service has resulted in 98 percent uptime and very fast mean time to repair.”
Although digital leather cutting solutions are an investment, leather cutters and Tier-1 suppliers have begun to recognize the value of these products. On average, Lectra’s solutions help customers achieve up to 7-percent savings on leather compared to manual die-press methods by minimizing human error and variability in the cutting room. A benchmark test of leather trim cutting for door panels demonstrated a 3.5-percent gain in material made possible by Versalis’ superior nesting capabilities compared to the customer’s yield using manual nesting with die press machines, representing potential savings of 9 million euros per year.
Versalis is the fruit of significant R&D investment for the company, which has always made reinvestment of capital a priority. As part of a transformational plan, Lectra spent more than 50 million euros in investments between 2011 and 2015. With Lectra’s new strategy focusing on supporting their customers’ transition to Industry 4.0 standards, Lectra will increase the share of revenues dedicated to R&D to 10 percent for the period from 2017 to 2019, representing a rise of about 50 percent between 2016 and 2019.
“Digitalization opens up a range of opportunities, from improving operations to building new business models. The emergence of Industry 4.0 and better capabilities for mass production has enabled large-scale personalization and a more profitable manufacturing set-up,” noted Kamlaesh Mohanarangam. “More than 10 years of experience in IoT connectivity for industry gives Lectra a tremendous competitive advantage as increasing numbers of suppliers adopt digitalized processes and transition to Industry 4.0 standards.”
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality and is gaining rapid market acceptance. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it supports.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
Reproductions of textiles originally covering the walls of the Raphael Room at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have been installed to restore the gallery to its circa-1924 appearance.
By Janet Bealer Rodie, Contributing Editor
Over several decades, extensive work has gone into restoring the galleries of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston to their look at the time of Gardner’s death in 1924. The museum, built in the style of a 15th-century Venetian palace, opened in 1903 to house her extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, textiles, furniture and other items collected around the world and created over a 30-century span. Three floors of exhibition space in light-filled galleries are arranged around an interior courtyard garden.
In the Raphael Room on the second floor, textiles covering the walls and upholstered furniture are a major part of the restoration, which is nearly complete. Gardner had collected a number of 17th- and 18th-century Italian and Spanish silk damask and velvet fabrics, and she used 18 damasks and two velvets to cover the walls in that room, piecing them together in a patchwork-like way. The original fabrics were replaced in the 1950s, and now, those newer fabrics, sagging and faded after 60 years, have been replaced with reproductions of the original fabrics.
The Gardner archives had only a few original fabrics, so Tess Fredette, senior textile conservator at the museum, and her team researched 1926-era photographs of the room and archives from other museums. She then worked with a designer, weaving technician and others at commision silk weaver Prelle et Cie, Lyon, France, to execute the reproduction of each fabric. “I was able to sit with the woman who designed the patterns on the CAD system and talk to the weaver to decide what looms to use to weave the fabric, and decide how best to do that in a very cost-effective way,” she said.
Founded in 1752 and now a fifth-generation family business, Prelle originally specialized in handwoven, custom damask, brocade and velvet fabrics. Today, it reproduces historic fabrics and weaves new high-end custom fabrics for interior and couturier applications, utilizing both hand looms and high-tech industrial looms.
The original fabrics were various shades of red. “Chances are that in the late 17th-early 18th century the palette for red was fairly tight, but except for the few samples that we had, we really didn’t know the shades of red,” Fredette said. “They were basically a burgundy or bordeaux kind of red, so we came up with a color scheme, making the palette tight but having the fabrics look slightly different by choosing two different-colored warps and two different-colored wefts. We also had two different weft yarns, one a bombyx silk and the other a tussah silk, so just with those four dyes and two yarn types, we were able to create a little variety within this small, tight palette.”
For the Raphael Room, Prelle set up two Dornier electronic looms with the two warps to weave all the damask patterns, and another loom to weave the velvets. In all, 300 yards of fabric were woven.
In addition to the fabrics reproduced by Prelle, there are other fabrics that museum staff replicated in-house. Textile conservator Elsbeth Dijxhoorn re-created bands of linen embroidered with silk chenille emulating tasseled fringe to use on three velvet-covered stools in the room. The chenille was dyed to match the original colors found in a seam on the original bands.
Before and after: In the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Raphael Room, so named because two paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist hang on its walls, the original damask fabrics hanging on the wall were replaced in the 1950s by newer fabrics, which are shown in the photo below. Those newer fabrics, sagging and faded after 60 years, have now been replaced by reproductions of the fabrics that were installed originally by Isabella Stewart Gardner, as shown in the photo above.
Also, Fredette speculates that some of the original velvets on the walls had once had floral appliqués on them, but not when Gardner collected them. Where appliqués had fallen off, the tight stitching that had been used to attach them had left impressions on the fabric. “So to emulate the floral impressions left by missing appliqués, we had the new velvets embossed in-house,” Fredette said. The rubber embossing stamps were hand-carved by fiber artist Emma Welty.
Fredette and her team worked with Bruno Jouenne, owner of Soft Walls Associates in Boston, to assemble the various wall fabrics and trims and install them on the walls of the gallery. “It appears that the original fabrics were sewn together,” Fredette said. “I had it mapped out on paper and compared it to historical photos. Because everything was so pieced, we would cut the fabric, hang it on the wall piece by piece, and step back and look. Then, each piece was taken down, and it was all seamed together to make a big cloth the size of the wall. Then it was reinstalled on the walls, just tensioning around the perimeter.”
To replicate certain details on the walls and window trims, the museum commissioned six custom-produced silk trims from New York City-based Samuel & Sons and four handwoven silk chenille trims from Paris-based Passementerie Verrier.
All of the fabrics are 100-percent silk, so to satisfy Boston’s fire codes, the museum lined the walls with Velos II flame-retardant Trevira CS polyester napped velour fabric produced by Création Baumann, Switzerland. The Velos II was hung upside down to take advantage of the nap angle as a means to hold the silk fabrics in place and mitigate their sagging over time.
For more information about the textile restoration at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, contact Sarah Whitling swhitling@isgm.org; gardnermuseum.org.
American Fiber Manufacturers Association (AFMA) President Paul T. O’Day recently passed away. Fiercely dedicated to the industry he loved, Paul led AFMA from 1984 to 2017 with a sophisticated wit and a powerful intellect. He was a true gentleman, always gracious and emphatically willing to help others; and his dedication and extraordinary contribution to the industry has been recognized by industry leaders from the United States and across the globe.
“Paul was not only a great man, but he was also a friend and confidant to so many of us in the industry,” said Mark J. Ruday, AFMA chairman, and senior vice president, Fibers, DAK Americas LLC.
“Paul was a pillar of the textile trade community and provided unfailingly wise counsel to U.S. policymakers for many years,” said Bill Jackson, assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles, Office of the United States Trade Representative. “He was also an uncommonly kind man who brightened any gathering with his good humor and deep well of stories. He will be greatly missed.”
“Paul gave a lifetime of service to manufacturing and particularly the textile industry,” saidJay Timmons, president and CEO, National Association of Manufacturers. “Paul left a lasting footprint on the business community, his state and his country.”
“Famously courteous and humble, Paul won heated policy debates through the power of his extraordinary intellect, his expansive institutional knowledge and his total command of the subject matter at hand,” said Auggie Tantillo, president & CEO, National Council of Textile Organizations. “Completely secure in his role and the critical contribution he made to every project, Paul was always quick to defer credit and to shower praise on his colleagues.”
“Paul was highly regarded by all for his knowledge, hard work and professionalism,” said Tom Dobbins, president, American Composites Manufacturers Association. “Personally, he brought joy to everyone who knew him. A great light has gone out of the world and I will always feel that loss.”
“When I was new to the textile industry, Paul welcomed me,” said Jenn Stowe, vice president, Government Relations, The Carpet and Rug Institute. “He was a great source of industry history and knowledge. He was a resource and a role model. He will be sorely missed.”
The AFMA staff would like to thank Paul for his guidance and wisdom, for his strength and tenacity and for the honor and privilege of his leadership and friendship. Paul inspired us all and will be fondly remembered always.
Subject to certain adjustments at closing, Sterling Heights, Mich.-based Key Safety Systems (KSS) — a division of China-based Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp. — will acquire substantially all of the assets of Japan-based automotive safety systems supplier Takata Corp. for $1.588 billion.
Takata’s Kernersville, N.C.-based high-performance and composites manufacturer Highland Industries Inc. is included in the transaction and will become part of KSS. Not included in the deal are certain Takata assets and operations related to the production and sale of phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate airbag inflators.
KSS has completed due diligence and additional details about the deal — including plans for a smooth transition to minimize risk and supply chain disruption for Takata’s OEM customers — will be available in the coming weeks.
With the acquisition, KSS will employ approximately 60,000 employees in 23 countries.
“KSS is the ideal sponsor as we address the costs related to airbag inflator recalls, and an optimal partner to the company’s customers, suppliers and employees,” said Shigehisa Takada, chairman & CEO, Takata. “The combined business would be well positioned for long-term success in the global automotive industry. Throughout this process, our top priorities have been providing a steady supply of products to our valued customers, including replacement parts for recalls, and a stable home for our exceptional employees. This agreement would allow that to continue.”
“Although Takata has been impacted by the global airbag recall, the underlying strength of its skilled employee base, geographic reach, and exceptional steering wheels, seat belts and other safety products have not diminished,” said Jason Luo, president and CEO, KSS.
Photograph courtesy of the New Orleans Earnest N. Morial Convention Center
IFAI Expo 2017 heads to New Orleans with a full schedule of events, tours, workshops and meetings geared to the industrial fabrics sector.
TW Special Report
The Roseville, Minn.-based Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) is busy preparing for IFAI Expo 2017, which will be held September 26-29 at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, La.
IFAI Expo serves all aspects of the industry, and highlights segments targeted to specific markets including:
Specialty fabrics — featuring traditional market suppliers from fabric and equipment to hardware and services needed to manufacture end products;
Advanced textiles — covering supply chain relationships in technical textile markets including medical, automotive, wearable, safety/protective, performance wear and aerospace; and
Shade and weather protection — including end products such as retractable awning systems, shade structures, canopies and other weather solutions.
“IFAI Expo represents everything in the advanced, specialty and shade textile industries,” said IFAI President Mary Hennessy. “Attendees looking for high tech or durable textiles, equipment, hardware, findings or services, will find it at IFAI Expo.”
IFAI Expo features a packed educational conference schedule as well as a show floor with more than 400 anticipated exhibitors, equipment workshops and education demonstrations, campfire sessions, the Advanced Textiles Lounge, IFAI Hub/Membership Lounge, Fabric Sourcing Center, testing demo zone, Industry Awards Gallery, open meetings, and a selfie station.
The opening night reception — available to exhibitors and visitors alike — will be held Wednesday evening following the close of the exposition show floor at The National World War II museum. IFAI will arrange a parade from the convention center to the museum for the event. For a complete list of all the events and happenings surrounding the 4-day expo, please see the “Schedule at a Glance.”
New Opportunities In 2017
IFAI has added several new features to the 2017 edition of the show. Of particular note is the Smart Fabrics Program, which focuses on e-textiles and their applications. The program comprises an e-textiles workshop on the show floor with electronics and textile experts, easy to assemble e-textile kits available to all, an e-textiles standards roundtable and e-textile market discussions in an open forum setting; a Smart Fabrics Track at the Advanced Textiles conference; and the e-Textiles Hackathon Design Challenge. The hackathon is a contest created to encourage innovative new e-textile products with commercial value. It’s open to all entrepreneurs, developers, designers, students, engineers, artists, makers and creators who will be assigned to teams and tasked with innovating using only materials found in the e-textiles workshop. The hackathon is a free activity, but interested parties must register for the IFAI Expo/Advanced Textiles Conference badge and fill out the hackathon entry form no later than September 20 to be eligible to participate. Projects must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Thursday, and will be on display at IFAI Expo on Friday. Prizes will be awarded to the first and second place teams.
Both attendees and exhibitors will be able to meet with independent experts at IFAI Expo’s Mentor Meetings. Appointments for the 30-minute meetings are limited and must be scheduled in advance. IFAI has put together a comprehensive list of mentors who will be able to discuss topics from advanced textiles development, e-textiles, environmental regulation compliance, fire protection, intellectual property law, and product and process development, among other topics.
Educational Events, Awards
As in past years, IFAI’s Advanced Textiles Conference and Specialty Fabrics Conference will begin one day prior to the show floor opening, and continue on subsequent days only prior to the show floor opening to avoid conflicts in scheduling.
The IFAI Expo Testing Program, inaugurated in 2016 in partnership with Raleigh, N.C.-based North Carolina State University (NC State), will return to the expo this year and includes two NC State certificate options, testing demonstrations and education, as well as new question and answer sessions.
IFAI will again recognize new and innovative products and services found on the show floor with the Show Stopper program. The annual International Achievement Awards (IAA) — judged by industry experts, editors, architects, educators and design professionals — will honor innovation, technical skill and design excellence. In addition, the four Student Design Competitions sponsored by four IFAI divisions will recognize student talent in Advanced Textiles, Awning and Canopy, Fabric Graphics and Fabric Structures. The Industrial Fabrics Foundation also will present Innovation Awards in six categories with one achievement honored with a top overall prize.
Keynote Addresses
IFAI will host two keynote speakers at IFAI Expo 2017. Following the IFAI Annual Meeting, Tuesday’s keynote speaker Derreck Kayongo — a business visionary, Global Soap Project founder and CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta — will talk about bad life experiences and how they can reveal problems that need to be solved, or can point to a true calling in life. Kayongo will inspire the audience with his own life lessons and experience as a refugee and offer advice on how to stay relevant in today’s marketplace.
Seth Mattison — an internationally renowned expert on workforce trends and generational dynamics, and founder and Chief Movement Officer of FutureSight Labs — will present the keynote speech on Thursday after the awards ceremony. His presentation, titled, “The Future of Work Today: Insights from the New World of Work,” is designed to help leaders prepare to navigate a new business landscape where the pace of change is elevating and collaboration is the key ingredient to unleashing the innovation required to compete and win.
“We are excited to be back in New Orleans, a great venue for work and for fun. From our Opening Reception at the World War II Museum to our inspiring keynote speakers, networking opportunities and education on the show floor, IFAI Expo delivers the best and biggest annual event for manufacturers of textile products,” Hennessy said.
For more information about IFAI Expo 2017, please visit ifaiexpo.com.
INDA’s RISE conference focuses on connecting emerging technologies with real-world applications.
TW Special Report
The next gathering on the busy events calendar of the Cary, N.C.-based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) is RISE® — The Research, Innovation & Science For Engineered Fabrics Conference, to be held September 12-14, 2017, at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel, Raleigh, N.C. September marks the seventh edition of the conference, which focuses on innovations in global plastics extrusion, multifunctional fabric technologies, innovative apparel manufacturing and disruptive engineered materials with the aim of connecting innovations with real-world applications.
Over the three-days, a broad range of industry experts will give more than 25 presentations on 10-different topics covering manufacturing technologies, moisture management and wetlaid nonwovens and 3-D nonwoven structures among other topics.
INDA has lined up four keynote speakers for the conference. Dr. Bernd Kunze, CEO, Reifenhäuser Reicofil, will talk about expanding conceptual planning with the latest predictive analytical techniques from the perspective of a global machinery manufacturer. Keith Hoover, vice president, Material Process & Color Innovation, Under Armour, will discuss the global manufacturing landscape and new manufacturing models for apparel creation. The keynote presentation by Dr. Yoel Fink, CEO, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America; and director, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will focus on the leading edge multifunctional fiber devices that are extending the frontiers of fiber materials. The topic of potentially disruptive material science technologies and key areas of materials research will be presented by Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi, associate dean for Industry Research and Extension, and William A. Klopman Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University; and director, The Nonwovens Institute.
INDA also will announce the winner of the annual RISE Innovation Award, which recognizes innovations in new durable products featuring nonwoven fabrics used in a way that expands the use of such fabrics. Products considered for the award also must use advanced science and engineering principles to deliver unique solutions. Eligible durable product categories include geotextiles, automotive applications, long-life filter construction, furniture and durable household products. RISE Innovation Award finalists will present their technologies to conference attendees prior to the award presentation.
“The RISE conference embraces INDA’s mission to stimulate, recognize, and reward innovation in fiber technologies, material science, and engineered fabric solutions,” said Dave Rousse, INDA president. “We are delighted to host these inspiring trailblazers at this year’s conference and offer attendees the chance to have one-on-one conversations with technology innovators and business leaders. It is appropriate that the event is held in the acclaimed Research Triangle, as Raleigh is the named home to a broad range of high-tech companies and educational resources.”
For more information about RISE® — The Research, Innovation & Science For Engineered Fabrics Conference, please visit inda.org/events/rise17/.
