Fremont, Calif.-based Electronics For Imaging Inc. (EFI) has announced plans to move its ink-jet business to a new 250,000-square-foot facility in Londonderry, N.H., in early 2018. The EFI™ Inkjet center will consolidate research and development, manufacturing, warehousing, training, and service for EFI VUTEk® and wide format printers into one facility. Sales and marketing management for EFI’s full portfolio of narrow, wide- and superwide-format industrial ink-jet printers and presses also will be housed at the center. In addition, the center will feature a briefing and demonstration center for customers.
“EFI’s annual ink-jet revenues are closing in on $500 million, and it is happening because our customers are capitalizing on new market opportunities using our expanding portfolio of industrial ink-jet printers,” said Scott Schinlever, senior vice president and general manager, EFI Inkjet.
EFI cites the proximity of the center to the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport as well as the pool of talent in the greater Boston metropolitan area as reasons for the site’s selection.
Switzerland-based JMBT Beteilgungen AG — a 100-percent subsidiary of family-owned Jakob Müller Holding AG and affiliate of Jakob Müller AG, Switzerland — has acquired 100-percent of the shares of Benninger AG from Benninger Holding AG, thus expanding the company’s offerings into a related business segment.
Benninger develops, manufactures and sells textile finishing systems, tire-cord production systems, and process automation equipment. The company employs approximately 330 people; 110 of the associates are located in Switzerland.
This is the second purchase by Müller in recent years that has expanded its product range. In 2012, Müller acquired Italy-based Comez S.p.A.
The first seven months of 2016 have been well below the hopes and expectations of many spinners.
“We’ve been really disappointed in the activity so far this year,” said one spinner. “Business is coming in small chunks. There seems to be no consistency at all. One week we see signs that things are beginning to loosen up, then the next week we see very little come in. We have enough business to keep everything running, but our pipeline is thin — a whole lot thinner than we would like it to be.”
Added another spinner: “It’s just week-to-week. We have orders coming in, but few of them are big. Our backlog is not nearly what it needs to be. I keep hearing there are some big programs out there that are going to come our way, but I haven’t seen any evidence of it.”
“The strong dollar certainly isn’t helping us right now,” added one yarn broker. “It is a hard sale, especially when competing on price with countries that artificially devalue their currencies. We talk a lot about imports in this country. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that the United States is among the largest exporters of textile products in the world. And when our prices start going up because the dollar is so strong, we start losing business.”
Not every spinner, however, is disappointed. Specialty yarns continue to move well. “We’re selling everything we can make,” said one specialty spinner. “The keys for us are innovation, communication and delivery. We make a unique product and we stay in touch with our customers so that we can anticipate and meet their needs. A critical part of our success is lead time. We know we have to get our product our customer faster than anyone else can. If we fail, someone else can step in. It used to be we talked about quotes and turnaround in weeks. Now we talk in days.”
Is It The election?
Going forward, some spinners expect business to remain stagnant until after the election. “It’s not unusual to see drop-offs in election years,” said one spinner. “After the election, depending on who is elected and what the message is, things could change. That is certainly what happened four years ago, and I am optimistic it will happen again.”
Another spinner agreed: “Maybe it is just uncertainly about the upcoming election. We have been expecting business to pick up every month this year, and it just hasn’t happened so far. We have a few solid weeks and then a few slow weeks. At first, we thought it was an inventory correction and that things would be back to normal by mid-year. Consumer confidence doesn’t seem to be terribly low. Unemployment is low, and new jobs are being created. So maybe everyone is now just taking a wait-and-see attitude. There have been a lot of things in the campaign for President that have made a lot of people nervous — and that goes for both sides.”
Final TPP Battle Looming?
Under the Trade Promotion Authority legislation passed last year, the White House is required to give a 30-day advance notice to Congress before submitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement for approval.
In mid-August, President Obama did just that through a Statement of Administrative Action. However, Congressional leaders have indicated they will not consider TPP until after the election because of its widespread unpopularity among the American public. Both major party candidates for President, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, oppose TPP as it is now written.
Cotton Prices
As of the week ended September 1, spot-market cotton prices for the base quality of cotton (color 41, leaf 4, staple 34, mike 35-36 and 43-49, strength 27.0-28.9, uniformity 81.0-81.9) in the seven designated markets measured by the USDA averaged 65.30 cents per pound.
The weekly average was up from 60.64 cents reported during the corresponding period a year ago. Spot transactions for the week totaled 2,630 bales. Total spot transactions for the season were 10,996 bales, compared to 18,729 bales for the corresponding week a year ago. The Intercontinental Exchange October settlement prices ended the week at 68.01 cents.
Alexium International CEO and Executive Director Nick Clark
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Alexium International is an environmentally responsible company that provides safe flame retardant chemistries for the defense industry and consumer markets.
Nick Clark has two decades of business experience, most recently in his role as CEO and executive director of Australia-based Alexium International. Clark is responsible for the overall management and leadership of the business in Australia, the United States and Europe. He is a Law and Economics graduate with a postgraduate MBA and has attended Columbia University as well as the Yale CEO College.
Textile World: Why are flame retardants so important in the textile industry? How have they evolved over the years?
Clark: Flame retardants are a critical safety component, particularly in the textile industry, because they help protect bedding, decorative fabrics, automotive fabrics and outdoor fabrics, as well as military and workwear. Each type of fabric needs a unique chemistry in order to maintain its unique features without compromising safety. Flame retardants can help to prevent furniture fires, provide protection to the skin should clothing catch fire, and help prevent the spread of flames for automotive fabrics, to name a few uses.
Flame retardants have been used for centuries; however, only recently have they undergone extensive changes. In the late 1970s, a National Cancer Institute study showed that the flame-retardant chemical tris (2,3,-dibromopropyl) phosphate — commonly used in children’s pajamas at the time — could cause cancer, leading the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban the use of this chemical in children’s clothes. This action, among a few others, helped pave the way for a newer and more environmentally conscious set of chemicals. Alexium was able to create a variety of products that would not negatively impact the environment while continuing to provide fire safety.
TW: What about Alexium’s new flame retardant chemistries helps prevent originally feared health problems?
Clark: According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), certain chemicals found in some flame retardants may cause reduced IQ scores, learning disorders, reduced fertility, thyroid disruption and cancer. The evidence of toxicity and bioaccumulation in some halogenated compounds and carcinogens has led to a demand for a new product that can still act as a flame safety tool without compromising health. This is why Alexium is intent on providing an environmentally friendly alternative. Alexium’s flame-retardant formulations are unique and are differentiated from existing treatments. Both our processes and products are intentionally designed to meet our own exacting requirements for safety and environmental sustainability, often exceeding industry standards.
While our products feature an environmentally friendly mix of chemicals, they remain lightweight and durable. For example, one of our products, Alexiflam NF, is a reactive, halogen-free, phosphorus-based product that can stand up to 50+ washes and is specifically designed for cotton and cotton blends often found in products such as workwear, apparel and upholstery.
TW: Alexium has a strong focus on the military textiles sector. How do Alexium’s chemicals help to keep those in active duty safe?
Clark: Alexium’s relationship with the U.S. Armed Forces dates back to our first partnership with the U.S. Air Force in 2009 to help improve Reactive Surface Treatment (RST) technology.
The chemical solution that we have specifically designed for our military division is called Alexiflam FR, which is both durable and ecofriendly. This chemical formulation works well with nylon/cotton blends, which are typical for products like military uniforms. In addition to uniforms, Alexium’s chemistries have been developed to protect military tents, backpacks, tactical gear and accessories.
TW: With the recent passing of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, how might Alexium’s environmentally friendly product fit into the new restrictions?
Clark: The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act makes important amendments to the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) as a result of an increasingly apparent need for further evaluation of existing chemicals. According to the EPA, the new law includes requirements such as mandatory evaluation of existing chemicals, a new risk-based safety standard and improved public transparency for chemical information. With this new power, the EPA can evaluate many of the chemicals that exist in everyday products. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), there are about 85,000 known chemicals — many of which are no longer being used — and about 1,000 of those chemicals need to be reevaluated to determine if they are safe.
At this time, it is hard to determine specifics about manufacturing, since this law is still very new and being analyzed. However, the amount of funding the EPA receives will play a large role in determining when they take action to review and potentially ban certain chemistries. According to the EWG, chemicals that should see early action for safety review include flame-retardant chemicals such as chlorinated phosphate esters and brominated chemicals like TBB and TBPH. A strong area of focus for this new legislation is to change its original emphasis on cost-benefit analysis when reviewing chemical safety and focus more on health and safety. With health and safety as governing factors, the EPA will likely review the use of certain halogenated flame retardants and possibly ban if not heavily regulate them.
Companies like ours that have the goal of creating environmentally friendly solutions should see this law as a welcome development because we can already produce compliant chemistries.
TW: Alexium has seen substantial growth and international expansion. What do you attribute these achievements to?
Clark: We attribute a lot of our success to having a simple and unified goal — providing products that keep consumers and the military safe with as minimal an impact on environmental health as possible.
Our international expansion has also helped us grow by opening us up to new clients. Right now, we have partnerships with distributors in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, and we expect additional expansion. Our client base is rapidly growing both in the commercial and defense sectors. Most recently, we reached agreements with a textile finisher and major tent supplier that supplies tents to the United Nations.
Additionally, Alexium’s cost and performance advantages over existing formulas have helped us capitalize on the market. Currently, there are few competitors that have environmentally friendly flame-retardant chemistries with minimal impact to other properties while still meeting unique customer needs. Our ability to achieve this has helped us to stand out as a reliable and effective option.
IFAI Expo 2016 will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center. Photo courtesy of Visit Charlotte
IFAI Expo 2016 offers educational events, tours, workshops and roundtables geared to the industrial fabrics sector.
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IFAI Expo 2016, organized by the Roseville, Minn.-based Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), will be held October 18-21, 2016, at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte.
IFAI expo serves all aspects of the industry, and features 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 — highlighting end products such as retractable awning systems, shade structures, canopies and other weather solutions.
The expo features a show floor with more than 400 anticipated exhibitors, equipment workshops, an Advanced Textiles Lounge, the IFAI TechStop, IFAI Membership Lounge, Fabric Sourcing Center, an updated ShowStoppers competition, and the IFAI International Achievement Awards, among other attractions. The opening night reception will be hosted at the NASCAR Hall of Fame (See “Schedule At A Glance” for a complete listing of events). As the schedule illustrates, the four-day event offers a varied and jam-packed lineup for expo attendees.
Organizers also will continue the format implemented last year where classroom education sessions are held prior to the show floor’s open hours to avoid conflicts in schedules. Super Tuesday features the Advanced Textiles Conference as well as educational programs for the specialty fabrics and shade and weather protection markets.
In addition, IFAI will host triple the number of educational campfire sessions on the show floor during the expo.
New Testing Program
IFAI has partnered with the Raleigh, N.C.-based North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Textiles in 2016 to offer an expanded three-part testing program featuring two certificate options as well as demonstrations hosted by experts on the show floor. The Advanced Textiles Conference Testing Track includes classroom sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday presented by industry experts and NCSU professors, in addition to lab time. Participants can earn a NCSU Textile Testing Essentials Certificate, which may be credited towards NCSU’s Textile Technology Certificate Program.
The NCSU Intro to Testing Certificate seminar features both classroom and lab time to teach the basics of textile testing. Participants also will earn a certificate upon completion of this seminar.
Throughout the expo, the Testing Demo Zone will give attendees the chance to interact with testing experts during live and video demonstrations on the show floor. NSCU will conduct the demonstrations along with a variety of companies and organizations including Advanced Testing Instruments, FITI Testing and Research Institute, Hohenstein Institute, Instron, Manufacturing Solutions Center, Netzach, Product Investigations, Textile Technology Center/Gaston College, Thermetrics, and Weber & Leucht.
Keynote Speakers
Three keynote speakers will feature at this year’s IFAI Expo. On Super Tuesday, the keynote speaker Chuck Gallagher — an entrepreneur, speaker and author — will talk about setting the stage for ethical success. The Wednesday Opening Session will feature Linda Kaplan Thaler, an advertising and non-fiction writer, and chair of the ad agency Publicis Kaplan Thaler. Dennis Snow, a 20-year veteran of the Walt Disney World Co., will present the keynote speech on Thursday on the topic of creating perfect customer experiences.
“We are happy to return to the Southeast and the home of the American textile industry in Charlotte,” said Mary Hennessy, president and CEO, IFAI. “We have more than 400 exhibitors ready to show their products and we are ready for the biggest and best IFAI Expo show ever.”
For more information about IFAI Expo 2016, visit ifaiexpo.com
FloorTek returns to the Dalton! Convention Center with technologies and educational events targeted to the flooring industry.
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After a short hiatus because of a downturn in the floor covering sector, FloorTek Expo has settled in to a new triennial schedule and will return to the carpet capital’s Dalton! Convention Center, Dalton, Ga., October 18-20, 2016. The state-of-the-art venue overlooks the scenic North Georgia mountains, and is in close proximity to hotel and dining options.
FloorTek Expo 2016 is produced by the Dalton-based American Floorcovering Alliance Inc. (AFA). The event is targeted exclusively to the floor covering industry, and will highlight machinery, technology, suppliers and services specific to the sector. FloorTek Expo will feature demonstrations and select educational opportunities in addition to the trade show exhibitors. As of TW’s press time, more than 70 exhibitors have registered to participate in the show.
Educational Opportunities
AFA has partnered with the Floor Inspectors Educational Guild to offer educational events to FloorTek attendees. On Thursday, the Flooring Professional Education Sessions will host a Shaw Day presented by technical experts from Shaw Industries Group Inc. Friday’s lecture will be presented by Forensic Concrete Engineer Inspector Robert Nunez.
In addition, the National Institute of Certified Floorcovering Inspectors (NICFI) and National Academy of Floor Covering Training (NAFCT) will collocate their events during FloorTek. NICFI will host its Annual Educational Conference October 17-19; while the NAFCT Technical Conference and Trade Show will be held October 20-22.
“FloorTek promises to be a very exciting event for both attendees and exhibitors this year,” said Wanda Ellis, executive director, AFA. “With a very impressive group of exhibitors signed on for 2016, there is every reason for the decision makers from the industry to make certain that they make time to visit the show. Add to this the other supporting seminars, workshops and technical trade show joining us for the week, it will only bring more focus onto North Georgia and our industry.”
Registration is free for attendees, and is now open at the FloorTek Expo website.
For more information about FloorTek 2016, visit floor-tek.com.
American textile workers are busy making things customers around the world want to buy, rewriting the popular narrative of the industry’s demise.
Mount Vernon Mills Vice President and Secretary Ned Cochrane has seen it all in his 30-plus years at the Mauldin, S.C.-based manufacturer. He said the industry’s resurgence is real and sustainable thanks to a confluence of factors and circumstances.
“Servicing the customer is the most important thing we do, and we do it better [domestically] than any country in the world,” Cochrane said. “Customers today want something special or unique; they want to be different from the next guy; they want consistent quality, and they know that in order to get that, they have to do business domestically.”
Bringing Textiles Home
Higher labor rates, transportation costs and energy tabs in Asia, coupled with a substantial appreciation in the value of the yuan, have helped spur a blended marketplace strategy with a strong focus on American-made textiles. The industry generated $56.7 billion in shipments in 2015 — a five-year increase of 13.4 percent — decades after many thought U.S. textiles were dead.
Made In America Is Back, And It’s Likely To Stay
Retailers from Wal-Mart to Abercrombie & Fitch are responding, creating sections for American-made items and sourcing goods domestically. In fact, Wal-Mart, which pioneered global sourcing to find the lowest-priced goods for customers, said it would increase spending with American suppliers by $50 billion over the next decade — and save money by doing so. Businesses in need of fast-turn, high-quality, low-risk goods have found a new sourcing spot, right where it used to be.
“We believe that U.S. consumers will increasingly position their support behind brands and companies that are investing in the USA,” said Peter Iliopoulos, senior vice president of Public & Corporate Affairs for Gildan, a leading supplier of quality branded family apparel. “We have invested $350 million in the U.S. in the past three years. Gildan has leveraged the great quality and superior value of USA cotton complimented with a strong base of skilled labor, low energy costs and a stable investment climate.”
Building The Modern Factory
Advantages of today’s U.S. textile industry include new manufacturing facilities filled with state-of-the-art equipment and a skilled workforce that can do substantially more with less. Between 2002 and 2012, U.S. textile mills increased productivity by 34 percent, tops among all industrial sectors in productivity increases. Gone are the days of dungarees and lunch pails. Today’s U.S. factories aren’t the clangorous, dusty places where lappers fed raw cotton into the sharp metal teeth of carding machines for eight hours a day. Low-wage, low-tech jobs are out, and comprehensive computer skills and specialized training are in — the new Made in America economic ecosystem relies on customization, cutting-edge technologies and workers who have mastered the machines.
“Our ownership has reinvested more than $100 million back into the company to modernize facilities and increase productivity,” said Cochrane. “We went out and got the best equipment money could buy, so we needed a more skilled workforce to handle it. As a result, our productivity is through the roof.”
“We have invested significantly in new equipment, technology and process improvements over the last 10 years,” said Iliopoulos. “Many of the innovative solutions now in our facilities were deployed through collaboration between our employees and our suppliers. We do not believe we could have achieved this level of success without that connection between our people and technology.”
Creating Jobs And Growing The Bottom Line
Increased demand and investments in technology have helped American textile companies achieve phenomenal growth, both in domestic job creation and the bottom line.
The increased demand for quality, domestically sourced textiles from state-of-the-art U.S. facilities has stemmed the tide of job losses that characterized the industry during the Great Recession. Today, the overall textile sector — from textile fibers to apparel — employs more than 500,000 workers.
The rise of the machines also has correlated to a rise in pay for skilled textile workers. In 2014, the average textile wage was $37,900 compared to $28,216 in 2002. In fact, textile workers earn 143 percent more than apparel store workers while also receiving health care and pension benefits.
“The introduction of more sophisticated technology within each process, with complicated circuitry and software driving almost all textile equipment, has elevated textile jobs,” Iliopoulos said. “We believe the shift toward sustainability in textiles has also created job opportunities, and the factors driving these changes will likely continue into the future.”
Innovating For The Future
“When things get tough, the easy thing to do is quit,” said ITG’s Burlington Group President Jeff Peck. “And once you quit, you’ve sealed your fate. So even when we were down, we never stopped development, and we never stopped innovating. Our customers today want products that do more and that have a story to tell, so they can create differentiation in the marketplace.”
Thinking differently has paid off for ITG. In 2007, just six years after filing for bankruptcy, ITG’s Burlington Group launched Burlington Labs, a state of the art “petri-dish” where ideas become reality.
“We have become a lightning rod for inventors and for emerging technology, because we can take raw ideas and commercialize them at lightning speed,” Peck said. “Customers see this and ask, can you do this? And because of Burlington Labs, we can say yes.”
Innovation in the industry has led to two new growth categories — nonwovens and technical textiles. Nonwovens are fiber-based products made of fabric that is compressed, heated or tangled, like felt. Envelopes, facial wipes, mops and medical scrubs are nonwovens. In the last decade, North Carolina has gained 1,945 jobs in the nonwoven products business.
Technical textiles are manufactured for non-aesthetic purposes, where function is the primary criterion. Products include protective clothing for firefighters, welders and astronauts; medical applications such as implants; and geotextiles that include reinforcements for embankments. Technical textiles have become one of the hottest growth categories for the industry, with a 34.9 percent increase in exports from 2007 to 2014.
“Innovation was our salvation,” Cochrane said. “When times were tough, we were forced to innovate to find new products that could help us sell, like technical textiles. Now innovation is part of our DNA. It’s who we are. After all, what you make is what makes you.”
The U.S. textile industry has grown by leaps and bounds, but Made in the USA makers are far from done. These companies are recognized as world-leaders in research and development and are developing new products everyday, from antiballistic body armor and conductive fibers to fabrics that adjust to climate change and smart textiles that use fabric to purify the water with nothing but sunlight.
“Today’s end-users don’t just wear textiles for comfort, they rely on them,” Peck said. “They need textiles for their safety, their health and their wellness. What we do now is more important than it’s ever been.”
Editor’s Note: This article appears in Textile World courtesy of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) as part of the “American Textiles: We Make Amazing™”campaign. NCTO is a trade association representing U.S. textile manufacturing. Please visit ncto.org to learn more about NCTO, the industry and the campaign.
If you look around, it’s likely that you’ll see at least one place where hook and loop fasteners from the VELCRO® brand are making life simpler for you. In fact, there are probably several; the textile product is ubiquitous.
It’s in the computer pouch that keeps your laptop safely ensconced during a jarring rush hour commute. It holds your car’s headliner fabric in place to ensure a quieter ride, and it keeps your sofa cushions perfectly stuffed so you can read your favorite book in comfort. From the intimacy of a child’s diaper to the daring of an armored tank — yes, it’s in there, too — the Velcro brand is in our lives more than we know.
“It’s not something that people really think about,” said Fraser Cameron, CEO, Velcro Companies, which owns more than 400 active patents and numerous trademarks. “It’s so fit for purpose that it’s almost obvious, yet not.”
The job the Velcro brand is doing to keep our daily lives comfortable is equally matched by the work the company itself does to keep our environment safe.
Velcro Companies Grows Environmental Efforts In The U.S. And Abroad
“We’ve done a lot in sustainable manufacturing — long before it was fashionable,” Cameron said.
From low-energy lights and occupancy sensors to processes designed to redirect waste at manufacturing facilities, Velcro Companies holds industry firsts in its sustainable manufacturing processes. First in the industry to remove solvents from coating processes, the company also was the first to substantially reduce the use of heavy metals in its manufacturing. Yet, this ISO 14001 certified company knew it could do more.
“Our philosophy is about making connections, and we knew that if we wanted to make amazing connections with customers, we’d have to first make connections with the community,” he said. “We thought, ‘Let’s take it one step further.’”
That step included broadening environmental responsibilities to incorporate social responsibilities, and the company has almost completed construction of the largest charitable school in Cambodia.
Environmental efforts in the U.S. and abroad continue to grow, as well. Velcro Companies now has on-site generators to capture fossil fuel burn-off, and 98 percent of the electrical and thermal power is self-generated. Additionally, it is installing solar panels for energy generation. It is a company that is well on its way to meeting a self-set sustainability goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2025.
Velcro Companies has 2,500 employees, including about 600 in Manchester, N.H., the site of its U.S. headquarters. It’s for the employees that many of these initiatives were founded.
“Surveys tell us sustainability is crucial to employee satisfaction,” said Cameron, who describes employees as high-tenure, including some who stay with the company 40 or 50 years. “Many of our employees spend a lifetime making our product. We want to ensure the product’s attributes, and the way the product is made, make them proud.”
Kathie Leonard knows something about company pride. She is the owner and president of Auburn Manufacturing Inc., in Mechanic Falls, Maine, just over 100 miles from Velcro Companies’ New Hampshire facility.
“We’ve been making textiles for 36 years, and people can’t believe we’re in the business we’re in and live happily in Maine,” Leonard said of the state that she fell in love with and never left after what was supposed to be a short visit in the 1970s. “But we’re good corporate citizens. We have to be. What you do — good or bad — follows you with only 1.2 million people in the state.”
Auburn is a manufacturer of high-performance coated textiles and composite fabrics for extreme temperature applications and end-use products including welding blankets, curtains and pads. Its manufacturing is extremely efficient: the use of water-based materials for coatings offers less volatility and very little waste; and, instead of sending waste fabrics to landfills, Auburn donates the remnants to welding schools for their use as protective fabrics.
Auburn’s sustainability story goes full-circle with innovative product development that has helped the company’s customers in their own sustainability efforts.
Many of Auburn’s products go into insulation applications as components to other products such as custom-made, removable insulation covers for heavy equipment in mechanical rooms. The insulation protects odd-shaped equipment that pipe insulation can’t cover; however, the unusual shapes and sizes needed for some areas require handcraftsmanship that is expensive and sometimes cost-prohibitive for institutions such as hospitals, colleges and government facilities.
Leonard describes a typical mechanical room in the basement of a building on a college campus.
“The pipes are covered, but the components are not,” she said. “You’re losing heat in all those places where the pipes connect, and it’s rising into the classrooms and libraries from the rooms below it. It’s like insulating your attic, but leaving your front door wide open.”
As a result, greenhouse gas emissions –—and energy costs — rise.
“Our silicone-coated fabrics are generally used on the outside of those custom products,” Leonard said. “We thought, ‘Why don’t we help these folks make the component covers more quickly and inexpensively so they can save energy?’ ”
Auburn Manufacturing created a kit that features the company’s coated fabrics in a composite that is easy to customize — like contact paper with premeasured squares that can be cut to size, Leonard said. Auburn’s kit also includes hook-and-loop fasteners.
“We’ve provided an easy, cost-effective way for facilities to cover those components, and they’re reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 8 percent,” she said. “It’s a big movement in a lot of these institutions, for the retrofit market and new construction.”
Auburn also created a similar kit with a water vapor barrier for chilled water systems — it keeps the cold in and prevents corrosion of the pipe.
“Sustainability is a way for the textile industry to show off what it knows,” Leonard said. “There’s a lot of knowledge and a lot of technology incorporated into textiles.”
Fraser Cameron of Velcro Companies echoes the sentiment. “What you can do with a textile product is quite extraordinary,” he said. “At the core, our goal is to go beyond what people might possibly expect. We have a story of undiscovered heroes in our industry.”
Editor’s Note: This article appears in Textile World courtesy of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) as part of the “American Textiles: We Make Amazing™” campaign. NCTO is a trade association representing U.S. textile manufacturing. Please visit ncto.org to learn more about NCTO, the industry and the campaign.
Fabric and foil membranes offer architects unique design opportunities.
By Nicholas Goldsmith, FAIA LEED AP
Looking at a historical perspective on the evolution of architecture — from the massive pyramids of Egypt to the framed structures of Greek and Roman construction, to the lighter Gothic vaulting and eventually modern architecture of the 20th century — there is a continuous, almost linear progression from solid mass to diaphanous skins of glass and steel.
A record of earlier brick and wood structures in Egypt gave way to the presence of the earliest stone architecture some 5,000 years ago, and because of the Egyptian obsession with the afterworld and permanence, a culture of stone was created.
As culture shifted from Egypt to Greece and Rome, stone continued to be used, but the Greek and Roman temples used larger spans for their columns and less material overall. The classical three orders started with the Doric, to Ionic to Corinthian — each becoming lighter in profile. With the advent of Byzantine and Romanesque churches, the weight to span decreased; and when the Gothic style was developed in northern Europe in the 12th century, this decrease in weight to span accelerated with the introduction of flying buttresses that allowed glass curtain walls reflecting its metaphysical attraction to light appear seemingly self-supporting in heights of up to 150 feet.
In the 20th century, a movement from mass to membrane increased in speed with the introduction of steel framing, lattice trusses and new developments in glass technology. By the beginning of this century, glass had become the material of preference. Curtain walls using truss framing, diagrids, glass mullions and cable systems all became common architectural practice. Corporations used glass towers as a symbol of prestige and transparency. Today, lighter and lighter building technologies include structural membranes composed of fabric and foils. It is interesting to note that two of the leading high-tech companies of world, Google and Apple, presently are developing glass and ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foil skins as elements of their new corporate headquarters.
In short, looking back over the last 4,000 years of architecture, one can see a linear evolution from the mass of the pyramids to the membranes of tomorrow. Mass to membrane is a human architectural journey — can we use less material, be more sustainable, and help reduce the carbon footprint on the planet called earth?
Fabric, foils and other membranes are materials well suited for creating building skins. They are curved for strength, provide waterproofing and insulation, can be multi-layered and can create complex surfaces with minimal seaming. Fabric skins have been around since the beginning of time as seen in yurts and leather tents of ancient civilizations. But with today’s new composite materials, computational analysis and digital patterning, membranes have developed into a new option as permanent building skins.
Building Skins
To shed light on the new building skins of tomorrow and new approaches to building skins, step back and look at human skin. There are three layers of skin: the epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis. The outer epidermis layer contains the sweat pores and hair shafts; the middle dermis layer contains connective tissues, hair follicles, sweat glands and some muscles; and the inner hypodermis layer contains veins and arteries as well as connective tissues that tie the layers together.
This approach of multiple integrated layers all performing different functions creates a skin that gives the body a waterproof cover, keeps out disease and protects against sunlight. When the approach of multiple integrated layers is applied to architectural membrane structures, the performance requirements of the building skin first need to be understood.
Not only is human skin sensitive, sending the brain information about pressure and temperature, but it heals efficiently to maintain a protective barrier. Combining these two features into one man-made material has been the focus of Stanford University chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao and her team. The team has succeed in making a man-made skin that is not only sensitive to touch, but also is capable of healing itself quickly and repeatedly at room temperature, which has significant implications for biomedical textile markets. The researchers succeeded by combining two materials — a plastic polymer with self-healing ability and the conductive metal.
Today, enormous growth is observed in the wearables or smart garments market. These technologies use intelligence pathways in the fibers of the materials to create e-textiles. Socks, sports bras, T-shirts with heart sensors, and casts with currents for quickly knitting bones together are now all available products. As this market develops, spin-off technologies likely will have an impact building skin technologies.
Figure 1: The BMW Gina Concept Car. Photo courtesy of ravas51flicker
A few years ago, New York City-based FTL Design Engineering Studio assisted Klaudia Kruse and the innovation team at BMW to develop a stretch fabric body for a concept car named the Gina after the famous Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida. The stretch fabric approach was based on a lightweight aluminum frame with a fabric skin that can open and close as a complete shape (See Figure 1). This is a fabric skin approach to industrial design that is in its early stages of development, but again asks the question of how to get more when using less material.
Structure
There are three basic types of building skin structures — frame supported membranes, cable and strut supported membranes, and either air-supported or air-inflated pneumatic membranes. Each one of these systems requires the skin to be prestressed to develop strength, and requires form-finding to develop relaxed 3-D — either synclastic or anticlastic — surfaces that are in equilibrium. Ideally, they have equal tension and are considered minimal surfaces, but often for spatial reasons they have different tensions in both opposing primary directions. Whether computer programs that utilize a force density approach or a dynamic relaxation approach are used for form finding and analysis, finite element analysis is required to create balanced structural skins that can resist downward and uplift pressures.
Form
Prestressed membranes take either saddle surfaces — hyperbolic paraboloids — toroid or doughnut shapes; and surfaces of revolution — either hyperboloid or toroid surfaces. In complex building skins, these basic building block elements are developed into multiple panels where the different surfaces are bounded by ridges and valleys to create complex geometries. The intersection of the ridge lines and valley lines become 3-D linear elements that are described by physical modeling and form-finding geometries.
Acoustics
There are many different approaches to generating form including considering acoustics, site constraints, sun angles and wind. Using acoustics, one starts with a ray diagram to generate reflective surfaces that both blend and reflect sound waves. Depending on whether the structure is used for pop music or classical music determines the type of surface required for performances. Conoid shapes and synclastic shapes tend to trap sound, so most performance pavilions use a series of hyperbolic surfaces to create a rich interior experience.
A project in Sun Valley Idaho completed by FTL Design Engineering Studio in 2008 uses acoustic reflection and the site’s constraints as the form generator for the music pavilion. The site was a landscape in the Rocky Mountains at a famous ski resort frequented by Hollywood celebrities. FTL’s approach to the landscape was to develop a series of retaining walls that rose out of the land, came together to create a musical space and then faded back into the ground. The music season lasted only through the summer months, but the winter snow load criteria was more than 100 pounds per square foot (lb/ft2) with drifts of up to 200 lb/ft2. FTL understood the symphony wanted a structure that combined the seasonal and ephemeral quality of a summer tent with a more permanent facility that could accommodate the theatrical and acoustic requirements. FTL realized the local snow load requirements would not allow for a permanent fabric structure. The eventual design features a steel cable net and uses a rigid wood material that can handle high vertical loads. When developing the idea, FTL felt that the wood was very much in keeping with the materials near the site and tied into the surrounding buildings. A copper-top roofing maintained the differential in slope and added another earthy touch to the ephemeral cable structure. The audience area remains covered with a tensile fabric skin that is demounted each fall prior to the winter.
Musically, the wood roof allows for a rich sound that is augmented by a series of acoustical reflector panels suspended below the cable net, which can be fine-tuned for different types of music. In this case, a hybrid solution of the cable net and tensioned fabric solved the diverse set of design challenges.
Shading And Insulation
One of the quintessential qualities of tensile structures allows their use as shading elements. Since ancient times, membranes have been used for this purpose — whether it is the “vela” shading Roman coliseums or the Bedouin black goat hair tents of Arabia or the “toldos” covering the streets in southern Spain. With fabrics that allow anywhere from zero to 40-percent translucencies, the level of shade is controllable based on different climates and regions of the world. Based on a classification of different climates such as the 19th century professor Koeppen’s climate categorization based on plant life around the planet, one can apply both shading and insulation to lightweight structures. The strategies for membranes in cold moist climates such as northern Europe are considerably different than hot arid climates such as the American southwest or the hot and moist climates of Central America.
Technologies such as foil pillow structures make sense in the cold, moist climates; while in hot and arid climates, mesh fabrics often are used; and in hot and moist climates, solid fabrics that provide for air movement and passive cooling are used.
FTL had to consider a northern climate when designing an entryway for the Empire City Casino in Yonkers, N.Y. The design firm developed an ETFE foil pillow system supported by a steel grid shell structure that acts as an entry to the casino and also provides rain and sun protection for up to 30 cars. The design also acts as a lighting element and an icon for the casino. FTL developed a toroid shape for the grid shell, but also looked at funicular shapes to minimize steel weights. The ETFE pillows allow for transparencies up to 98 percent, and are a soft alternative to glass roofs and facades.
Energy Generation
By their nature, membrane structures use large unsupported spans that can be modified with the application of solar thin film technologies to generate power to the space inside. In addition, tensioned membranes can serve as shrouds for wind collection turbines where minimizing turbulence allows the turbines to work efficiently at lower wind speeds. Since the first application of solar panels that FTL pioneered in 1998 at the National Design Museum in New York, the company has worked with amorphous silicone and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) technologies to develop alternative methods of power generation using building skins. Generating only approximately 5 watts per square foot, the method is still relatively inefficient. But because the roof area of the building skin is generally large, the inefficiency of the thin film technology is offset by its cost effective size.
Lighting
Several basic forms of illumination exist in nature— illuminant, illumination, film mode, surface mode and volume mode. Membranes can make use of surface and volume natural lighting modes. Using artificial lighting through the volume light mode creates glowing volumes of form and space. FTL’s recent project for Phoenix-based Arizona State University modeled computer lighting to create glowing volumetric light using high-intensity discharge fixtures for the main surfaces and programmable light emitting diode lights to highlight the steelwork.
Water Collection
Water collection always has been an important function of roofing in dry climates since Roman times. But with today’s added interest in sustainable development and storm water collection, interest in collecting storm water in cisterns for reuse has increased. Membrane structures are ideal collectors of rainwater, and the shape of the roof can be manipulated to become a water feature of the building.
Figure 2: The curved design of the Detroit-based Rosa Parks Transit Center created by FTL Design Engineering enables water to be collected and stored below ground for irrigation use. Dallas-based FabriTec Structures LLC won an IFAI Award of Excellence in 2010 for the center. Photo courtesy of FabriTec Structures, LLC
In 2009, FTL completed the Rosa Parks Transit Center in downtown Detroit for the city (See Figure 2). The goal was to unify six bus waiting areas and connect them to the “People Mover” — an elevated rail system that serves the City. The design firm developed a 6,000-square-meter roof under which 13 busses can load and unload passengers. Because of the unique urban site and the elevated tracks of the rail system, foundation placement was very limited. However, the design was required to cover the street area up to the elevated tracks. FTL’s solution to this dilemma was to create a series of seven A-frame masts that use a tensegrity cable system to suspend eight curved trusses. By cantilevering the trusses out over the road, the bus area was covered. The section of trusses with A-frames creates peaks and low points, which provides curvature to the fabric, but also creates the opportunity to collect water from the roof, which is stored in a cistern below grade. The edge of the low point has a large gutter and feeder pipes that allow the water to pour into a landscaped element with a catch basin at grade. The water collection areas are surrounded by built-in seating for waiting passengers. The stored water is used for irrigation for plants and landscaping on site.
Future Outlook
There are many different elements required for building skins depending on the location they will be used. The task ahead focuses on integrating these different elements into multi-skin solutions, much like human skin, to offer numerous functions. The next steps in the evolution of membrane structures will be to layer integrated systems that, when connected, will transform the notion of building facades into a porous multifunctional membrane reflecting the natural world.
Editor’s Note: Nicholas Goldsmith, FAIA LEED AP, is senior principal at New York City-based FTL Design Engineering Studio; and a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, International Association for shell and spatial structures, as well as the former chair of the Lightweight Structures Association. This article is based on Goldsmith’s presentation given at the 2015 Textile World Innovation Forum.
