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/.
Messe Frankfurt organized a special exhibition in cooperation with ESA and the German Aerospace Centre that illustrated a wide variety of applications for technical textiles in relation to space travel.
The recent collocated Techtextil and Texprocess shows held in Frankfurt showed growth in both exhibitor and visitor numbers.
By Rachael S. Davis, Executive Editor
The collocated Techtextil 2017 and Texprocess 2017 shows recently took place in Frankfurt under the theme “Living In Space.” Organizer Frankfurt-based Messe Frankfurt reported the largest number of exhibitors for the event to date with 1,789 total exhibitors at both shows, which represented an increase of 7 percent over the 2015 edition. In 2017, 1,477 exhibitors from 55 countries participated in Techtextil; and 312 exhibitors from 36 countries presented at Texprocess.
“We will open the biggest Techtextil ever this year,” said Detlef Braun, member of the board of management, Messe Frankfurt GmbH, at a press conference held prior to the show’s opening. “The high number of exhibitors reflects the outstanding dynamism amongst the producers of technical textiles, who enjoy continuing growth. The multifaceted range of applications to be seen at Techtextil, from products for the automotive industry to those applied in architecture, medicine, clothing and sports stands for the innovative power of the textile industry.”
Techtextil also continues to increase in internationality. Some 71 percent of exhibitors — a total of 1,054 — came from outside of Germany in 2017. The five largest exhibitor nations were Italy, China, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Three new nations — Lebanon, Mexico and Vietnam — each were represented at the show for the first time with one exhibitor from each country participating.
The largest exhibitor nations at Texprocess were Italy, China, Turkey, Taiwan and Poland.
Messe Frankfurt reports approximately 33,670 visitors from 104 countries attended Techtextil, up from 28,491 visitors in 2015. More than 7,091 visitors registered for the concurrent Texprocess show and both shows benefitted from the synergy of visitors.
The continued growth and success of Techtextil is supported by figures that illustrate the growth of the global technical textiles industry. Figures compiled by Commerzbank and shared in its “Technische Textilien” study published in 2015, predict the market for technical textiles will grow to $160 billion by 2018. This figure does not include composites or nonwovens. The same report estimates the worldwide share of technical textiles production is 27 percent of overall textile production. Messe Frankfurt reports turnover for Germany-based manufacturers of technical textiles is approximately 13 billion euros per year.
Former European Space Agency astronauts Dr. Ernst Messerschmid (below) and Dr. Reinhold Ewald (above), spoke at Techtextil about the applications for technical textiles in space exploration.
Living In Space
Dr. Reinhold Ewald, a former astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA) and professor for Astronautics and Space Stations at the University of Stuttgart, was a guest of honor at Techtextil. Ewald’s presentation at the opening press conference focused on the significance of and need for advanced and high-performance materials to enable space travel, as well as the impact that such materials make in everyday life as they are developed into consumer products. “High-tech materials based on fibers are essential in space travel when it comes to reducing the weight of space capsules,” said Ewald. “Every additional gram increases costs. Furthermore, textiles also save lives. Just think about astronaut suits. At the same time, materials that have been developed for space travel often find their way into daily life.”
To complement the “Living in Space” theme, Messe Frankfurt organized a special exhibition in cooperation with ESA and the German Aerospace Centre. The exhibit illustrated a wide variety of applications for technical textiles in relation to space travel and exploration including several space suits and a Meteron Eurobot rover. A Material Gallery highlighted textiles and technologies from exhibitors that were related to space travel. Visitors also could experience a journey through space to Mars in a virtual reality interactive area.
Many Techtextil exhibitors also embraced the Living In Space theme. In particular, Germany-based Brückner Trockentechnik GmbH & Co. KG invited guests to the company’s booth to hear a presentation about technical textiles in aerospace given by Professor Dr. Ernst Messerschmid, a former German astronaut with ESA.
Other Events
The French Textile Machinery Manufacturers Association (UCMTF) hosted a press conference featuring member companies N. Schlumberger, Laroche, Superba and Dollfus & Muller that discussed collaborative developments with customers. These France-based companies recently worked on projects with their customers where they had to identify technology needs and then design and develop innovative solutions to fulfill those needs. Pascal Denizart, CEO of the five-year-old France-based European Centre of Innovative Textiles (CETI) also gave press conference attendees some insight into the disruptive textile innovation and applied research center. According to Denizart, CETI is “a place to design, prototype, experiment new products or material for the global textile chain.”
“Innovation comes both from new technologies and the market’s demands,” said Evelyne Cholet, secretary general, UCMTF. “We are proud of our strategy to offer customized solutions and not only off the shelves machinery, to focus R&D on our customers’ requirements, to offer cost effective, reliable and environment friendly machines.”
Exhibitor, Visitor Comments
“The show has been extraordinarily good,” said Jutta Stehr, senior marketing manager, Trützschler Nonwovens & Man-Made Fibers GmbH. “The first day was a little slow, but the second day was overwhelmingly busy with customers from all corners. Voith and Trützschler Card Clothing also report it has been a good exhibition.”
Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG Vice President Klaus A. Heinrichs mentioned that technical textile applications are a growing market for Monforts. “Business for technical textiles for Monforts is about one-third of our overall business, and we are moving more and more into technical textiles applications,” Heinrichs said. “High-tech machinery is the strategy for the future of the company and Techtextil is the show for technical textiles. The first day we did not see the number of visitors we expected, but the quality is good. We saw visitors from Pakistan, Spain and France. We have visitors scheduled from the United States who have many projects to discuss.”
“The market for man-made fibers is very strong, especially in China,” said André Wissenberg, vice president, head of marketing, corporate communications and Public Affairs, Oerlikon Textile GmbH & Co. KG. “There is BCF investment also for carpet yarn in the United States. The second day of the show was very busy, which we didn’t expect.”
Corry Manderson, business development manager, Innovation, Chicago-based Lawter, was a first-time attendee at Techtextil in Frankfurt. “The show was very impressive in its scale and diversity,” Manderson said. “In particular, I appreciated the segmentation of the exhibition into local categories: the manufacturers were grouped into one hall, and the value chain was grouped methodically with the yarn, fabric, and garment companies typically grouped into clusters. As a visitor looking to make the most of a limited amount of time, this was a very efficient way to organize my potential networking opportunities. I was able to meet with not only companies from European Union countries, but also had great meetings with companies from India, Turkey, Taiwan and Japan. Overall, I found the balance between the size of the trade show and the user friendliness of the experience to be remarkable, and I plan to attend the next edition.”
The next collocated Techtextil and Texprocess in Frankfurt will be held May 14-17, 2019, at the Messe Frankfurt fairgrounds.
The next Techtextil North America will be collocated with Texprocess at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, May 22-24, 2018.
New technologies are positioned to become potential market leaders in the increasingly sophisticated world of textiles.
By Edward C. Gregor
The history of textiles began in unrecorded history, when animal skin and vegetation were likely the only available materials according to anthropologists. Fast forward to today, and the world of textiles is well-established, generally sophisticated with a large variety of fibers and constructions routinely sold, and expanding globally in recent years. A view from a high-level perspective finds both commodity and specialty materials — produced as woven, knitted and nonwoven fabrics in forms from natural, synthetic, inorganic, including bio-polymer materials — now emerging. Tweaks in construction by some are considered and promoted as advancements in the state-of-the-art. Other times, wholesale new ideas — some revolutionary, others evolutionary — from thinkers, entrepreneurs and others in R&D and product development, create new entrants. In time, a few of the better tweaks and innovative new technologies will penetrate existing markets and applications displacing incumbent materials. This article highlights several advances, and attempts to sort through the clutter and identify a few technologies positioned to become potential market leaders.
Roller shades made using PAL…the Clean Plastic from Dynamic Modifiers LLC
Non-Toxic FR Alternative To PVC
Fire resistance (FR) and intumescent materials are a “hot” topic and receive lots of visibility in many markets including protective apparel, mattresses and contract fabrics — areas where the public gathers indoors.
Atlanta-based specialty plastic compounder Dynamic Modifiers LLC has developed highly-sustainable, lightweight and non-toxic FR compounds and concentrates able to pass NFPA-701 and Cal 19 testing. When used to produce fibers, yarns, films or sheets, PAL…the Clean Plastic does not carry a flame and produces minimal quantities of smoke, therefore creating time to escape from a closed environment. The material can be extruded, calendered or molded into virtually any configuration. “With PAL…The Clean Plastic product line of custom formulated compounds, we believe we offer customers a versatile range of properties and performance often associated with flexible PVC [polyvinyl chloride],” said Howard Bradshaw, president, Dynamic Modifiers.
The company also offers light-weight intumescent low-toxicity compounds and concentrates, but these products require a sheet thicknesses of at least 0.020 inches to be effective. However, the company is working toward versions that will be effective when turned into a thinner sheet.
Wicking And Stain Resistance
Founded in 1993, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Crypton LLC is widely known for its stain-resistant upholstery and the Nanotex® technology. In expanding the company’s reach, Crypton has upped the stakes with a new performance technology called Wick+Block® for apparel. This fabric enhancement is a relatively new offering and an example of a company extending its fundamental technology into new markets to broaden its core competency. Wick+Block is a wicking and stain-blocking treatment for nylon or polyester apparel that rapidly moves moisture away from the wearer, while also adding perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)-free stain-resistant properties to a garment. Early uses have included National Football League and college football uniforms that provide players with a fresh clean garment after each and every laundering. A second line extension from Crypton is Nanotex® DRY INSIDE technology for cotton, the result of collaboration with Cary, N.C.-based Cotton Incorporated. Dry Inside is designed as a moisture-management system that rapidly pulls moisture away from an athlete’s body to the outside atmosphere with high-efficiency. “The marketplace for apparel companies is as competitive as ever, so each player is looking for the next technology that will provide an edge,” said Hardy Sullivan, vice president, Market Development. “We want Nanotex to be the go-to innovator for product differentiation.”
A unique ceramic fiber product is offered by CerX Filters LLC, Johnson City, Tenn. Traditional ceramic filters are tubular in shape and produced from sintered ceramic powders. They are costly and heavy featuring poor flow rates because of minimal porosity for liquid or air flow.
Pleated ceramic nonwoven filters from CerX Filters LLC
CerX has changed the paradigm, using robust pleated ceramic fiber filtration media with much lighter weight, lower-cost, higher surface area and flow rates, and higher porosity than traditional ceramic filters. These filters operate at temperatures of up to 1,000°C at any pH during extreme conditions. “Low backpressure/high temperature opens many new opportunities for filtration applications,” said Dick Nixdorf, chief technology officer, CerX.
Potential applications reduce particles in diesel engine exhaust and biomass syngas, as well as pre-filtering for catalytic oxidizers. The filters can trap particles, such as lint or carbon fibers, then safely be taken to a high-temperature periodically using a dual-chamber system to cleanse itself in-situ for nearly continuous 24-hour operation.
Performance Knit Fabrics
Malibu, Calif.-based Fabdesigns Inc. is a developer of prototype knit fabrics for use in performance applications. Many of the world’s leading companies seeking to set themselves apart from competition contract to develop new products with Fabdesigns. Because of confidentialities with clients, release of company names, products and insights are restricted.
However, Fabdesigns was permitted to mention one recent non-confidential development, namely a fully-integrated knitted net pocket used in Warrior®-brand lacrosse stick baskets. The 3-D knitted nets are said to provide an accurate feel and control in the throat, pocket and head. The product features a longer channel for reduced friction and a more precise release with a design branded Warp. Examples of other well-known specialty products in Fabdesigns’ past have included one-piece athletic shoes, military applications, medical products, aerospace parts and personal protection garments.
Let There Be Light!
France-based Saint-Gobain S.A. has been making its SHEERFILL® architectural membranes for more than 40 years. Over these four decades, it has developed and introduced new products to meet the changing needs of the structural membrane market. These innovations include membranes in different weights and strengths to better suit the demands of various structures; acoustical membranes for interior applications to reduce noise and reverberation; mesh materials for breathable façades; and even true self-cleaning action with the advent of EverClean® photocatalytic topcoat, which incorporates titanium dioxide to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide pollution while keeping the surface clean and bright.
Saint-Gobain has introduced Sheerfill Illuminate, a range of watertight membranes for roofing and façade applications where high light transmission is desired. Using the same proven materials long incorporated into Sheerfill — fiberglass reinforcement encapsulated with polytetrafluoroethylene — Illuminate products provide a high-strength-to-weight ratio, can be used as single layer tensile membranes, and provide the same peace of mind when it comes to safety with a Class A fire rating.
The Illuminate membrane will open a world of possibilities for architects and designers. The product can be varied to create options not seen before in the structural membrane market such as colored fabric with clear light transmission, different light transmission options — all with the design freedom possible only with reinforced membranes.
Saint-Gobain is working with several companies to realize some near-term projects, with plans to have a full launch during the second half of 2017. “Sheerfill Illuminate allows for increased light transmission to improve the comfort and sustainability of new structures of all types,” said Michael Lussier, global market leader, Saint-Gobain.
Automotive Composites
Composites are arguably the fastest growing segment of the textile market by percentage in emerging specialty applications, which include carbon fiber to reduce weight in the Boeing 787 aircraft, to various sporting goods from hockey sticks to golf equipment and even bicycles and wheelchair frames using resin, along with molded boat hulls. This market has the potential to explode if two things happen. First, if the Trump administration does not reduce current regulations that require automotive companies selling cars in the United States to average a minimum of 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025. This protocol termed lightweighting includes material offered by steel and aluminum producers and others who are diligently developing stronger lighter-weight metals as well as others who are introducing reinforced resins and plastics, some of which are already in production.
A second caveat is that carbon fiber, a rather modest sized market, is able to price its products in the $5- to $6-per-pound range — or perhaps even lower, depending on future lower-cost developments of alternative or in-kind materials. Watch these developments closely, as the final outcome could dramatically move companies and technologies. Man-made, inorganic bast fiber-textiles, including nonwoven fabrics are all widely used in composites for many other applications at hundreds of suppliers worldwide. Even if carbon fiber cannot match the price of other materials used in mass applications in automotive, other market segments are sure to grow at rates beyond gross domestic products over the next 15 to 20 years and perhaps longer, while providing handsome returns to many suppliers.
“While the composites industry has always been inextricably linked to lightweight parts, this year’s show was keen to highlight that high-volume composite parts aren’t a pipe dream, but a production-ready reality,” said Justin Cunningham, editor, Engineering Materials, reporting from the 2016 JEC show in Paris. “The question remains whether the technology is affordable and how long it will take to tool part suppliers for automotive.”
High-Performance Textile Finishes And Coatings
Whitford Corp., Elverson, Pa., is best known as one of the largest global suppliers of engineered coatings including sol-gel based coatings that provide lubrication and release for cookware and bakeware, as well as coatings for many industrial markets. Less well known to the textile industry is Whitford’s success in providing polymeric finishes and coatings to improve the performance and extend the life of fibers, yarns and technical textiles. “These emerging technologies are making a big difference in the properties and longevity of specialty use and technical textiles” said Spencer Siegel, global textile business manager.
Whitford’s custom technical textile finishes and technologies are used to improve the performance and greatly extend the life of automotive timing and conveyor belts, cargo nets, commercial marine and other high-performance rope applications. The company now offers BlisterGuard®, a range of low-friction yarns for athletic and military socks to reduce blisters, chafing and hot spots, while enhancing overall the wearer’s comfort.
Bio-Polymers Continue To Grow
Ingeo® polylactic acid sustainable polymers produced by Minnetonka, Minn.-based NatureWorks LLC are used to manufacture fibers for a wide variety of textile and nonwoven applications. As customers increasingly seek sustainable products, a large and growing number of global fiber, yarn and nonwoven fabric producers now offer materials for many end-use applications from filtration media to medical fabrics and apparel, as well as a broad range of packaging applications. NatureWorks offers a portfolio of Ingeo polymers that enhances the performance and sustainability of a broad range of fibers and fabrics. Companies are finding many of the unique and inherent properties such as wicking, breathability, skin comfort and ease of processing are valuable attributes for more sustainable offerings with improved performance. “The portfolio of fiber grade resins in the NatureWorks 6 Series are designed for processes from mono to multifilament as well as spunbond and meltblown products,” said Robert Green, global business director, Fibers/Nonwovens, NatureWorks.
Antimicrobial Medical Garments
Many antimicrobial textile technologies claim to reduce bacterial contamination on fabrics and use laboratory test results to infer effectiveness during actual use. Companies and brands can have their carefully built reputations ruined overnight and customers can be put in danger when products do not perform in real life.
To assist hospitals in their evaluation and decision making, American Hospital Association (AHA) Solutions Inc. conducted a thorough, proprietary due-diligence process review of antimicrobial solutions for the healthcare apparel market. AHA Solutions used evidence-based research to evaluate and document the effectiveness and safety of the products studied, and awarded its exclusive endorsement to VESTEX® Active Barrier Apparel produced by Orlando, Fla.-based Vestagen Technical Textiles Inc. The endorsements typically last for one to three years, and assist hospitals in making well-informed decisions about the most effective products to use.
Vestex differs from other antimicrobial apparel technologies. By incorporating a dual mechanism of action with fluid resistance in addition to an active antimicrobial with a rapid onset of action and a proprietary method of application, Vestex achieves enhanced effectiveness and comfort, according to the company.
The research efficacy of Vestex is reinforced by successful adoption and implementation by major health systems such as Northwell, Baptist, HCA Florida and overwhelming hospital staff satisfaction. “Based on effectiveness and safety, the American Hospital Association selected Vestex as the first and only apparel they have ever endorsed,” noted Ben Favret, president, Vestagen.
Editor’s Note: The author can be reached at Ed Gregor, Edward C. Gregor & Associates, LLC 803-431-7427 or by email ecg@egregor.com.
NC State Senior Design project studied the design and construction of the wildland fire shelter.
By Nathan Wintermute
Wildland fires burned more than 10 million U.S. acres in 2015. These fires can be dangerously volatile, sometimes trapping firefighters among the flames, so since 1977, firefighters in the field have been required to carry emergency fire shelters with them at all times. These last resort shelters have saved many lives, but their performance can always be improved. One group of students at Raleigh, N.C.-based North Carolina State University’s (NC State’s) College of Textiles recently made it their mission to improve the seaming of the shelter to provide better protection.
Overview
Through a yearlong capstone course, seniors majoring in both Textile Engineering and Textile Technology have the opportunity to participate in real-life product development for companies and organizations to solve real-world problems or achieve existing goals. Students Cody Brown, Katavia Teachey, and Nathan Wintermute spent their 2016-2017 academic year working on a project sponsored by the Textile Protection and Comfort Center (T-PACC) to augment the design and construction of the wildland fire shelter to improve the safety of wildland firefighters. They were awarded a NC Space Grant to support their senior design project.
The T-PACC team described the project as follows:
“These shelters are currently a two-layer system where the outer layer is an aluminized silica fabric and the inner layer is an aluminized fiberglass fabric and they are folded into a small brick shape and vacuum-sealed to reduce overall package size. The current shelter fails during direct flame contact situations, particularly at the seams. Ongoing research being performed by T-PACC is finding new materials and layering concepts for these shelters for improved fire blocking performance and are looking for senior design students to incorporate these new materials/layers with innovative designs, constructions, and packaging that minimizes overall weight and minimizes heat transfer to the firefighter inside.”
As part of a larger project, T-PACC is conducting research to develop better fire-blocking materials for wildland fire shelters. It tested the prototype fireshelters in a unique shelter testing chamber over the past several years, and found that a recurring issue is the tendency of seams to fail before the body of the shelter. In fact, video taken during this testing shows the flames entering the shelter at lines that match the seam locations (See Figure 1). If these seams can be improved to last longer, then the overall duration of shelter protection can be improved. A primary goal of the project was to empirically prove that the seam of the shelter has a significant effect on the overall heat transfer.
Ideation
The students began the process by thoroughly researching the existing fire shelter, including history and development. The standard fire shelter was under constant redesign to improve its functionality; many different shapes were attempted until 2002, when the current capsular design — roughly the appearance and shape of a foil-wrapped baked potato — was selected. The group used the “U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Specification: Shelter, Fire, M-2002 (5100-606C)” as a guide to understand which design choices were made and why. Based on this standard and direction from T-PACC, the team attempted to improve the shelter with as little change as possible to the component materials, in order to prevent any substitutions or additions from releasing toxic fumes when burned, and also to ensure the results of testing would be directly related to the change of the seam rather than a change in material.
The team focused its research on joining methods. The standard shelter uses sewing as its primary means of joining. Sewing, by its nature, pierces a piece of fabric to pass the thread through, and the team wanted to find methods of joining that would eliminate these punctures from contributing to the heat transfer. Unfortunately, it was quickly determined that typical alternatives to sewing, including thermal bonding, ultrasonic bonding and adhesives, do not perform well at wildfire temperatures, which may reach as high as 1800°C. Concept selection was narrowed down to a seam redesign that changed the pattern of folds within the seam, but did not change the material.
Figure 2: Final fire shelter prototype with altered seams
Fabrication
Prototyping centered on the fabrication of four seams, identified for their theoretical low heat transfer and compatibility with the two-layer system. The team produced small scale sample sizes, rather than full shelters, to allow bench scale testing and conservation of materials. They used an industrial sewing machine to construct the seams in order to easily adjust the needle size, stitch density, loop size and tension, and designed prototypes to be tested for one of three variables: tensile strength; radiant heat exposure; or convective heat exposure.
After the production of small seam samples, the team constructed 25-percent scale model fire shelters and finally a full-scale fire shelter incorporating a redesigned seam (See Figure 2). They used the highest performing prototype to sew the three body-arc seams of the shelter’s dome area, which forms the majority of the shelter’s body, and used a quadruple stitch pass to fasten the cross lapped design that joins the material.
Figure 3: Testing apparatus used to isolate seam properties
Testing
During the process, the team used several methods of analysis based on shelter performance. Due to ease of access, tensile strength was tested first, then radiant heat exposure testing using a team-designed apparatus (See Figure 3) to isolate a seam’s heat transfer. Finally, a flame was used to conduct convective heat exposure to confirm and expand upon the radiant testing results.
Conclusions
Testing showed that a seam redesign could provide at least 10 percent convective heat transfer reduction across the seam region; radiant testing of the original shelter seam showed visible scorching and degradation of the material occurred at around 370°C. The redesign did add around 0.25 pounds, but it markedly increased tensile strength, with the highest performing prototype passing the original shelter’s strength by approximately 55 percent.
The team was successful in developing and implementing a new seam design for the wildland fire shelter and testing it using a personalized method of seam region isolation. The test results show that this seam redesign significantly reduces heat transfer into a fire shelter, potentially saving wildland firefighter’s lives.
Editor’s Notes: Nathan Wintermute graduated from NC State Spring 2017 with a B.S. in Textile Engineering.
For more information on this project, please contact the T-PACC sponsor Dr. Roger Barker, rbarker@ncsu.edu; and John Morton-Aslanis, jmorton@ncsu.edu.
For more information on the NC State Senior Design Capstone Program, please contact the program directors: Russell E. Gorga, regorga@ncsu.edu; and Jesse S. Jur, jsjur@ncsu.edu.
