EXTON, Pa. — February 9, 2023 — AGC Chemicals Americas Inc. (AGCCA) announces a joint development agreement with DRYFIBER LLC to commercialize a new oil/water repellent technology. DRYFIBER coatings are a non-fluorinated repellent for woven and nonwoven fabrics. When applied to fabrics and carpets, the coating repels many types of stains and oils.
The DRYFIBER polymer chemistry was developed by Cornell University. When a thin polymeric coating is applied to textiles, it imparts a microscopically rough texture that creates a chemical barrier. The coating resists stains from oils while maintaining the fabric’s feel and softness. Fluids bead up on the treated fabrics and carpets so they can be easily cleaned.
DRYFIBER coatings are ideal for industrial fabrics, apparel, upholstery, automotive textiles and carpets. They can be applied as a dip or spray-coated, and they serve as a high-performance alternative to fluorinated repellent technologies.
“The joint development is strategic for both AGCCA and DRYFIBER,” noted Mario Vincenzini, material technology manager, chemicals, AGC Chemicals Americas. “We can provide the technical expertise required to optimize product performance, which pairs well with DRYFIBER’s commercial relationships and market presence.”
“The textile market has shown great interest in adopting our non-PFC technology to deliver water and oil repellency as a drop-in solution,” said Greg Lucci, founding partner of DRYFIBER. “AGC is an ideal partner for us because their knowledge and experience are key to the further development and commercialization of DRYFIBER’s technology.
WASHINGTON — February 9, 2023 — The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) has announced its list of 2023 Cleanup Champions. Lead by the Future Leaders in Plastics (FLiP) Community Impact Task Group, the Cleanup Champions Initiative encourages PLASTICS’ member companies to use the Guide to Planning a Litter Cleanup to carry out a cleanup in their community in 2023. Each of these companies are dedicated to making a difference in their communities by working to eliminate plastic and all material waste from the environment.
“PLASTICS and the entire plastics industry are dedicated to recycling, eliminating waste from the environment and making change for good in our local communities,” said Heather Nortz, PLASTICS’ Sustainability and Materials Manager. “PLASTICS’ 2023 Cleanup Champions have commiteed to giving back to their community and positively impacting our environment. We are excited to see what PLASTICS’ 2023 Cleanup Champions will accomplish this year.”
The 2023 Cleanup Champions are as follows:
Advanced Blending Solutions;
Brueckner USA;
Industrial Heater Corp.;
Braskem;
Covestro;
Epsilyte;
Milliken;
Gardner Business Media;
Dart Container;
Colour Synthesis Solutions; and
Placon.
The Future Leaders in Plastics (FLiP) Community Impact Task Group was created in April of 2022 to foster collaboration among PLASTICS member companies and external organizations to provide an outlet for the industry to give back and positively impact the environment and communities the plastics industry serves.
The PLASTICS is the only organization that supports the entire plastics supply chain, including equipment suppliers, material suppliers, processors and recyclers, representing more than 1 million workers in the $468 billion U.S. industry. PLASTICS advances the priorities of our members who are dedicated to investing in technologies that improve capabilities and advances in recycling and sustainability and providing essential products that allow for the protection and safety of our lives. Since 1937, PLASTICS has been working to make its members, and the sixth largest U.S. manufacturing industry, more globally competitive while supporting circularity through educational initiatives, industry-leading insights and events, convening opportunities and policy advocacy, including the largest plastics trade show in the Americas, NPE2024: The Plastics Show.
Posted: February 9, 2023
Source: The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS)
Committed to European production, Löffler has retained the bulk of its manufacturing at its headquarters in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Svegea of Sweden – a member of TMAS, the Swedish Textile Machinery Association – has recently installed an EC300-S collarette cutter for the high speed production of tubular apparel components as well as an FA350 automatic roll slitter at the plant of Löffler, in Ried im Innkreis, Austria.
TW Special Report
Sports and knitwear specialist Löffler is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023, and its long-held belief in retaining manufacturing in Austria by investing both in its people and the latest advanced technologies at its plant in Ried is now paying dividends.
The plant houses 25 circular knitting machines and three seamless knitting machines with an annual output of around 905,000 square meters of fabric, and in addition to product development, design, cutting and some sewing are all carried out in-house.
“Löffler is part of the family company Fischer Holding, and Ried is the hometown of its owner Josef Fischer, who has been dedicated to maintaining manufacturing here,” said Löffler Plant Manager Arnold Bowier. “While many competitors have outsourced their production to the Far East in recent decades, we chose a different path. In addition to increasing sales, this strategy has reinforced the cohesion of our employees and also our relationships with key partners.
“Due to steadily increasing sales we have been forced to find local partners within Europe, but our core activities and 70 percent of all fabrics produced come from the Ried plant. Now we are seeing many competing companies reconsidering where they site their main manufacturing operations.”
Löffler Plant Manager Arnold Bowier at the control of the FA350 automatic roll slitter.
Function In Every Fiber
Löffler is well known for its transtex under garments, which ushered in the two-layer principle of structures combining hydrophobic polypropylene and other fibers like cotton, Modal, Tencel or merino wool.
Before transtex, endurance athletes usually wore pure cotton underwear next to their skin, which became wet over time and cooled the body down. Löffler’s two-layer fabric prevented this, since the polypropylene does not absorb moisture and instead wicks it to the outside, where it can evaporate to keep the skin dry.
Innovation has been ongoing ever since, and in December, Löffler received an ISPO Award 2022 for transtex Retr’x — its latest functional underwear made from recycled polypropylene from textile waste and a combination of recycled and GOTS-certified organic cotton. Transtex Retr’x is neither dyed or bleached and is Standard 100 by Oeko-Tex as well as Made In Green by Oeko-Tex approved.
In addition to its own branded products, the plant makes sports garments for sister company Fischer, which is also based in Ried, and is at the same time involved in significant government tender projects, including the supply of polo shirts for the Austrian Red Cross and for the German and Austrian police forces. Combined, Löffler and Fischer employ approximately 700 people in the region of Upper Austria.
The EC300-S collarette cutter operates at speeds of up to 20,000 metres per hour.
Advanced Automation For Increased Efficiency
Bowier and his team built up a strong relationship with Svegea’s technicians during the installation and commissioning of the new machines.
“The machines were delivered directly from Sweden and prepared and adjusted perfectly,” Bowier said. “Because Covid-19 restrictions were still in place during the commissioning phase of the roll slitter, installation training was carried out remotely, with Svegea’s Technical Engineer Erik Bernhardsson guiding us through the process with patience and good humour and providing lots of hints and tips for handling the machine.”
Svegea’s EC 300-S collarette cutter is equipped with the computer-controlled True-Drive II and high pre-feed device and is used by garment manufacturers around the world for the production of tubular apparel components such as cuff and neck tapes and other seam reinforcements. It operates at speeds of up to 20,000 meters per hour. The integrated, fully automatic FA350 roll slitter FA500 roll slitter is equipped with three separately adjustable settings enabling three different band widths to be cut within the same cutting cycle. Automatic tube sewing units are provided for sewn tubes in optional rolled or flat folded forms, depending on customer preference.
“Advances in automation continue to make the specialized, bespoke machines we engineer more efficient,” said Svegea Managing Director Håkan Steene. “The garment components our collarette cutters produce make it logical for them to be integrated into a company’s making-up operations and at the moment we’re seeing a lot of interest in the reshoring of operations by our customers, to bring final-stage manufacturing closer to the key European or U.S. markets. Löffler, however, has for many years bucked the trend and retained its manufacturing in Austria.
BANGKOK — February 9, 2023 — Avgol®, a manufacturer of high-performance nonwoven fabric solutions, will use this month’s FILTECH exhibition in Germany to showcase its latest developments in using Algaeing™’s patented algae bio-based formulations for colorants and fibers.
Underlining its commitment to helping customers meet their sustainability objectives, the company will highlight the latest breakthroughs since announcing its collaboration with Algaeing, which combines a unique environmental solution for modifying the aesthetic qualities of materials with Avgol’s ongoing commitment to sustainable polyolefin based spunbond and meltblown fabrics.
Together with its sister companies from Indorama Ventures Ltd. (IVL) , Avgol will be presenting biotransformation capable fibers and meltblown for diversified end-use markets at the event from February 14-16. Avgol will discuss with visitors how this new technology and the company’s biotransformative products can help businesses achieve their 2030 sustainability goals.
“FILTECH is the largest and most important filtration show in the world, and we are thrilled to be able to showcase this latest step in our biotransformation journey at the event,” said Avgol CEO Tommi Bjornman. “Since entering our partnership with Algaeing in 2020, our R&D team has enjoyed tremendous success with the colorant technology in proof of concept and prototyping phases and we are excited to present the materials as we enter the next stages of the product introduction pipeline.”
Algaeing’s technologies utilize various sustainably sourced, vertically farmed algae species to produce a wide range of appealing colors, many of which replicate the colors used in nonwoven fabrics today.
“The benefits of using an algae bio-source go far beyond the removal of chemically synthesized colorants, and include synergistic benefits of vastly reduced water consumption, chemical and fertilizer use, and carbon dioxide emissions,” Bjornman added. “We will be demonstrating to FILTECH visitors that following an extensive development path, the fibers both absorb and retain a range of colors — such as vibrant greens and blues — and that we can even deliver a ‘heathered’ appearance for a more natural looking material, all without affecting the filtration, barrier quality or feel of the final product.”
Renana Krebs, CEO and co-founder at Algaeing, said: “We’re very excited that our partnership with Avgol has led to an entirely new category of products at record speed. Our ready-to-implement algae-based innovations were customized to Avgol’s unique requirements, and our plug and play solutions made it possible to be first to market. At Algaeing™️, our mission has always been to enable the path to a cleaner, healthier future, and we couldn’t be prouder to accomplish this with Avgol.”
Bjornman added: “The benefits of Algaeing’s technology also fit well with our own desire for materials that are more readily recyclable and biodegradable. Having an organic colorant that is fully biodegradable and has no negative impact when released into the environment if undergoing biodegradation, supports polyolefins as future-proof resins.”
“Avgol is building a portfolio of products and materials to offer 100 percent sustainable end-products for hygiene, medical, PPE and industrial applications,” Bjornman added. “Our continued collaborations and links with other companies which have a drive towards the future and round out our offering is critical for supporting our vision.”
To discover more about Algaeing algae-based technology and Avgol’s work in biotransformation, visit the IVL team at booth H6 at FILTECH 2023, Cologne, Germany, February 14-16.
Posted: February 9, 2023
Source: Avgol, an Indorama Ventures Limited company
ROCKFORD, Mich. — February 8, 2023 — Wolverine World Wide Inc., which operates a portfolio of lifestyle and footwear brands, announced today that it has sold the Keds brand to Designer Brands Inc. (DBI), the parent company of footwear retailer DSW. In addition, the company announced that it intends to grant an exclusive license to DBI for Hush Puppies footwear in the United States and Canada, where DSW has been the exclusive retail partner for Hush Puppies since last year.
“Selling Keds and licensing the Hush Puppies brand for the United States and Canada is an important step as we continue to advance our strategy to simplify the portfolio and direct resources to our growth brands. We are confident this will place Wolverine on an accelerated path to improved profitability and long-term shareholder value creation,” said Brendan Hoffman, Wolverine Worldwide’s president and CEO. “We are particularly pleased to have reached this agreement with Designer Brands, a longtime retail partner of ours and a natural fit to guide the iconic Keds brand into its next phase.”
“Combined, these transactions will generate total cash of over $90 million, including the monetization of working capital. The proceeds will be used to pay down debt and strengthen our capital structure,” Hoffman added.
The Keds brand sale closed effective February 4, 2023, and the Hush Puppies license is anticipated to be effective as of July 1, 2023. The company will provide more information on the impact of these transactions in its upcoming earnings call scheduled for February 22, 2023. The company also noted that its evaluation of strategic alternatives for the Wolverine Leathers business is ongoing.
Honigman LLP and Warner, Norcross + Judd LLP served as legal advisors to Wolverine Worldwide. Solomon Partners served as financial advisor to Designer Brands Inc., with Thompson Hine LLP as legal advisors.
WASHINGTON — February 3, 2023 — Crowley has appointed Clay Heil as vice president of global government relations, where he will lead the company’s full spectrum of government advocacy across all of the company’s business interests and activities.
Based in Washington, Heil will spearhead Crowley’s engagement with federal, state and local government partners and elected officials on policy and regulatory matters that support the company’s strategic growth.
Heil joins Crowley with more than 25 years of legislative and legal experience. In Congress, he worked in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate for 12 years, holding senior roles including deputy staff director and general counsel for the Senate Appropriations Committee. Most recently, Heil was a partner in Taft’s Public Affairs Strategies Group, where he represented Fortune 500 companies in the defense, cybersecurity and technology sectors.
“Clay’s experience, knowledge and relationships in Washington and the private sector make him a strong advocate for Crowley and our industries,” said Chief Legal and Risk Officer Parker Harrison. “His leadership will help elevate Crowley’s transportation and logistics solutions to continue the growth as a chosen partner for government and military.”
During his time in Congress, Heil also served as legislative director for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and worked for Rep. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Ark.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).
Heil holds a juris doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.
MILAN — February 3, 2023 — The fourth quarter 2022 textile machinery orders index, processed by ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers, showed a sharp 35-percent decline compared to the period from October to December 2021. In absolute value, the index stood at 83.6 points (basis: 2015=100).
Orders took a 34-percent drop on the domestic market, while the foreign index was down fully 37 percent. In Italy, the index’s absolute value came in at 155.4 points, whereas on foreign markets the value stood at 75.8 points.
On annual basis, the orders index marked an 18-percent decrease and an absolute value of 110.4 points. The drop in orders abroad was 17 percent, while orders collected in Italy were 28-percent lower than the figures drawn up in 2021.
ACIMIT president Alessandro Zucchi stated: “The orders index data for the fourth quarter confirms what had already been observed in the previous quarters in 2022. After a sharp increase in 2021, this decrease in orders for the past year is physiological. Furthermore, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, with its related consequences on daily business and trade, and a macroeconomic framework in which uncertainty prevails, have further negatively affected the orders intake.”
Data for the last quarter does not suggest a reverse in the negative trend for the first months of 2023. Declining energy prices and inflation, although still high, also declining slightly are, however, signs of a light improvement in the business of companies in the sector as well.
“We need to look to the current year with optimism,” continued the ACIMIT president. “Our member companies are already focusing on ITMA, the upcoming global textile machinery industry trade fair, that will be held from June 8-14 in Milan. I am confident that ITMA Milan can represent an opportunity for further development of the Italian textile machinery sector. The technological innovations that our manufacturers will bring to the trade show will meet the textile industry’s need to be increasingly sustainable, both environmentally and economically.”
Posted: February 8, 2023
Source: ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers
EBERBACH, Germany — February 8, 2023 — This year and in quick succession, there will be two flagship exhibitions for the textile and nonwovens industries. The first one — INDEX in Geneva, April 18-21, 2023 — for textile production with special focus on disposable textiles used in hygiene, medicine and similar applications, followed by ITMA in Milan, June 8-14, 2023, which shows the latest developments in textile machinery. This most important exhibition of its kind presents investments in the textile production process which meet the latest ecological demands for sustainability, recycling and reduction in energy consumption.
DiloGroup plans to participate in both exhibitions and present at INDEX the latest developments in needling technology in anticipation of the machinery exhibition ITMA and to draw the visitors’ attention to the latest demands of environmental sustainability in nonwoven production. The research work of DiloGroup traditionally focuses on production lines for the webforming and needling of staple fiber material. After years of gradual advancements in the intense needling technology, we have succeeded in achieving the industrial scale of “MicroPunch” intense needling technology.
Good abrasion resistance of this intensely needled material allows the production of apparel, artificial leather, battery separators and filter media as well as medical and hygiene nonwovens.
The production of comfort tissues with a weight range of 30 to approximately 60 grams per square meter made from fine fiber blends using polyester and viscose has been a domain of the water-entangling technology so far. This product being a typical disposable is in the crossfire regarding sustainability and recyclability. Therefore biodegradable or decomposable fiber material is the target for more environmental sustainability.
In addition, for the evaluation of a web consolidation process, low carbon emission and low energy consumption are important criteria.
The classical needling technology and its qualification for the production of lightweight nonwovens at low cost per kilogram has been technologically and economically proved in the meantime after many years of research work. It has become possible by an intense concentration of needles in the board and very fine barbs on these specialty needles which allow an economic mounting and quick exchange due to a new module design.
Compared to water-entangling lines, the “MicroPunch” needling line provides a drastic reduction in energy consumption (electricity and gas).
In view of heavily increased costs for electricity and gas, this reduced consumption has a great impact on the total cost for a kilogram of finished product in many countries.
We look forward to welcoming you at our booth # 2010 during INDEX.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — February 8, 2023 — Polartec®, a Milliken & Company brand, has announced Polartec Shed Less Fleece, a new milestone in its efforts to reduce textile fiber fragment shedding. Shed Less is a process that combines yarn construction, knitting, chemistry, and manufacturing to reduce home laundry fiber fragment shedding by an average of 85 percent. The first fabric to receive this new technology is the brand’s iconic Polartec 200 Series Fleece, the modern version of the original PolarFleece launched in 1981, and in 1993, the first performance fleece knit from yarn made from recycled plastic bottles.
The Shed Less process works by engineering the lofted fibers that give fleece its soft hand the ability to resist breaking and rubbing off during home laundering, cited as one contributing factor to the spread of fibers fragments (commonly referred to as microfibers). Polartec Shed Less Fleece achieves this remarkable outcome while maintaining all the attributes that continue to make Polartec fleece a staple of midlayer collections — lightweight, breathable, and warm, with unmatched softness and hand feel.
“Polartec has a long tradition of EcoEngineering its products to reduce their environmental footprint,” said Dr Ramesh Kesh, senior vice president, Milliken & Company. “Shed Less is the latest progression of these efforts and the result of many years of research and development.”
The brand used the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) TM212-2021 test method for fiber fragment release during home laundering. This test was conducted with large sample sizes to account for variability. The testing concluded that Shed Less Fleece reduced fiber fragment shedding by an average of 85 percent compared to the baseline fabric.
“In 2016 we began looking into how we might test for fiber loss because there wasn’t a lot of research on the issue.” said Aimee LaValley, Polartec Textile Development, Dye and Chemistry manager. “This led to new products like Polartec Power Air™, new manufacturing processes, as well as our participation in the TextileMission workgroup to study the issue on an interdisciplinary basis.”
TextileMission was a three-year collaborative initiative of academia and industry to reduce the impact of textile microplastics funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Founding partners include The Association of the German Sporting Goods Industry, Hochschule Niederrhein – University of Applied Science; TU Dresden – Institute of Water Chemistry; Vaude Sport; WWF Germany; Adidas AG; Henkel AG; Miele & CIE; and Polartec, LLC.
Known for pioneering the use of recycled materials in performance knits, Polartec has also EcoEngineered new processes at its plants to reduce the spread of fiber fragments, including the installation of customized vacuum and filtering systems for all surface finishing machinery, and upcycling all captured fabric waste for reuse in other products. These efforts also extend to other product innovations such as 2018’s Polartec Power Air, constructed to contain lofted fibers to prevent breakage and maintain heat retention.
“While performance fabrics contribute a small percentage of the fibers fragments shed by the global textile industry, Polartec has been researching root causes and mitigation strategies for many years,” Dr. Kesh said. “Shed Less Fleece is a natural progression of this curiosity toward our goal of reducing fiber fragment shedding to near zero in all of our performance fabrics.”
Polartec Shed Less Fleece will be initially launched in the United States and will be available to customers beginning March 1, 2023. The brand plans to apply the Shed Less process to many other fabric platforms and manufacturing facilities around the world.
Since inventing the original PolarFleece in 1981, Polartec engineers continue to advance the science of fabric by creating problem solving technologies that improve the user experience. They are the only company on the market who develops and manufactures comprehensive solutions encompassing base, mid, and outer layers under one brand, offering a wide range of versatile functionality; lightweight wicking and cooling, warmth and insulation, breathable weather protection, fire resistance, and enhanced durability. Polartec products are used by performance, lifestyle, and workwear brands from around the world, the U.S. Military and allied militaries, and contract upholstery markets.
Digital yarn creation with k.innovation CREATE DESIGN
OBERTSHAUSEN — February 7, 2023 — STOLL and KM.ON are kicking off spring 2023 with two new training courses for the design software k.innovation CREATE DESIGN. The first training course in the online course series will take place March 13 and 14, 2023, followed by a second one May 3 and 4, 2023. The target group is designers with basic know-how on flat-knit structures and stitch formations and yarns.
The participants will learn how they can significantly shorten the design-to-market workflow with k.innovation CREATE DESIGN. Besides familiarizing themselves with the basic functions of the design software for developing virtual flat-knitted products. They will, create various knitted structures — in line with the learning-by-doing approach — and learn how to work with digital yarns. They will also export the virtual knitted fabric for further use in external 3D clothing programs. There is a new feature here: the possibility of bundled export. If several design patterns or shape pieces are exported at once, the time required to prepare the data for use in external 3D software can be minimized. Also new is an extension to optimize the exported file sizes. With the function “compression/color reduction”, the colors and size of the exported files are reduced without affecting their image or color quality. The smaller file sizes speed up the work in external 3D software.
Data export and 3D render
Training instructor Goran Sidjimovski is looking forward to numerous registrations for the courses, under academy@kmon.net.
KM.ON and STOLL successfully presented its software solution for the flat knitwear sector at the MUNICH FABRIC START trade fair at the end of January. Sophie Neff, sales manager at the KARL MAYER GROUP’s software start-up, held numerous technical discussions in Munich. She said that the visitors were particularly interested in the possibilities for scanning their own yarns, for communicating with suppliers through one product family, and for reducing techpacks by working in just one software. In addition, the guests were enthusiastic about how “fully fashion” knitted garments can be displayed three-dimensionally.
