After canceling the 2020 event because of the COVID-19 pandemic, FloorTek Expo heads back to the Dalton Convention Center September 14-15, 2021.

TW Special Report

In June 2020, the American Floorcovering Alliance (AFA) unfortunately announced the cancellation of the FloorTek Expo 2020 that was scheduled for September of that year. Looking back, with all the unknowns facing the nation and the world at the time, there really was no other solution. AFA noted, “The uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic and potential restrictions which may be placed on travel and public events has made planning for the event difficult for AFA, potential exhibitors and attendees.”

At that time, Stephanie Manis, AFA executive director, stated she was very disappointed at having to cancel the expo because several new and exciting events were planned to coincide with the event. “We are going to use the time between now and the expected 2021 Expo in September or October to create even more cutting-edge events to help the industry thrive during these changing times.”

AFA was delighted to recently announce it will hold FloorTek Expo 2021 September 14-15, 2021, at the Dalton Convention Center in Dalton, Ga. “With the vaccine distributions, lowering infection rates and hopeful ‘herd immunity’ by late summer, we are optimistic that fall 2021 will be a good time for FloorTek and will move us in a positive direction to fulfill our commitment to our motto and serve the entire floor covering industry,” Manis said.

“We feel people are ready to get back together as an industry,” Manis added. “FloorTek is here to help you reconnect. The show will feature more than 16 new cutting-edge technologies to enhance your business. Come experience the future of the industry. Additionally, AFA will have a new member program to be unveiled at the show.”

AFA Floorcovering Industry Scholarship

AFA will hold a golf tournament in conjunction FloorTek Expo 2021 with proceeds benefiting the inaugural 2021 AFA Floorcovering Industry Scholarship.

According to the AFA, all FloorTek VIP participants are invited to play in the FloorTek Open golf tournament on September 13, the day before the expo begins. Individuals can play for $125, and teams of four may register for a $500 fee. The deadline to sign up to play is August 6, 2021. There are also sponsorship opportunities for interested parties.

Back To Business

The FloorTek Expo is a distinctive industry event that responds to the uniqueness of Dalton’s identity as the “Carpet Capital of the World.” The close proximity of many of the most significant floorcovering manufacturers and the event’s aggregation of key suppliers makes for a very efficient expo opportunity.

“With the nonexistence of trade shows for 2020 and few in 2021, we are ready to resume networking opportunities for exhibitors and attendees,” Manis said. “The format will be an ideal opportunity for every flooring professional from every level to explore avenues for growing their business.”

For more information about FloorTek Expo 2021 and to register for the event and associated golf open, visit floor-tek.com.

July/August 2021

No stranger to innovation and change, Shawmut is committed to helping customers rapidly solve pressing business challenges.

TW Special Report

Founded in 1916, West Bridgewater, Mass.-based Shawmut Corp. is no stranger to innovation and change. The fourth-generation, family-run, global company is the largest independent laminator for technical fabrics in the United States, and offers advanced materials solutions for the automotive, health and safety, military and protective, and custom lamination solutions markets. Shawmut employs more than 700 employees worldwide, operating 10 manufacturing plants and seven commercial offices across North America, Europe and Asia.

A History Of Change

What started in the location of America’s oldest woolen mill producing braided fabric and man-made yarn, has transitioned over time into a business that creates a range of soft composite materials and technical textiles, and provides lamination solutions. Throughout the years, Shawmut has supplied diverse products from branded knitted children’s apparel to yarns used by the U.S. military during World War II for parachute shroud lines, knitted blankets, field jackets and bomb parachutes. In the 1950s, the company focused on flame lamination to use with its jersey cloth, a process that continues today. In the mid-1980s, Shawmut relocated to its present West Bridgewater headquarters to focus on product development processes in advanced material technologies.

“Since our founding 105 years ago by my grandfather Rudolph Wyner, Shawmut always had the ability to adapt to changing markets and create innovation,” said CEO James Wyner. “Our history gives us a broad materials knowledge and expertise to engineer our own production techniques and capabilities that set us ahead of our competition. Our customers tell us that we can develop solutions to their challenging requests much faster and with higher-quality output than our competition. We embrace what we’ve learned but are always looking to innovate to create better solutions. Our purpose of ‘materials innovations for a better world’ may sound a bit aspirational, but we really do try to apply it to everything we do.”

An Automotive Leader

Shawmut is a global supplier in the automotive market supplying everything from laminated headliners to pillars, roller shades, seating, door and trim laminations, sun visors, package trays and parcel shelves. A few years ago, the automotive headliner and specialty industrial fabrics business of Glen Raven Technical Fabrics (GRTF) merged with Shawmut after an 18-year strategic partnership between the two companies. The merger fully integrated Shawmut’s composite development capabilities and global lamination platform with Glen Raven’s specialty industrial fabrics operation. About the venture, Shawmut said at the time: “Our recent merger with the specialty industrial business unit of Glen Raven Technical Fabrics represents the combining of forces between two longtime partners. We now offer the full suite of automotive interior and industrial solutions, from durable high-performance knit fabrics to flexible multi-layer laminated composites.”

Shawmut recently announced plans to introduce a brand-new customer-focused Technical Center at the Burlington, N.C., Park Avenue facility that houses the merged operations. The Park Avenue Technical Center will offer customers unparalleled access to Shawmut’s advanced design, engineering, and production expertise, multiple quality and testing labs, along with state-of-the-art customer collaboration tools, all under one roof. The development of the Technical Center helps to meet Shawmut’s goal of accelerating the timeline of the finished product with even greater quality production leading to an enhanced experience for the customer. The Park Avenue Technical Center is also the first Shawmut facility to be ISO 14001 certified and is a 100-percent-landfill-free facility meaning that less than 1 percent of the waste that comes out of the facility goes to a landfill. Waste is mainly repurposed and recycled by external sustainability operations.

Investing In Health, Safety

In early 2021, Shawmut announced the creation of a new Health & Safety business unit, which was a strategic expansion into markets where Shawmut already had a foothold. According to the company, the new unit, applies “the company’s trademark advanced materials, textile manufacturing, and process innovation techniques to produc[e] high-quality, U.S.-made, health and safety products, including its Protex™ line of U.S.-made personal protective equipment (PPE).”

For decades, the company has produced medical-grade barrier and filtration fabrics, orthopedic medical devices, and certain inflatable medical devices. In the spring of 2020, Shawmut broadened its focus to produce PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company rapidly developed its Protex™ N95 Particulate Respirator, and now also manufactures medical isolation gowns and surgical barrier fabrics. With these additional product lines, the timing was right to bring on board additional personnel with health and safety expertise and launch the new business unit.

“This is a very exciting time in Shawmut Corporation’s 105-year history, as we delve deeper into the healthcare solutions space,” Wyner noted. “We’re making a significant, long-term commitment to developing innovative U.S.-made — and Berry Amendment-compliant — health and safety products not only for this period of great need, but well beyond so that our country never faces a critical PPE shortage again.”

Making Room, Starting Up

According to Shawmut, the company retrofitted nearly 70,000-square-feet of space in its West Bridgewater manufacturing facility to produce isolation gowns and N95 respirators. Shawmut acquired nearly 60 tons of specialized, high-precision meltblown machinery from Germany-based Reifenhauser Reicofil GmbH & Co. KG, which was fast-tracked and shipped on an expedited timeline to the Port of Boston. In addition, Shawmut installed a fully automated and flexible production system to support its N95 particulate respirator line, and installed roughly 50 new assembly lines for gowns and masks, some of which are augmented with advanced robotics capabilities.

The multi-million-dollar investment enables Shawmut to help customers meet demand and rapidly respond to their evolving business needs.

A Military Focus

Most recently, Shawmut announced another strategic expansion with the creation of a new Military & Protective Materials business unit. The unit will produce high-quality, U.S.-made, ultra-high-specification and high-performance technical fabric solutions, many of which will also be Berry Amendment-compliant. Shawmut’s military and protective solutions feature waterproof, windproof, flame-resistant, and chemical and biological protection properties, and are ideal for high-stakes usages required in military and in-the-field professionals who need high-performance gear to safely do their jobs. With new business development leadership on board focused on high-performance materials solutions, the division integrates Shawmut’s textile manufacturing, dyeing, finishing and lamination capabilities to develop game-changing new technologies that will further establish Shawmut as a key player within the high-performance U.S. textile and garment industry.

Providing Protection

Shawmut’s leadership position in lamination technology has resulted in multiple applications in protective gear including products in the high-spec utility workwear market; fire-retardant fabrics area; and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear protection markets. Shawmut’s ability to manufacture high moisture vapor transmission laminates provides solutions for firefighters’ gear; surgical gowns; and waterproof, breathable utility and outdoor gear, among other applications. The waterproof, but breathable attributes also extend into products like footwear, military outerwear, as well as boots for hunting, hiking and military use.

Clean Water

Shawmut leverages its advanced process technologies and technical fabric expertise to deliver custom-engineered materials solutions and solve complex challenges. Its global team believes that no challenge is too great, and they have a long history of solving a wide variety of industry needs through dynamic and innovative textile approaches. As an example, Shawmut is part of the worldwide push for innovative textile water filtration technologies as a producer of tricot knit technical fabrics that are used as permeate carriers in salt and brackish water reverse-osmosis filtration processes and systems. Shawmut reports its nonwoven filter fabric is U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-compliant and certified by the National Sanitation Foundation.

Looking Forward

In this day and age, a fourth-generation, family-run international company is not commonly found, and Shawmut is by no means a common company. Drawing upon more than 100 years of experience in fabric formation and lamination, Shawmut uses materials innovation, engineering expertise, advanced processes, and global supply chain strategies to help rapidly solve customers’ advanced material design challenges, truly distinguishing itself from the conventional New England textile company stereotype. Shawmut’s story is rooted in agile technology application, advanced processes, performance testing, and quality — all while keeping the needs of the customer front and center.

“We’re excited to leverage our expertise in textile engineering, process innovation and commitment to excellence to produce the highest quality materials for the highest performing individuals,” Wyner noted when speaking about the new Military & Protective Materials business unit. This excitement, commitment, and problem solving is at Shawmut’s core.

July/August 2021

Manufacturing innovations will provide more reliable, affordable and adaptable protection in the face of the next pandemic.

By Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Technical Editor; Simon Schick; and Robert Groten

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released the findings of its investigation into what went right and wrong as the world was faced with the coronavirus pandemic. An 86-page report noted that there were “weak links at every point in the chain of preparedness and response.” A 13-member panel appointed by the WHO called the COVID-19 pandemic a “preventable disaster.”

Some of the recommendations resulting from the investigation included:

• Creating an improved system for disease surveillance and alerts, at a speed that can combat viruses like the one that causes COVID-19, along with authority for WHO to publish information and to dispatch expert missions immediately.
• The ability to produce vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and supplies and secure their rapid and equitable delivery as essential global common goods.
• Production of and access to COVID-19 tests and therapeutics, including oxygen, should be scaled up urgently in low- and middle-income countries.

Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield recently opened a dialogue on pandemic preparedness aimed at learning the lessons learned from COVID-19, which was cohosted by Argentina, Norway, Japan, South Africa and the United States.

“The takeaway from this past year is clear: the world barely withstood this pandemic,” said Thomas-Greenfield addressing the global group comprised of political, public health and non-governmental organization leaders. “We must be ready for the next. We cannot continue to under-invest — after outbreaks, epidemics, and now a pandemic — in our capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.”

Note that the WHO does not specifically address the challenges with personal protective equipment (PPE), but focuses on challenges with therapeutics, among other solutions. The second bullet point above is a key point — having the ability to produce what is needed quickly and deliver these supplies globally and equitably.

When it comes to such products as face masks for example, it is difficult to produce them quickly and distribute them equitably to low- and middle-income countries. A paradigm shift is needed, and cloth masks are not the solution

Background

Protective mouth and nose coverage can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1897, Carl Friedrich Flügge discussed the possibility of droplet infections originated by coughing and, interestingly, first identified the importance of social distancing^1,2. The airborne transmission of cholera, plague, and cerebrospinal meningitis were discussed and the importance of wearing a “mouth bandage” — a single layer of cotton gauze — was recognized¹. Cotton-based face masks were subsequently widely used during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920.

In contrast to this simple cloth-based technology, current respirators and face masks center on two key technologies: fine, meltblown fibers; and an electrostatic charge. Meltblowing itself extends back to 1941 when the process was first invented³. It was immediately recognized that meltblowing can produce very fine fibers relative to traditional fiber melt spinning⁴. Meltblowing is a very economical, large-scale process that creates fiber diameters that range from sub-micron to a few microns.

Electrostatic charge enhances the particle interception efficiency of such fibers while producing a significantly lower overall pressure drop — a measure of the resistance that the air meets as it flows through the mask, which should be low enough that the effort required to breath is as normal as possible.

Other critical technologies focused on ensuring that the charge density was initially high and, more importantly, stable. The first “modern” mask was introduced in 1967⁵ while the first respirator was patented in 1976. A critical development was the application of electrostatic charge to meltblown webs in 1980⁶. Key patents leading to the current widely used N95 respirators soon followed. The first such patent was issued to Saint Paul, Minn.-based 3M Co. in 1980 when a meltblown structure was charged to form a high efficiency electrostatic filter⁷. In 1985, 3M developed the first modern, cup-shaped molded respirator⁸.

Ideal Filtration

Aerosols are a suspension of solid or liquid particles in a gas ranging in size from 2 nanometers (nm) to 100 micrometers. Bioaerosols are aerosols of biological origin, including viruses, bacteria and fungi. An ideal filter removes only the unwanted aerosol particles from the air and does it without creating a large pressure drop. There are four primary aerosol filtration mechanisms⁹ (see Figure 1).

The air stream bends as it moves around the fibers. Large particles are trapped by inertial impaction. Large particles have a high probability of impacting with a fiber because inertia causes them to deviate from the streamline. Inertial impaction is for large micro particles and becomes important at high and medium velocities. Very small particles also have a high probability of hitting a fiber due to Brownian motion. Brownian motion comes about as the particles collide with gas (air) molecules that are much smaller than the particles. This leads to a chaotic movement that is disordered and abrupt, which leads to diffusion. The capture mechanism for particles less than 100 nm is mainly due to diffusion.

However, larger sized particles — from approximately 100 nm to 400 nm with roughly 300 nm representing the most challenging particle size to capture — normally follow the airflow streamlines and are the most difficult to capture. The capture mechanism is due to interception as the particles may be intercepted by a fiber. This is where the electrostatic attraction becomes important. Oppositely charged particles are attracted to a charged fiber. This collection mechanism does not favor a certain particle size particularly but is most significant for the particles most difficult to capture.

Fiber size becomes critical for the interception capture mechanism. If the fibers are of the same size or smaller, they have a tendency to be more effective in intercepting the particles. This, together with high electrostatic attraction, leads to high filtration collection efficiency in today’s respirators and medical masks that reply upon charged meltblown structures.

Cloth masks produced from regular textile fibers employ much larger fibers — greater than 15 microns in most cases — lack electrostatic charge and the structures create large gaps or holes. These gaps lead to localized areas that have a much lower pressure drop and therefore the air stream will flow naturally to these areas, carrying the aerosol particles through the structure. These masks offer almost no respiratory protection. They are useful however in reducing the number of expelled particles from the wearer, which may result in reducing the spread of a virus even though they may not offer much protection to the wearer. Thus, cloth masks are useful as a means of source control for individual wearers by reducing the number of expelled droplets and aerosols from the wearer’s nose and mouth into the air¹⁰.

Challenges During COVID-19

Mask filters are almost exclusively made from electrostatically charged polypropylene (PP) meltblown (MB) nonwovens. MB filters have fibers in the range of 0.5 to 5 microns in size and are therefore, fragile and must be protected by layers of spunbond (SB) PP made up of larger fibers — 15 to 25 microns — which provide mechanical protection for the MB filter layer.

The overall supply chain consists of the following:

1. MB fabric manufacturers;
2. SB fabric manufacturers;
3. Mask converters who assemble the MB and SB fabrics into masks.

The dual challenge faced in the United States and globally during the COVID-19 pandemic was the limited production of MB fabric and the lack of infrastructure needed to convert the fabrics into masks.

MB and SB production facilities are always custom built, are large and expensive and require significant infrastructure. The lead time for setting up new capabilities is typically greater than 10 months at a cost of more than $10 million for a small, 1.6-meter-wide meltblowing machine. Therefore, even in high-income regions in North America and the European Union, plants could not be deployed any faster. In other regions of the world, it would be impossible to ramp up quickly, and this is why there needs to be a paradigm shift. In contrast, mask conversion is more readily available, is relatively inexpensive and does not require special infrastructure.

MB machines are a lot more expensive that the sum of their components. Engineering know-how and in some cases, intellectual property, create barriers to entry. Meltblowing, for example, is rather simple as a process. The key to the technology is the die tip that controls the uniformity of the fibers produced. The rest of the components are off-the-shelf. However, the nonwoven industry is built around large volumes, high speed and low production costs, and automation. This is why the nonwoven industry continues to lead the world in productivity and innovation.

What is needed for such products as face masks and respirators is a different solution. The mask conversion is also a fully automated process, and the width requirements range from 19.5 centimeters (cm) to 32 cm at most. Note that mask converting does not require special infrastructure such as high bay space, for example. If a MB machine was designed that is only say 40 cm wide, the process will still be fast enough to supply many mask converting machines while the costs will be low, and no special infrastructure is needed. Take for example, the Biax Fiber Film pilot line which measures 15 inches (38 cm) in width. With a few minor changes, this can become a super mask filter production machine that can also be collocated with the mask converting equipment. There are other examples of such smaller footprint lines that are primarily used as pilot lines. Such designs can be replicated and reproduced easily as needed.

Lack Of Know-How, Equipment Availability

Another major challenge during the pandemic was lack of know-how. Meltblown structures require additives as charge enhancers and charge stabilizers. While some masterbatches are commercially available, some work and some do not. Also, while meltblown machinery is fully automated, the resulting fabric is impacted by process variables and therefore, a trial-and-error approach is required to establish the process conditions that lead to the desired performance characteristics. While there were companies in North America producing other meltblown products, switching to filter media was not a simple task.

Another challenge faced in North America was that no one was producing mask converting machinery before the pandemic. This was not because of a lack of expertise or capabilities, but rather driven by simple economics. Asian-made machines sold for as little as $30,000 to as much as $120,000 and could be delivered in a few weeks. The cost of the components in North America would be higher than the finished product and given that the machines look similar and operate similarly, the tendency has been to lean toward Asian-made machinery. Lack of technical support, an inadequate supply of parts, and the unreliability of the machinery, often led to delays and much higher production costs.

Some sixteen months later, the situation has changed. There are a few new installations for meltblowing and according to the Cary, N.C.-based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA), there are more than 70 companies who have invested in mask converting equipment since the beginning of the pandemic. Much of the new machinery, however, is for the production of the classical three-layer surgical mask. With cheap Asian surgical masks flooding the market over the past six months, it is questionable whether many of the companies that made investments will be able to compete. This, in turn, will lead to challenges for the MB capacity installed.

There are far fewer N95 machines installed. In addition, medical masks and respirators are regulated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and another barrier to entering the market today is the long lead time required for certification. Many companies have been waiting for certification for many months and the queue is not getting shorter. Certification also requires the development of a quality management system such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or good manufacturing practice (GMP) certification — additional barriers to market entry.

What About The Next Pandemic?

It is not a question of if, but when, another global pandemic happens. In the absence of policies that encourage domestic manufacturing of PPE and other critical products, the shortage situation in the United States likely will be no different. In the absence of democratized manufacturing, low-income countries will continue to be at a disadvantage.

The status quo of PPE manufacturing is not advanced enough to shield the United States from the next viral outbreak definitively. Further manufacturing innovations are the path forward to more reliable, affordable, adaptable protection. Cloth masks will not be the solution, and will be regulated perhaps using the new ASTM 3502 or its equivalent.

The Nonwovens Institute, Raleigh, N.C., and its partners are developing manufacturing strategies and educational programs to help establish definitive minimum standards for manufacturing that would be scalable and easily reproducible.

References:
¹ Flügge, C. Ueber Luftinfection. Zeitschr. f. Hygiene. 25, 179–224 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02220473
² C. Flügge, The spread of phthisis through dusty sputum and through droplets that are sprayed out when coughing, Journal of Hygiene and Infectious Diseases volume 30 , pages107 – 124 ( 1899 )
³ JG McCulloch, The history of the development of melt blowing technology International Nonwovens Journal, 1999
⁴ Wente, V.A. , Naval Research Laboratory, Report 4364, Manufacture of Superfine Fibers. May 25, 1954.
⁵ U.S. Patent 3,333,585
⁶ U.S. Patent 3,971,373A
⁷ U.S. Patent 4,215,682A
⁸ U.S. Patent 4,536,440A
⁹ Pourdeyhimi, Schick and Groten, The Filtration Efficiency of Single-Layer Textiles for Respiratory protection, The Journal of Science and Medicine, Vol 3 No 2 (2021)
¹⁰ Pourdeyhimi, Schick and Groten, Respiratory Effectiveness of Cloth Masks, The Journal of Science and Medicine, Vol 2 No 4 (2021)

Editor’s Note: Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi is associate dean for Industry Research and Extension, William A. Klopman Distinguished Professor of Materials, professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, and executive director, The Nonwovens Institute (NWI), Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.; Simon Schick was a masters student at NWI and NC State; and Robert Groten is a professor with Germany-based Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Germany, and an adjunct professor at NC State.

July/August 2021