Domestic Supplies Of Polyester Woven Webbings Takes On New Urgency In The Post-COVID Era

Polyester webbing manufactured by Bally Ribbon Mills is used for seat belts.

Closing of Berry-compliant yarn manufacturers disrupts market

By Ted Fetterman

The polyester woven webbing market experienced serious short-term disruption from the closing of the last United States manufacturing plants that could supply yarn complying with the Berry Amendment. After some new domestic yarn manufacturers entered the market, some manufacturers, including Bally Ribbon Mills, stepped up to produce 100 percent Berry-compliant polyester webbing for critical safety applications. The material, used for seat belts, tie-downs, retractors, and medical supplies, is of higher quality, meets relevant specifications, and can be engineered to meet specific customer requirements. What’s more, positive engineering and manufacturing changes made to adapt to the COVID-19 emergency hold great promise in streamlining and improving future polyester webbing projects.

Key Specialty Polyester Webbings Applications

Polyester webbings are manufactured from polyester yarn, which is dimensionally stable and has low moisture regain. The fiber also has a low elongation under load property that sets it apart from other standard fibers of its class, like nylon — nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 — and polypropylene. It is tough, hydrophobic, and resistant to degradation, giving it a longer useful shelf life.

Polyester webbings are used in hundreds of applications. Seat belts in automotive, commercial aviation, and military vehicles and aircraft applications is the largest market sector. This is a generally commoditized market where large volumes, limited color options, and very low prices dominate.

Another key application is for retractors used in military and safety/rescue applications to secure on-aircraft personnel. The retractors are generally inertia reels that allow for mobility under normal conditions; the webbing connects the user to the aircraft. When an abrupt force is applied, the reel locks the personnel into place. These webbing materials are highly engineered for the application. Consistent construction to rigid standards is required for consistent performance in end-item use. Materials that vary widely from specifications cause the reel to malfunction, exposing the user to an unsafe condition.

Other specialty webbing applications include tie-downs, e-textiles, wearable electronics, flight suits, pet products, cargo webbing, and life rafts, as well as hoses, bags and harnesses. The overall market trend towards enhanced passengers and crew safety is increasing demand for safety-related webbings applications. Another growing market is medical devices, where the polyester webbing material is prized for its biocompatibility.

Manufacturers Step Up To Produce Domestic Supplies Of Polyester Woven Webbing

Under the Berry Amendment, all textile components for Department of Defense (DOD) contracts of a certain size must be manufactured in the United States. The closures of domestic manufacturers of polyester yarn had many manufacturers scrambling to find a US source for customers with government contracts requiring Berry-compliant materials. Lead-times lengthened and some yarn manufacturers told panicking customers that a US source was unavailable. Several polyester webbing manufacturers applied for a Domestic Not Available Deviation (DNAD) designation.

The idea that the United States would have to rely on China, which maintains 70 percent of the world’s polyester capacity, did not sit well among many domestic manufacturers. This concern encouraged U.S. manufacturers to add polyester to their lines. There is always a development lag time before production can begin, but several have now entered the market.

After identifying newly established domestic polyester yarn suppliers, Bally Ribbon Mills committed to establishing itself as a 100-percent Berry-compliant manufacturer of polyester webbings. The company has always placed a high importance on utilizing domestic yarn sources. Since the quality of the domestic raw material is higher than imported counterparts, it stands to reason that the webbing manufactured is of a higher quality. This enables more efficient manufacturing processes and provides superior products.

In addition to being Berry-compliant, the polyester webbings and tapes are tested and certified for compliance with a range of commercial and military specifications, including Mil/PIA-W-25361, AA55242, SAE AS8043, and British Standards (BS). Performance to these specifications and standards is critical to the end use application. Not meeting specifications can cause performance failure that could cost lives.

Several of these standards have extremely stringent elongation requirements for dyed material that can be difficult to meet. In some cases, BRM began entering these markets after others dropped out and military requirements called out for Berry-compliant yarn. For example, the SAE AS8043 specification calls for 20 percent elongation at 2,500 pounds. for polyester seat belt webbing. After working with customers, BRM succeeded in meeting the elongation requirement.

As an added bonus, end customers can take advantage of BRM’s low minimums of 1,000 yards per color to purchase unique seat belt colors. The polyester yarn dying process requires expensive and highly specialized equipment. BRM technology enables the company to run smaller quantities of higher quality specialty colors; the yarns also feature very high dye penetration, giving it a high level of color fastness and longer fade-resistance. Due to the commoditized nature of much of the seat belt market, most other manufacturers require much larger minimums, 10,000 to 20,000 yards per color.

Color matching is an important part of the process, with the ability to color match to a customer supplied sample. BRM scans the sample and duplicates the color by creating a master batch formula and new standard sample that is sent to the customer for approval. The standards are maintained in a controlled file and used to match subsequent lots. All samples and dye lots are measured using a spectrophotometer to ensure that the dye lots match the standard numerical to within 1 (delta) of a 3-plane graphical model of yellow, blue, green, and light/dark. Color shades are also checked using the naked eye but with a controlled light source. Full testing with documentation is supplied, with a variety of available treatment offerings.

Helping to make the process even more rigorous is a proprietary polyester matrix, a searchable internal database tool with information on thousands of textiles collected and organized for comparative study. Every material that comes through the plant is measured and tested using ASTM testing methods. Records are kept of physical parameters like width, fiber content, tensile strength, thickness, weight, elongation, resistance to abrasion, and resistance to weathering.

Polyester Webbing Developed With Rigorous Project Planning, Control And Feasibility Process

BRM follows a rigorous project planning, control and feasibility (PPCF) process that allows experts to engineer products specific to customer requirements or specifications. Several new product development polyester items involved converting European specifications and materials to meet Berry-compliant requirements for US military applications. The company has developed Berry-compliant polyester webbing for seat belts used as lap belts in commercial and private airliners; harness webbing used in restraints for the military; ejection seat webbing for military air crafts; and polyester used in tie-down straps.

An interesting example is a flight suit application for which the customer required Berry-compliant webbing that also met British Standard specs for use in low elongation tensile structures within the suit. The company analyzed the samples as part of the PPCF process, then submitted it to the research and development team, which analyzed the samples to review its construction and compare it with the spec. From there the process ran through other pre-development steps, including a cost evaluation. The quote was issued and accepted, an order placed, and the job was scheduled.

The new Integrated Aircrew Ensemble (IAE) flight suit, designed to improve aircrew comfort and protection, will be integrated into various flight systems and used in all ejection seat aircraft. Likely to be adopted by the military over the long term, it is currently being issued to US aircrews, beginning with the F-22.1 This exciting project represents an excellent example of the uses of innovative polyester webbing.

Another example is a structural polyester tie-down for temporary medical and first responder shelters being designed during the COVID-19 pandemic. BRM secured the contract in part because of the changes it instituted to adapt to new conditions arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak.

An example of polyester webbing used in the medical industry.

The original inquiry came at the end of the March 2020 national business shut-down. BRM had already ceased factory operations to ensure workforce safety but was considered an essential business since it manufactures textile materials for the U.S. military, law enforcement, and medical devices.

The company had to meet its contractual obligations while still maintaining a safe working environment for employees. They were also concerned that any positive test result might set back their production schedules indefinitely until they could resolve contamination and complete containment traceability studies. The factory was running at 75 percent of pre-COVID productivity and the entire sales, customer service, and R&D team was working from home.

Before COVID, the entire PPCF design review process was paper based, routed sequentially through R&D, manufacturing, purchasing, quality, and costing, with each department responsible for identifying risks and project acceptability. Six routing paths could be used, based on the varying requirement of core customers, medical products, and aerospace applications. The process could take up to two weeks to complete.

Under the new normal imposed under COVID, this system was transformed to a completely electronic routing system completed with sequential review. The new system succeeded in shortening lead times from 10 to 14 days to 3 to 5 days. Furthermore, the system allows the salesperson initiating the process to view the routing status at any time and enables others to intercede at any point to solve any immediate problems.

BRM eventually won the polyester business for the shelters for two key reasons. First of all, the customer wanted to reshore the supply chain, and BRM provided a “Made in the USA” solution. Secondly, the quick, automated professional response to the inquiry during the height of a national crisis provided comfort to the new customer. After the customer satisfied its immediate demand requirements, they added on blanket order requirements that extend into 2021.

Rather than going back to its old ways of scoping out new business, the company will continue to use the positive changes made under difficult conditions to respond to a national emergency as a model for conducting business in the future have turned into the model that BRM plans to use in the future.

1 No more ‘flight suits,’ the Integrated Aircrew Ensemble makes debut, By Senior Airman John Linzmeier, 154th Wing Public Affairs / Published August 12, 2019.

August 13, 2020

PET Fiber Production: Zero-Waste Cycle Thanks To Retrofitted Components

Key components and efficient retrofit solutions for plant modernization in PET fiber extrusion.

TW Special Report

Breathable sports and outdoor clothing are in vogue. Combined with the “fast fashion motto” and the “mass instead of class principle”, this is creating increased demand for PET fibers worldwide. This, in turn, leads to an increase in production waste, as this is automatically generated during fiber production. For ecological and economic reasons, the fiber residues must be appropriately processed and reused, which in some cases poses major challenges for fiber manufacturers and processors. Several customers, including large fiber manufacturers in China and Belarus, have therefore decided to use key components from Germany-based Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH. With these they were able to convert existing fiber lines with low investment costs, so that the complete fiber waste can be processed into high quality fibers. And this is even possible for the production of drawn yarns such as POY or FDY, where the use of recycled material has up to now not been possible.

In the past 20 years, total textile production has doubled, and from 2000 to 2016, the use of polyester for clothing alone rose from 8.3 to 21.3 million tonnes worldwide. At the same time, the public’s call for the avoidance of plastic waste is becoming louder and legal directives of the European Union are intended to put a stop to plastic waste. For example, in addition to the collection of plastic, glass, paper and metal, a separate collection system for textiles is to be implemented in all EU countries by 2025 to enable high-quality recycling. In addition, product manufacturers are being made more responsible through the environmental protection strategy of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). They are to ensure the entire life cycle of their product from manufacture to disposal so that goals such as ecological design and resource efficiency can be achieved more quickly. In addition to the recyclability of products, the use of recycled materials is one way to achieve these goals. However, this is precisely where problems often arise:

The demand for the increased use of recycled materials in textiles requires a sufficient and regular availability of these materials. Well available on the market is the recycled PET from beverage bottles, which is available in very good quality due to the clean collection systems. However, the increased use of r-PET, especially for packaging applications and textile fiber production, has led to a strong increase in demand in recent years, so that in addition to the increased market price, other recycled materials must now be used.

Possible Retrofit Of Key Components

Production processes that were previously designed only for the processing of virgin material and thus achieved consistently high qualities under known conditions, are now severely disturbed or interrupted by contamination and strongly fluctuating material qualities at a higher recycling rate. Constant mechanical properties and uniform dyeability of the fibers or special requirements such as very fine fibers or use in direct body contact can no longer be achieved with the existing production lines. Therefore, plants are required which on the one hand can process recycled material — even in lower quality — and on the other hand can generate a high-quality end product without impurities. This is exactly where the German company Gneuss comes in with its machine components for PET processing. The MRS Extruder with its high degassing and decontamination performance, powerful and automatically operating Rotary Filtration Systems, an Online Viscometer as well as the polycondensation unit Jump, which can ensure a targeted viscosity build-up of the PET melt of up to 0.3 dl/g, are available. Each of these machine components is available individually or in combination and can be retrofitted into an existing production line to adapt it to the changed requirements. In this way an ideal result can be achieved with comparatively low investment costs.

Shot taken during the installation of an MRS extrusion line at Suzhou Shenghong Fiber Co. Ltd, Jiangsu province, P.R.China

Main Component MRS Extruder

The extruder has a special task when processing PET fiber residues, since the plastic must not only be melted and homogenized, but if possible, also dehumidified and freed of volatile components if possible. While post-consumer waste can contain mainly moisture and a wide variety of solid dirt particles, production waste from fiber manufacture usually contains spinning oils, which are important for processing but make recycling more difficult. Regardless of which form of thermal cleaning of the waste material is required, the Multi Rotation System Extruder from Gneuss Kunststofftechnik takes over this task.

This is due to its special processing-technical design based on a single-screw extruder. Thanks to the enormously large melt surface created in the multi-screw section of the extruder, a high degassing and decontamination performance can be achieved and spinning oils can be effectively removed. No thermal pre-treatment of the residues is necessary. Among others, this was a good reason for the Belarusian processor Mogilevkhimvolokno located in Mogilev, one of the largest Eastern European producers of staple fibers, to retrofit an MRS 90 to its existing line. With a capacity of around 350 kg/h, all agglomerated fiber residues arising in production are processed, decontaminated and then re-polymerised to PET with a defined IV value in a polycondensation reactor without any further preparation. The situation is similar at the Chinese fiber producer Suzhou Shenghong Fiber Co. Ltd which operates an MRS 130 with a capacity of up to 800 kg/h. Here, too, the fiber waste is first shredded, melted in the MRS and thermally cleaned before it is brought back to the desired IV value in the polycondensation reactor and then processed into POY and FDY yarns. For the first time, stretched fibers with a high recycled content can be produced in this way.

MRS extruders are in use worldwide for processing PET waste materials. This is also the case with the South American company Valerio, which operates an MRS 90 with a capacity of 450 kg/h to produce staple fibers from very dirty bottle flakes.

Mechanical Cleaning Indispensable

Especially when using heavily contaminated bottle flakes, as is the case with the South American Gneuss customer, mechanical melt cleaning is indispensable. Valerio decided in favour of an RSFgenius 90 which, like all melt filtration systems from Bad Oeynhausen, operates with a rotating filter disc.

Especially in recycling applications, low material losses and infrequent filter element changes are important in order to ensure a high efficiency of the overall process. Therefore, the RSFgenius not only operates pressure- and process-constantly, but also carries out the cleaning of the filter elements fully automatically by means of an integrated back-flushing system. For this purpose, a small amount of filtered melt is regularly shot through the dirty screen by a high-pressure impulse over a narrow gap. The quantity required for this is freely adjustable and in practice corresponds to about 0.01 to 1 percent (with very high contamination) of the throughput. This means that the filter elements can be reused up to 400 times, depending on the filter fineness, which means fully automatic filtration without the need for personnel for several weeks in some applications.

Filter disc and filter elements of the fully automatic Rotary Filtration System RSFgenius

Even the two major fiber producers in Belarus and China are convinced by the machine component “filtration system,” which is also available as a separate unit and can be integrated into any existing line. They use an RSFgenius 90 resp. an RSFgenius 175 according to their throughput capacity and thus ensure a clean melt. This is especially essential for fiber production, as foreign particles could clog the spinneret and cause fiber breakage, which in turn would greatly reduce production efficiency.

Polyreactor JUMP for flexible IV increase and adjustment

Further Key Components Available

With its enormous know-how in PET processing, Gneuss not only advises its customers – which is very important especially for retrofit solutions — the machine manufacturer is always working on the further development of its machine components. In addition to the online viscometer, which records and controls the melt viscosity during production and, via a control system, readjusts the entire process in case of fluctuating viscosity, the polycondensation reactor Jump is one of the latest new developments. It is flanged directly to the extrusion unit and, with its sophisticated processing-technical concept, ensures a targeted viscosity build-up of the PET melt. The Jump thus represents a compact, economical and fast alternative to conventional SSP systems and enables the direct return of the residual materials into the production process. It can also be retrofitted to an existing line at any time.

August 13, 2020

The Ideal Combination For More Economic Spinning

TW Special Report

In many markets, spinning mills are being confronted with a growing labor shortage and a lack of industry-specific expertise. Rieter understands these challenges that customers are facing and offers both automated machines and tailor-made automation and digitalization solutions.

Do you want to achieve high productivity and machine availability around the clock without being dependent on personnel? Do you want to produce yarn efficiently with fewer personnel or use your existing personnel for more important and more interesting tasks? The only way to do this is by automating processes on and between the machines. With its products and systems and by collaborating with companies such as Electro-Jet, Rieter offers automated, customer-specific solutions for the entire spinning process from a single source.

Figure 1: With different automation solutions on and between the machines, the number of operators can be reduced significantly.

Automated Spinning Mill Makes 44 Percent Personnel Savings

In a comparison, a spinning mill with just under 53,000 spindles for producing combed compact yarn was used and the effect of various automation solutions was evaluated. From the blowroom to the packed yarn package, Rieter automation solutions reduce the required number of personnel by 44 percent — from 54 to 30 operators (see Figure 1). Each type of automation solution is explained in more detail below.

Ring Spinning is Becoming More Attractive

There are three automation solutions available for ring spinning machines and compact-spinning machines: the piecing robot ROBOspin, the individual spindle monitoring system (ISM) and the Link interface. They allow a spinning mill with 53,000 spindles that produces combed compact yarn to reduce the number of operating personnel by a good 10 percent.

Figure 2: The piecing robot ROBOspin increases productivity and reduces personnel costs.

ROBOspin, the first fully automated piecing robot, repairs ends down fully automatically (see Figure 2). It therefore automates very unpopular work in the spinning mill, for which it is hard to find the personnel in many markets. ROBOspin consistently works around the clock to repair ends down that occur while the machine is running or during doffing. Spinning mills benefit in three key aspects: increased machine availability, higher productivity and a reduced burden on the personnel side, which in turn reduces personnel costs. The quality of the yarn piecer is consistent, and contamination or damage of the cops is a thing of the past. The new ring spinning machines G 37 and G 38 are available from the factory with ROBOspin. Retrofits are currently possible for the G 36. In the near future, the piecing robot will also be available for other ring spinning and compact-spinning machines.

ISM — a standard feature in Rieter ring spinning and compact-spinning machines today — increases the efficiency when repairing ends down. Unnecessary inspection rounds are no longer required, since the operator is guided to the spinning position with ends down via the shortest route. This is possible thanks to a three-stage display concept: on both ends of the machine, on each section and on each spinning position. In addition to the ability to quickly locate ends down, there are two other key aspects that make the work easier for the operators. The first aspect is the simplified detection of inefficient spinning positions. ISM enables ends down rates to be displayed on the panel. This means that spinning positions with high ends down rates can be identified quickly and the causes can be rectified immediately. The second aspect is the increase in the spindle speed and the resulting increase in productivity. The constant monitoring of the ends down rate helps to optimize the spinning speed. It can be adjusted so that the ends down rate does not lead to personnel being overburdened. ISM is integrated into new ring spinning and compact-spinning machines. Existing machines in the field can be retrofitted.

To transport the cops from the spinning machine to the winding machine, Rieter has been offering the proven Link interface for many years. The cops of the ring spinning machines and compact-spinning machines are automatically and directly transported to the winding machine. Manually moving cops in a transport trolley is no longer required. Here too, there is an additional benefit with regard to quality: as cop transport takes place without any contact, the quality of the yarn is not affected. Today, around 80 percent of Rieter machines are supplied with this automated solution.

Automation in the Combing Section

For the production of combed yarns, Rieter offers a fully automated combing set together with the lap transport system SERVOlap and the automated lap change and batt piecing system ROBOlap that is available for combers. Both systems are also available as a retrofit. In the combing section, personnel savings of up to 50 percent are therefore possible compared with the manual solution. SERVOlap transports eight of the laps produced in the combing preparation stage at a time to the combers automatically and without contact (see Figure 3).

Figure 4: With ROBOlap, Rieter is the only company to offer an automated batt piecing solution on the comber that has proven itself in the market.

Thanks to this, there is no need to laboriously transport four laps at a time in trolleys. Another benefit: There is no downtime at the combers due to a lack of new laps. Before the laps run empty, the comber automatically requests new laps from the SERVOlap. With ROBOlap, the entire process is no longer dependent on personnel. All eight laps are changed on the comber without delay and with consistent quality, and the batt is pieced up automatically. The comber stops just before the laps on the comber run empty. ROBOlap then sucks up the remaining batt that is located on the tubes; subsequently, the empty tubes are replaced with the full laps. The system checks where the start of the batt is located on the lap and rotates the laps into a specified position. The new batt is then pieced up pneumatically (see Figure 4). The spinning mill with 53,000 spindles used as an example can save on personnel by 1.5 percent using SERVOlap and ROBOlap.

Figure 5: SERVOtrail automates roving bobbin transport and saves space.

Economical and Flexible Roving Bobbin Transport

For spinning mills that produce ring and compact yarns, the modular roving bobbin transport system SERVOtrail makes the work much easier. It significantly reduces the distances that employees need to move. Additionally, SERVOtrail saves space, ensures free access to the spinning machines, and improves the ergonomic handling of the roving bobbins (see Figure 5). The automatic transport system ensures that the roving on the bobbins is not touched. A consistently good roving quality is guaranteed.

SERVOtrail is available in different technical variants and automation levels. The three most important systems are Circuit, Flexible and Direct. For spinning mills whose product range rarely changes, SERVOtrail Circuit offers simple, fixed bobbin circuits between one roving frame and three to four ring spinning machines. Spinning mills in which flexibility is important due to the fact that they process multiple product

ranges benefit from SERVOtrail Flexible. With this solution, any roving frame can supply any ring spinning machine. The fully automated variant for the most demanding customer requirements is SERVOtrail Direct. Roving bobbin trains are automatically positioned in the ring spinning machine and thereby replace the bobbin creel. There is no need to manually replace the empty tubes with full bobbins. SERVOtrail can lead to personnel savings of up to 30 percent in this process step, depending on the level of automation.

Figure 6: Palletizing systems simplify the work of the operators.

Automatic Palletizing and Packing

Downstream of the winding machine, palletizing systems and packing machines simplify the operators’ work. Individual palletizers directly downstream of the winding machine or spinning machine, or central palletizers including a transport system, allow packages to be efficiently loaded onto pallets. This protects the material while reducing costs and minimizing the risk of material mix-ups. The process can be completed with damping, weighing and packing systems. It is even possible to automatically pack the packages into boxes. Together with the customer, Rieter analyzes the individual requirements and evaluates which is the most suitable solution.

No Automation Without Digitalization

Spinning mills are increasingly struggling with bottlenecks with regard to specialists and operating personnel, particularly when it comes to machine maintenance and related inefficiencies in the process areas, such as in the storage of spare parts. In this regard, digital technologies are becoming increasingly more important. ESSENTIAL – Rieter Digital Spinning Suite is a single system for overcoming these challenges. Four different modules enable spinning mills to put together the right package for their requirements. The free module ESSENTIALbasic offers many features, such as the ability to order spare parts online. This saves time that can be used efficiently in other areas. The module ESSENTIALmonitor displays actual production, energy consumption and quality data while helping to plan maintenance work. It allows the efficiency of the system to be increased. The module ESSENTIALmaintain offers an intelligent maintenance solution and optimizes maintenance planning. The fourth module, ESSENTIALpredict, identifies machines that are not achieving the expected performance and shows solutions that will prevent a possible failure. This guarantees high quality and optimal efficiency, both now and in the future.

August 13, 2020

Stein Mart Inc. Voluntarily Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — August 12, 2020 — Stein Mart Inc. today announced that it and its subsidiaries have filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida – Jacksonville Division (the “Bankruptcy Court”). The company has filed customary motions with the Bankruptcy Court that will authorize, upon Bankruptcy Court approval, the company’s ability to maintain operations in the ordinary course of business, including, among other things, the payment of employee wages and benefits without interruption, payment of suppliers and vendors in the normal course of business, and the use of cash collateral. These motions are typical in the Chapter 11 process and the company anticipates that they will be approved shortly after the commencement of its Chapter 11 case.

Details on the company’s Chapter 11 process and go-forward strategy are as follows:

  • The company expects to close a significant portion, if not all, of its brick-and-mortar stores and, in connection therewith, the company has launched a store closing and liquidation process. The company, however, will continue to operate its business in the ordinary course in the near term; and
  • The company is evaluating any and all strategic alternatives, including the potential sale of its eCommerce business and related intellectual property.

Hunt Hawkins, CEO and CFO of Stein Mart Inc., said: “The combined effects of a challenging retail environment coupled with the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have caused significant financial distress on our business. The company has determined that the best strategy to maximize value will be a liquidation of its assets pursuant to an organized going out of business sale. The company lacks sufficient liquidity to continue operating in the ordinary course of business. I would like to thank all of our employees for their dedication and support.”

Additional details:

  • The company’s restructuring counsel is Foley & Lardner LLP, its restructuring advisor is Clear Thinking Group LLC and its investment banker is PJ SOLOMON.
  • Court filings and other documents related to the process are available at https://cases.stretto.com/SteinMart.

Posted August 13, 2020

Source: Stein Mart Inc.

Boeing Recognized For Sustainability Leadership

CHICAGO — August 13, 2020 — Boeing today today received a 2020 Sustainability Leadership Award from the National Association of Manufacturers. The award recognizes the company’s innovative efforts to recycle aerospace carbon fiber, diverting waste away from landfills across the globe.

Since 2018, Boeing has partnered with England-based ELG Carbon Fibre to recycle excess aerospace carbon fiber. Boeing collects the scrap material, which ELG then treats in a furnace to remove binding agents. The result of this process is clean material that can be sold to third parties to make products such as electronic accessories and automotive equipment.

“Boeing is demonstrating that you can be environmentally sustainable in a cost effective way,” said Bryan Scott, vice president of Environment, Health & Safety at Boeing. “We are the largest consumer of aerospace-grade composite and the only company able to recycle 100 percent of it.”

The carbon fiber recycling process has now been implemented at 11 of Boeing’s global airplane manufacturing sites. Most excess carbon fiber comes from sites in Australia, the Puget Sound region of Washington state, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Boeing will train companies on the recycling process, beginning with its supply chain.

“Creating commercially viable solutions for recycling carbon fiber composites is good for the industry and good for the environment — it’s a win-win,” said Tia Benson Tolle, director of Advanced Materials and Product Development at Boeing.

Boeing is working to achieve several environmental goals by 2025, which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent; water use and solid waste to landfill by 20 percent; energy use by 10 percent; and hazardous waste at worksites by 5 percent. Boeing’s industry-leading fuel efficient product offerings and work with industry stakeholders are enabling aviation to achieve a global approach to carbon-neutral growth from 2020 onward and a 50-percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 compared to 2005 levels.

Posted August 13, 2020

Source: Boeing

Stitches USA And Buckeye Mask Co. Use First-Of-Its-Kind Automation In The United States To Produce Millions Of Masks In Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio — August 13, 2020 — Today, Governor Mike DeWine announced that Stitches USA and Buckeye Mask Co. will partner to produce high-quality, cotton face masks on a large scale, bolstering domestic personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using first-of-its-kind automation in the United States, the combined efforts of both companies can produce over 1.5 million masks a month for civil use.

“The partnership between Buckeye Mask and Stitches USA demonstrates how Ohio manufacturers are stepping up to meet the challenges presented by COVID-19,” said Governor Mike DeWine. “At the beginning of this crisis, I said that we would work to bring PPE manufacturing back to Ohio and the United States to reduce our reliance on foreign markets. This partnership is part of that effort and a great win for Ohio.”

“We saw an acute need in Ohio for efficient production of PPE and stepped up to the challenge,” said Carla Macklin, president of startup Buckeye Mask Co. in Cleveland. “The speed at which this project came together has been incredible and was made possible by the efforts and foresight of so many across the State.”

Stitches USA, headquartered in Sugarcreek, and Buckeye Mask, based in Cleveland, were connected through the Ohio Manufacturing Alliance, a partnership among the Ohio Manufacturers Association, Ohio Development Services Agency, JobsOhio and its network, and the Ohio Hospital Association. The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET) is providing engineering capabilities and technical support to make PPE. Normally competitors, the companies combined efforts to reduce costs, increase efficiency and make the greatest impact at a critical time.

“Beating China at its game by investing in technology has been my mission for 20 years,” said John Miller, founder and president of Stitches-USA and SUPERB, “We make engineered components in Ohio and ship them to China every week. This same strategy will not only enable us to manufacture PPE in Ohio, we will do it better.”

Stitches USA will receive a $500,000 grant from the Ohio PPE Retooling and Reshoring Grant Program and a $1.2 million loan from JobsOhio. Buckeye Mask will receive a $30,000 grant from the Ohio PPE Retooling and Reshoring Grant Program and a $1.8 million loan from JobsOhio. The funding will help purchase advanced machinery to mass produce multi-ply antimicrobial cotton masks. Stitches USA and Buckeye Mask operate six and nine machines respectively. At full capacity, their mask production is competitive with Chinese facilities.

“We continue to work with our partners and companies, like Buckeye Mask and Stitches USA, to expand PPE manufacturing in Ohio,” said J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio president and CEO. “The pandemic has exposed a strong need to build the U.S. medical supply chain, and Buckeye Mask and Stitches USA show that Ohioans have the ingenuity, will and talent to be a national leader in this essential effort.”

Buckeye Mask is a startup launched in partnership with National Safety Apparel, an 85-year-old automated apparel company. Stitches-USA is a commercial sewing operation that manufactures American flags, high temp hazmat PPE and equestrian gear. Stitches is a branch of SUPERB Industries Inc., a Class I FDA registered, ISO9000 and IATF16949 certified manufacturer of engineered products that specializes in hospital bed related components and other capacity available to support the COVID-19 crisis.

Over the past nine years, JobsOhio working with many partners, completed more than 2,500 projects that resulted in more than 198,000 jobs created, $56 billion in capital investment and $9.3 billion in new payroll. During that time, Ohio businesses and workers have been resilient and resolved, driving Ohio’s rise in national, independent rankings of best states for business, quality of life and affordability.

Posted August 13, 2020

Source: JobsOhio

Energy-Efficient Yarn Manufacture: Cationic-Dyeable Yarns Have Established Themselves In The Market

REMSCHEID, Germany — August 13, 2020 — The to-date largest system for cationic dyeable yarns has been manufacturing in China with great success for over a year now. The installation, with a capacity of 600 tons of partially oriented yarn (POY) a day, instantly catapults the system operator into the vanguard of cutting-edge producers: with its high-quality products, the well-known Chinese yarn manufacturer has secured itself a 30-percent market share in China.

An additive in the melt ensures easier and superior uptake of dye, meaning that this special type of yarn uses very little water during the dyeing process and hence generates less environmental pollution. As a result of chemically-modifying the polymer, the fibers or filaments score points due to the lower temperatures required within the dyeing process, while producing consistently-brilliant dyeing results. The product is visually striking with its extremely-shiny, lively colors. Excellent processing properties — with simultaneously extremely low energy consumption and considerably reduced CO2 emissions — ensure a high level of efficiency in the case of this sustainable product.

The high capacity and the favorable production costs associated with the direct spinning process make the yarn considerably more attractive for further processing compared to production methods available to date. This opens up a new, broader application window for cationic dyeable yarns.

International yarn manufacturers have been producing such yarns within the context of the POY and fully drawn yarn process on machines and systems supplied by the Remscheid-based solutions provider Oerlikon for 30 years now.

Posted August 13, 2020

Source: Oerlikon

WEKO To Offer A New Way Of Applying Polygiene — Spraying Means Saving

MALMÖ, Sweden — August 13, 2020 — WEKO is a German supplier of industrial application systems for surface finishing. Together with Polygiene it will now offer solutions for applying Polygiene ViralOff as a spray of microdroplets. This saves up to 80 percent of water, 80 percent of chemistry and 90 percent of drying energy.

The machines and application solutions will be sold to existing and new customers which include numerous leading textile treatment and manufacturing mills. This means Polygiene will further reinforce their presence in the whole value chain, from branded consumer and professional products brand labels to their partners on the manufacturing side.

“We see the demand for ViralOff in the market, and we wanted to bring our expertise in applications to make this technology even better,” said Tobias Schurr, sales and marketing director at WEKO. “The savings in water, energy and chemical footprint are more than substantial. We also give perfect repeatability of the application, which is important when promising the >99 percent virus reduction of ViralOff.”

“ViralOff is as much a sustainability initiative as it is a part of battling the current and future pandemics,” said Mats Georgson, chief marketing officer, Polygiene. “With ViralOff you can skip maybe 80 percent of washes — there is no ‘just in case’ reasons. And that will save so much on the environment. Now with WEKO we can realize dramatic savings in the production side too. And while this application method is not as dry as my puns, it uses only 20 percent of the water of conventional methods.”

Posted August 13, 2020

Source: Polygiene AB

Rieter Wins Patent Dispute In China

WINTERTHUR, Switzerland — August 13, 2020 — Rieter protects its innovations and products with patents and registered designs. The company takes consistent action against patent and design infringements. In mid-July 2020, in a legal dispute, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court of the People’s Republic of China ruled in favor of Rieter Ingolstadt GmbH (Germany).

Rieter machines stand for outstanding quality, high operational safety, excellent performance and user-friendliness as well as unique design. In order to benefit from these characteristics, competitors copy the successful Rieter machine concepts and even adopt the coveted Rieter design.

Rieter protects its innovations by means of patents and registered designs. The company takes consistent action against companies that infringe Rieter patents or designs and copy products or machines. In 2018, Rieter registered design infringements by Shenyang Hongda Textile Machinery Co. Ltd. in relation to double-head draw frames, and decided to file a lawsuit against the Chinese company.

In mid-July 2020, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court of the People’s Republic of China determined that the double-head draw frames JWF1316 and JWF1316T of Shenyang Hongda Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. are similar to and fall within the scope of protection of the design patent concerned. The defendant Shenyang Hongda Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. was sentenced to compensate the plaintiff Rieter Ingolstadt GmbH for financial losses and expenses.

Posted August 13, 2020

Source: Rieter Holding Ltd.

Two More Sateri Mills Confirmed EU-BAT Compliant

SHANGHAI — August 12, 2020 — Two more Sateri mills in China, Sateri Jiujiang and Sateri Jiangxi, have received verification of compliance to the emissions limits set out in the European Union Best Available Techniques Reference Document (EU- BAT BREF) on Polymers. This brings the total number of EU-BAT compliant mills to three of five, accounting for over 60 per cent of Sateri’s overall fiber production capacity. In April this year, Sateri Fujian was the company’s first mill to be verified as being EU-BAT compliant.

Verified by independent consultant Sustainable Textile Solutions (STS), a division of BluWin Ltd. (UK), the parameters of the EU-BAT BREF assessed included resource utility efficiency, wastewater discharge and air emission. As a highlight, STS’ assessment concluded that the energy intensity and air emission of Sateri Jiujiang and Sateri Jiangxi were well under EU-BAT norms for viscose production. Considering the EU-BAT energy requirements limit of 30 gigajoules per metric ton of fiber, the mills were each saving about 1,100 kilograms of carbon dioxide per metric ton of fiber production. The mills also followed local requirements for controlling ecological impact for viscose production, and there were no gaps identified against EU-BAT.

Sateri Jiangxi is a 16-year-old mill and the company’s first and oldest, while Sateri Jiujiang was acquired and expanded in 2015.

“For three of our five mills to meet the EU-BAT emissions limits in such a short span of time is a testament to our continued investment in best-in-class technologies,” said Allen Zhang, president, Sateri. “This applies to all our mills — regardless of whether they are existing, acquired, or newly constructed ones — as we aim to achieve a high level of sustainability performance across all our operations.”

The company is well on track for its remaining two mills, Sateri Jiangsu and Sateri China which were acquired and newly-built in 2019 respectively, to comply with EU- BAT’s recommended emission levels by 2023.

Posted August 12, 2020

Source: Sateri

 

 

 

 

 

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