This year, employees of Insect Shield®, makers of insect-repellent clothing, gave a holiday gift that will keep on giving—donations to provide treated bed nets to Venezuelan indigenous people at risk for malaria and other insect-borne diseases. Insect Shield of Seattle, Wash., uses its EPA-registered pesticide (approved for clothing use) on “mosquiteros” nets, which are designed [...]

Spader Business Management, Sioux Falls, S.D., a training and consulting firm, reports that new boat sales dropped 34.2 percent and average total dealership sales declined by 23 percent during the first nine months of 2009. Revenue for pre-owned boats also dropped, but only by 5.2 percent. With boat sales down, a greater percent of the [...]

Materials Innovation Technologies, Fletcher, N.C., plans to open a new facility in Florence County, S.C., to expand its development of advanced carbon-fiber textiles for the automotive, aeronautics and defense industries. Governor Mark Sanford welcomed the high-tech company, which plans to begin hiring in February. Materials Innovation Technologies plans to create 120 new jobs at the [...]

Despite a global recession, manufacturers of auto interiors keep driving forward. In February 2010, many auto interior innovators will be driving to the ims Automotive Interior Conference at the Royal Automobile Club in London, England. Topics being explored at the conference, sponsored by ims Automotive, include whether alternative vehicles need alternative interiors, the impacts of [...]

Forty years ago, Dr. David Brookstein, dean of Philadelphia University, was an undergraduate in the former Textile and Sciences College. In late October, he and the University president, Dr. Stephen Spinelli, presided at the grand opening of the new Biomedical Textile Structures Laboratory. The lab, funded by a $1.25 million grant from the Pennsylvania Department [...]

Shade structure and awning manufacturers are making shade pay for customers. By Holly O’Dell The importance of green technology is growing, with many industries finding new ways to integrate sustainable techniques into their products and services. Awning and shade structure manufacturers and fabricators have also been exploring how to give their products an eco-friendly edge. [...]

Among the military acronyms that have infiltrated common speech in the wake of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, IED (improvised explosive device) and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) may be two of the most deadly. Armored vehicles, trucks, tanks and other transport targeted by roadside bombs and rocket-launched grenades remain vulnerable to attack, but U.S. Army researchers [...]

Household mold is a major indoor air pollutant, and grows in damp, humid or flooding conditions in carpets, furniture and paper-clad drywall. Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics, Grand Island, N.Y., offers an alternative to standard paper tapes used to join drywall—FibaFuse™ glass mat fiber drywall tape, an ideal choice for bathrooms, kitchens and other areas where moisture [...]

A major urban center on a busy harbor may be a unique location for a zoo, but Darling Harbour in Sydney, Australia, established Wildlife World to attract both animal lovers and architectural students alike. The urban zoo’s tensioned stainless steel mesh roof draws visitors’ attention, allows sunlight to sustain the created natural habitats and provides [...]

Magnum Boots, a manufacturer of safety and tactical gear, got its newest boots wet at the Milipol Paris 2009 military conference in November. Magnum allowed potential customers to test its Elite Force 8.0 WPi boots in a water box to signal the company’s confidence in the waterproofing ability of ion-mask™ liquid repellent nano-coating. P2i Inc., [...]