Empowering people to drive change and innovation is at the heart of our industry’s growth. By Bud Weisbart, IFM What are the most exciting or intriguing developments in the industry in advanced textiles? To me, this boils down to people. The most exciting and intriguing developments lie within our industry members’ abilities to seek out [...]

[Transformit] Gorham, Maine, U.S.A Tranformit constructed a 6,000-square-foot exhibit almost entirely of fabric elements for their client, North Face, containing a theater, several meeting spaces, a technical room and six product display areas; only the product merchandising elements are not made from fabric. With a carbon footprint approximately one-third of traditional construction, the client’s desire [...]

[Lawrence Fabric & Metal Structures Inc.] St. Louis, Mo., U.S.A. To create an eye catching, show-stopping exhibit for the International Baking Industry Exposition, Lawrence Fabric & Metal Structures used a variety of materials. The frame-supported tensioned structure combined printed, unprinted and backlit, stretch and non-stretch fabric with impressive metal structures. These materials went together to [...]

[Pink Powered by Moss] New York, N.Y., U.S.A. The PowerStation was designed and built for two events to show the “power” of the newly merged Pink Inc. and Moss Inc. One large focal point encompasses the space, suggesting that the parent company is the source of newly infused power. The large structure is decorated with [...]

As new applications and markets are discovered for technical textiles, growth in the industry is likely to be strong—5 percent per year, according to the latest issue of Technical Textile Markets from publisher Textiles Intelligence, Rockville, Md. The automotive, construction, environment, energy and medical sectors may see the most growth in technical textile demand. In [...]

By Pat Hayes, CPP During a recent management meeting, our vice president of marketing presented a global business plan. In the process, he did an analysis of our competition over the past 10 years. It was interesting to note the companies that fell by the wayside. I would say the majority failed due to tough [...]

Manufacturers lose money if they tie up working capital in raw materials, and a new software module provides a scientific and consistent mathematic solution for accurate measurement of thread demand. Amann & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG, Bönnigheim, Germany, a thread manufacturer, has joined forces with GSD Ltd., Preston, England, a costing and productivity consultant, [...]

SGS Consumer Testing Services, based in Geneva, Switzerland, offers certification and testing services, including a new program that allows companies to demonstrate carbon reductions through a series of three different product marks. Unlike carbon footprint marks that are limited to a state, country or single phase of a product’s lifecycle, the SGS marks cover all [...]

An estimated 90 percent of carbon fibers, which make composite materials of exceptional strength and reduced weight, come from polyacrylonitrile, and their cost is prohibitive for high-volume use in automobile production. Dow® Chemical, Midland, Mich., and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tenn., have joined forces to develop a polyolefin-based carbon filter precursor [...]

MADE BY, a nonprofit organization that wants to make sustainable fashion common practice and improve environmental and social conditions in the fashion industry, held a seminar in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to promote sustainable textile wet processing and waterless dyeing. Speakers from Greenpeace shared the podium with industry experts to discuss a road map to zero [...]