Dyneema Purity® fiber technology from Royal DSM NV, Heerlen, The Netherlands, will serve as a support scaffold for a prototype heart valve replacement developed by the University Medical Center (UMC) of Utrecht, The Netherlands. Dyneema Purity’s polymeric biomaterial features properties that make it a promising foundation for artificial heart valves that must remain in the [...]

Negotiations continue on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which involves the U.S. and eight Pacific Rim nations: Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and Peru. However, a new global group, Textile and Apparel Alliance for TPP (TAAT), has formed to call on trade negotiators to ensure that strict textile rules are part [...]

The newest system partners to adopt the bluesign® sustainable textile standard include 12 clothing and accessory manufacturers from Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and China, according to the independent Swiss bluesign organization. Founded in 2000, bluesign advocates maximum resource productivity as the process to achieve maximum consumer protection, product safety and economic success. Recently, bluesign [...]

A new Freedonia Group industry study, World Nonwovens Industry, forecasts an increase of 6.9 percent annually in global sales of nonwoven fabrics, with personal hygiene products such as adult incontinence wear, feminine hygiene, diapers and training pants leading the way. The study provides forecasts for 2015 and 2020 by web formation process, market, application, world [...]

The depth of polar ice has implications for history, paleogeology and climate science, and while much is known about the North Pole ice cap, South Pole ice proves more difficult to measure. Harp’s Tarps (Glenn Harp and Sons Inc.) in Tucker, Ga., is sending a custom-designed product where few tarps have gone before—a South Pole [...]

The Jamsil indoor swimming pool in Seoul, South Korea, hosted the Asian Games in 1986 and the Olympic Games in 1988, but had fallen on harder times. The Seoul Metropolitan Government graded the facility a ‘D’ during a 2010 safety inspection and estimated the cost of renovation at $25 million. Enter Hanwha Polydreamer, a Seoul [...]

Onondaga Lake, northwest of Syracuse, N.Y., will be the site of the largest geotextile tube project ever attempted in North America, and TenCate Geosynthetics Americas, Pendergrass, Ga., will provide TenCate Geotube® containers to complete the massive Superfund cleanup. A century of industrial activity, in which factories pumped waste products directly into the lake, left Onondaga [...]

In 2002, shortly after establishing Insect Shield® LLC, Greensboro, N.C., to produce a method of bonding a proprietary insect repellent to consumer apparel, company leaders proposed a pilot test. Cases of Lyme disease, a serious tick-borne illness, kept increasing every year at West Point Military Academy, so Insect Shield used its new process on cadet [...]

New tax regulations on replacing or repairing business property or equipment. By Mark E. Battersby The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has finally released new regulations to determine whether certain business expenditures are currently deductible as repair expenses, or must be capitalized and deducted over the life of the underlying business asset. The long-awaited expanded regulations [...]

The winners of this year’s Young Architect Award, sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1 exhibition space, will introduce “Wendy” to the world this summer. MoMA annually offers architects the chance to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation that provides shade, seating, water and a sustainability component. This year’s [...]