TEXTILES.ORG
The phrase “health care textiles” may first bring to mind medical devices and protective gear used in the operating room (which Specialty Fabrics Review last featured in October 2024), but they’re much more varied. Besides hospitals, health care textiles are in any type of outpatient clinic or in residential facilities, from upholstery and mattresses to curtains and garments. But even if health care fabrics are ubiquitous, the companies that make them are intent on meeting exacting quality and regulatory standards to keep customers coming back decade after decade.
Testing and regs are key
According to Chad Twombly, vice president direct sales for Herculite® in Emigsville, Pa., “You can walk into any hospital, nursing home, orthopedic surgery center or dentist office in the country, and there is a very high likelihood that you are going to be surrounded by technical fabrics that are made by either Herculite or our competitors.”
Herculite has been in the health care market for 70 years. Its Sure-Chek® line of heath care fabrics is engineered using an antimicrobial additive that allows the antimicrobial agent to migrate to the surface. This helps fight microbes and odors while being safe in a wide variety of products, including mattress ticking, moisture barriers, pillows, upholstery and privacy curtain fabric. All Sure-Chek products are flame-resistant and self-extinguishing when the flame is removed, and Blaze Blocker HP is a high-performance version.
The company’s ’Lectrolite® electrostatic conductive fabrics help prevent static electricity charges on the surface of the material when patients are moved, staff rubs against equipment or if the air is dry.
“In an operating environment, that can be critical, because obviously, they’re utilizing oxygen with the patient, and oxygen is very explosive,” Twombly says. “You don’t want any kind of spark being created.”
Infection is the primary concern for medical-grade antimicrobial textiles in hospitals, clinics and medical facilities. Manufacturers need testing to prove that their products contain an antimicrobial agent that protects the surface of the fabric from microbial growth.
They also need to address regulatory compliance requirements, depending on the application, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or Regulation 2017/745 of the European Parliament and of the Council on medical devices. The textiles also need to maintain this level after repeated cleanings and sterilization.
“You need to be careful not to make a statement that could be construed as a medical claim,” says Twombly, who estimates that health care amounts to 15%–20% of his company’s business. “Doing so could expose you to litigation and compliance issues with government agencies.”
Pivoting between markets
Meeting standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials International doesn’t come without technical challenges. Gena Webb is the vice president of R&D and products at Twitchell™ Technical Products LLC. Located in Dothan, Ala., the more than 100-year-old company supplies coating and laminating services for health care barriers, drapes and gowns.
Twitchell’s team saw an opportunity and got into the health care sector in the 1980s. The company’s barrier-type products were used in the industrial sector in sealing pipes already in the ground, and absorbent mats were used under trains or for industrial spills. The contexts were radically different, but the job of sealing, protection and containment was not.
“You want to wear a medical gown so that you don’t get body fluids and blood and different medias in a health care environment,” Webb says, “… so it’s all protective wear. Whether you’re in a really toxic environment in the medical field, the same equipment makes the product. It’s using very similar resins, but it’s different thicknesses, different backings and different coated materials.”
The creative thinking that got Twitchell into the medical market enabled the company to branch out further. For example, not all health care textiles are for humans.
“Some of our medical products are also used on pets,” Webb says. “We made a product for a customer who saw our medical products, and they wanted us to make cones and protective devices that you would use on your dogs.”
Starting with a first customer
Steve Angelone’s father, Edward Angelone, started Bruin Plastics Company Inc., of Glendale, R.I., in 1964. He returned from World War II and completed his education as a chemist and engineer at Brown University. He remained in the industry after graduation, working in various capacities until he started the company. Bruin was primarily a distributor early on, but by 1970, Edward had engineered and built his first laminating machine.
Soon thereafter, the company was manufacturing mattress ticking for a New York company. While that company is now a competitor, Bruin’s bread and butter is still mattress ticking, with five versions in its Medical Mattress Ticking (MMT™) line. The MMT Standard is flame-retardant, antimicrobial, fluid-proof, tear-resistant, stain-resistant, self-deodorizing, antistatic and easily cleanable. The Fireblock Composite meets CFR Part 1633 fire safety standards, which Steve Angelone says has been a need that has been a real game changer for Bruin in recent years.
Bruin also supplies waterproof PVC and mesh fabrics for durable medical equipment such as stretcher or gurney mattresses, gurney pads and shower chairs.
Angelone, who is now co-owner, sees the reason for the company’s long-term success in health care being that the company doesn’t take shortcuts.
“If you’re gonna be in business, you gotta get out there,” he says. “You gotta mix with your customers and your competitors and your vendors, and you gotta be up close and personal with them. I don’t think there’s any substitute for that.”
Angelone estimates that health care makes up about 15%–20% of his business. He is a strong proponent for having a diverse array of customers.
“Some markets are more susceptible to economic fluctuations,” Angelone says. “For example, the RV industry, which we supply material for the tops of pop-up trailers, can be drastically impacted by the economy. [In contrast, people] need mattresses to sleep on in a hospital, a nursing home or a dormitory. The same is true with shower chairs. All those products
are a little more stable.”
Navigating the future
Whether you are a family-owned operation like Bruin or a multinational corporation, everyone is trying to stay on top of market stressors and developments. Investment in research and development and new and existing product lines is a way to do that.
Trelleborg, with more than 100 manufacturing facilities around the world, primarily produces its specialist health care fabrics in Nottingham, England, and Monson, Mass., where it manufactures transfer-coated knits and direct-coated wovens. Trelleborg Engineered Coated Fabrics is the business unit over its health care fabrics. Christina Tenney, Trelleborg’s health care and medical business development manager, North America, says the company monitors market trends proactively with an eye on enhancing product performance.
The acquisition of Dartex Holdings Ltd. in 2018 strengthened the company’s position in health care textiles, a core market for the company, and its work in engineered coated fabrics, “reinforcing [health care’s] role as a strategically vital market, central to our continued innovation,” she says.
The company’s experts engineer fabric and chemistry combinations to create products to meet specific demands. For example, its Dartex® coatings can be “zoned” to create a customizable amount of grip, slip, static dissipation or stretch in different areas according to the needs of a product’s end use. On the top of a mattress cover, for example, this bears out by having high-friction/low-slip sides for patient and mattress handling. Other surfaces that can be zoned to spec include positioning devices, specialist medical furniture and stretchers.
Tenney says the company is seeing a growing demand for breathable fabrics in specialist seating applications (wheelchairs, dental chairs, bedside chairs, etc.), support surfaces such as mattress covers and gurneys as well as wearables.
The company is also collaborating with Nottingham Trent University to explore smart textile technologies, including the integration of sensors to monitor pressure, temperature and humidity, which could have applications such as preventing pressure injuries.
“While we are a component supplier and not a manufacturer of finished products, we operate in a highly regulated industry.” Tenney says. “Our commitment to quality and compliance reinforces trust in our brand.”
Building a reputation through good work is never a bad idea.
Tad Hendrickson is a freelance writer who lives in Minneapolis, Minn.
SIDEBAR: California’s EPR law affects health care textiles manufacturers
Plenty of health care textiles—and, by extension, their manufacturers—are affected by the Responsible Textile Recovery Act passed in California, such as uniforms, sheets, towels, pillows, curtains and blankets. Single-use medical textiles, such as surgical drapes, hair bonnets, personal protective equipment and wipes, are excluded from the law.
The Responsible Textile Recovery Act establishes a state extended producer responsibility (EPR) program and aims to curb landfill waste. A study by the California Stewardship Council found that most discarded medical textiles are reusable or recyclable but that there’s a lack of collection, repair and reuse infrastructure.
Under the law, textile producers (as defined in the act) must join a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) approved by the state by July. The California Retailers Association, the American Apparel & Footwear Association and the National Retail Federation have collaborated to set up a PRO to be submitted for approval. Producers of textiles who sell in California should monitor the establishment of that PRO and any other textile PROs that happened before the Jan. 1 deadline.
The state has until March 1 to approve PRO applications.
Challenges for health care facilities will be to replace single-use materials with reusables where they can and update overall textile management, such as dedicating the space and labor to repair or sterilize what can be reused and sort out and recycle what can’t. This will be tough, as California and the U.S. lack external sterilization services.
For more information, check out previous coverage of the Responsible Textile Recovery Act in the July 2025 issue of Specialty Fabrics Review.
Cathy Jones and Megan Phillips are editors of Specialty Fabrics Review.
SIDEBAR: Medical product or medical device?
n a presentation at the Emerging Technologies Conference at Advanced Textiles Expo 2025, Alexander Laubach, a chemist with the Hohenstein Institute, discussed the process used to differentiate a medical product from a medical device. The short answer is, “It’s all about the intended use.
“Things you can materially touch, you should consider that you could have a medical device,” Laubach says. The regulations for European Union (EU), U.S. and Canada “are really close to each other,” he says. But there are some instances where what’s a device in the EU isn’t one in the U.S., such as a tampon, so companies should review regulations carefully.
If it’s a medical device, the next step is to prove it’s safe. Biocompatibility is at the top of the list. There is a detailed process outlined for proceeding with this step, starting with a biological evaluation plan, followed by planned testing. A chemical analysis follows, and the data is assessed according to toxicological risks. The process ends with a final risk assessment and report.
Janet Preus is the senior editor of Textile Technology Source.
SIDEBAR: Green efforts include capturing scrap, using recycled materials
t’s difficult to recycle PVC-coated textiles or multilayered fabric composites that are crucial for producing certain medical-grade antimicrobial materials. Textile companies or those handling recycling must first separate the various materials, then the polymers used.
“Much of our waste, which is edge trim, is the biggest concern amongst myself and my competitors [and] is a multi-polymer material,” said Steve Angelone, co-owner of Bruin Plastics Company Inc., of Glendale, R.I., whose company uses a lot of PVC. That scrap can be recycled to make more PVC, and polyester can be recycled into bottles. “But when you have PVC and polyester combined, that’s an issue. That has been a challenge and continues to be a challenge.”
Sustainability efforts in new products often start in the design phase. For example, Trelleborg Engineered Coated Fabrics pushes toward resource-efficient textiles.
“More of our fabrics are available with recycled yarn options, and any new fabric launches can be developed using recycled materials,” says Christina Tenney, Trelleborg health care and medical business development manager, North America. “Additionally, we are actively exploring new ways to embed circularity into our operations, such as recycling polyurethane waste from our manufacturing processes.”
Companies’ recycling efforts also can end up assisting non-textile polymer product manufacturing.
“The polymers that we’re using are very recyclable,” says Gena Webb, vice president of R&D and products for Twitchell Technical Products LLC in Dothan, Ala. “We have a local recycler that is making battery cases, and that’s what a lot of our products go back into.”
Stay on top of news in your market areas with the Advanced Textiles Association publications that you receive with your association membership.