Chandler and Charlene Clark make connections that lead to profit

January 1, 1970  |  News

By Sigrid Tornquist For Chandler and Charlene Clark of Signature CanvasMakers, the line between hobby and vocation is thin—but it is that common bond boat lovers share that often results in a profit for the company. As the Clarks were readying to set sail one weekend last summer, they struck u…
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Specialty Fabrics Review interviews Chandler Clark, owner of Signature CanvasMakers

January 1, 1970  |  News

Interview by Sigrid Tornquist How have the increased gas prices affected your business? If it costs a client too much to take the boat out, they’re not going to do it as often, which means they won’t need as much work done. Gas prices also impact the cost of materials. But because we&rsq…
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The next generation of digital-direct fabric printing

January 1, 1970  |  News

By John Gehner The Durst Rhotex 320 printer used by Rainier Retail and others is touted as the next generation of digital-direct fabric printing. The Rhotex prints directly onto the fabric surface with water-based, heat-activated dyes, resulting in a sharp image with great color saturation.. Print s…
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Fabric vs. pixels

January 1, 1970  |  News

By John Gehner Although market research predicts sustained growth for digital printing on textiles, the use of digital signage in retail settings represents a legitimate competitor. To date, however, implementation of digital signage has been slow and projections of its use overly optimistic. Accord…
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Safety net: Lightweight RPG solution based on nets

January 1, 1970  |  News

By Sigrid Tornquist Cheryl Gomes worked on QinietQ North America’s ground-breaking defense project, Q-Net™, which was rolled out in 2010. In conjunction with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the team developed the lightweight r…
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Specialty Fabrics Review interviews Cheryl Gomes, lead principal materials engineer for QinetiQ North America’s Survivability Group

January 1, 1970  |  News

Interview by Sigrid Tornquist What is your greatest challenge in product development and application? I think it’s universal—looking for ways to develop adjacent markets and uses for the products you have. I’ll go to trade shows and see someone marketing a truck cover material and …
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Spill containment products save money and the planet

January 1, 1970  |  News

By Barb Ernster Since manufacturing the first portable spill containment product in the 1980s used in building the Alaska Pipeline, Seattle Tarp Co. has seen this market ebb and flow. Today its customized water and spill containment products are the most significant part of its business. The demand …
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Workforce development

January 1, 1970  |  News

Improving personnel management with ACT’s WorkKeys® program. By Michael Lotti American manufacturers are in a paradoxical situation, according to Pat Hayes, CPP, founder and chair of Fabric Images Inc. in Elgin, Ill. “They face an enormous amount of applications for each job posted, …
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Lean production practices in the specialty fabrics industry

January 1, 1970  |  News

By John Gehner Lean production practices (often called simply “lean”) are gaining impetus in the specialty fabrics industry. The concept is more than a buzzword and has roots much deeper than recent economic pressures—but they do supply an impetus for more widespread adoption. The …
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Professional development in narrow fabrics

January 1, 1970  |  News

By John Gehner The Jakob Müller Institute of Narrow Fabrics provides training opportunities at facilities in Frick, Switzerland, and Suzhou, China, as well as through a mobile “flying classroom,” with trainers available to teach courses in five different languages. The company organ…
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