Fleas and fish eggs: testing textile breakdown

May 1, 2013  |  Advanced Textiles, Business, Geosynthetics, Industry News

Textile products at the end of their useful lives often end up buried in landfills, where water combines with eager microorganisms to break down organic molecules in natural fibers and polymers. This natural decomposition process generates carbon dioxide as a waste and also releases organic molecule…
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Dutch researchers design highways that heal themselves

May 1, 2013  |  Advanced Textiles, Business, Geosynthetics, Industry News, Projects

Researchers at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands are paving the way to longer-lived roads with a special type of asphalt containing long steel fibers. Zoab, a highly porous asphalt concrete used commonly in The Netherlands, is used because water can drain through openi…
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Fibertect wipes cleaning up toxins

May 1, 2013  |  Advanced Textiles, Business, Industry News

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) currently uses a powdered decontaminant called M-291 to clean up toxins, such as the nerve gas soman, a volatile, corrosive and colorless liquid. Then the Journal of Engineered Fibers & Fabrics published research by Texas Tech University comparing M-291 to Fi…
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Lotus plant inspires self-cleaning yarn

May 1, 2013  |  Advanced Textiles, Business, Industry News

Lotus leaves are covered with structures that repel surface water, which washes off dirt or dust as it runs off. A super-hydrophobic filament yarn developed by TWD Fibres GmbH, Deggendorf, Germany, achieves the same self-cleaning effect without external chemical treatment. DIOLEN®CLEAN is create…
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Making research pay off

May 1, 2013  |  Management, Markets

Looking for write-offs in all the right places. By Mark E. Battersby Few specialty fabric professionals seem to be aware that many of their business activities constitute “research” under current tax rules. Your business could be sitting on a lot of ignored or overlooked research and dev…
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Planning for the next generation: leadership transitions in family businesses

May 1, 2013  |  Features, Management, Markets

Keeping family businesses strong when the owners retire requires a long-term strategy and realistic planning. By Jamie Swedberg Evanston Awning Co., Evanston, Ill., is a family business currently being operated by its fourth and fifth generations. Edward Hunzinger Jr., MFC, is the president; his wif…
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Vocational education in Australia

May 1, 2013  |  Industry News, Management

Australia’s STA (formerly ACASPA) has received a sizeable grant for workforce development. By Chris Nolan Australia’s high dollar has pushed local labor costs to relatively high levels internationally, which has affected manufacturing competitiveness and led to industry pressure to modif…
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Ron Houle builds a bridge to the Capitol

May 1, 2013  |  Features, Industry News, Marketing, Markets, Perspective

Ron Houle works for defense procurement funding at the highest levels of U.S. government. By Sigrid Tornquist “To be successful in defense procurement it’s important to understand what the Department of Defense (DoD) needs, how to design to that need, how projects get funded and how they are jus…
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Water sports apparel market struggling?

May 1, 2013  |  Industry News, Marketing

The global economic crisis and changes in water-sports participation have thrown cold water over businesses that market water sports apparel, according to Textile Intelligence’s Performance Apparel Markets, Issue No. 43. Major companies in water-sports apparel are cutting back on operations an…
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Creating the future of textiles: Acoustic invisibility

April 1, 2013  |  Advanced Textiles, Business, Markets

New cloak provides best protection yet. According to an article by Alexander Movchan published in January 2012 by the Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, U.K., “Cloaking devices made of a composite of soft and hard materials can divert elastic vibrational w…
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