Composites allow creation of custom materials for unusual applications

June 1, 2008  |  Features, Management, Marketing

It sounds like science fiction: portable airport hangars supported by columns of air, paper that conducts electricity and synthetic mother-of-pearl that can be bent without breaking. We have now entered The Matrix, but don’t expect to see Keanu Reeves in a black coat defying gravity and leading a …
Read More
Small Business Health Options Program to help businesses

June 1, 2008  |  Management

The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), introduced by senators Durbin, Snowe, Lincoln and Coleman, is designed to help small businesses that now employ about 13.5 million workers who are uninsured. Key elements of the legislation: It would provide small businesses with tax credits to help …
Read More
Oeko-Tex educates textile and apparel manufacturers

June 1, 2008  |  Management

More than 7,500 textile and apparel manufacturers now have their products tested and certified according to Oeko-Tex Standard 100, and the number continues to grow. In order to continue to provide comprehensive information about the advantages and use of the standard in assuring consumers that mater…
Read More
Marine shops sail with CAD systems

May 1, 2008  |  Business, Features, Marine

Speed. Accuracy. Replication. This is what you hear when you talk to marine fabricators about CAD (Computer-Aided Design) systems. The time from concept to finished product is faster than ever before. Modification is minimal, if not completely eliminated. Fit is perfect the first time, repeating a p…
Read More
Green roof manufacturers incorporate sustainable products

May 1, 2008  |  Business, Markets

If it looks green, smells green and feels green, it must be green. Right? The answer, it turns out, is more complex. It is common knowledge that green technology has large positive environmental impacts: large-scale energy savings, runoff reduction and heat reduction among their chief assets. As gre…
Read More
Rosania takes a risk to expand products and improve processes

May 1, 2008  |  Advanced Textiles, Features, Management, Marketing, Perspective

Sometimes the greatest risk and greatest opportunity for a company is in daring to imagine a different way of doing business. By Sigrid Tornquist “It’s easy to talk about change. It’s much more difficult to implement it,” says Robert Rosania, IFM, CPP, and CEO of Ehmke Manufacturing Co. Inc.…
Read More
Positive strategies create competitive businesses

May 1, 2008  |  Marketing

They cut your profits, bid for your jobs and entice your best customers with special deals and useless gimmicks. Those Other Guys. Whether your head-to-head competitors do business across town or across the ocean, their successes can bring you anxious days and sleepless nights if they’re coming at…
Read More
Tax savings for ADA compliance

March 1, 2008  |  Management

It has been 17 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. Although many specialty fabric products businesses still fall short when it comes to making their businesses—and their business premises—ADA compliant, others have used the financial and tax incentives crea…
Read More