Outdoor fabrics: School spirit via banners, tarps and more

August 31, 2023  |  Markets, Product Trends

When high schools and colleges resume classes every fall, outdoor sports are underway too. Fabrics play a key role in training and in the way stadiums and other sports facilities look.
Getting new products manufactured and into the marketplace

August 1, 2023  |  Advanced Textiles, Markets

This year’s Smart Fabric Summit was again organized by the Advanced Textiles Association (ATA) and the Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University (NC State) in Raleigh, N.C., and took place in April on the NC State campus. A full schedule of education, student project presentation…
The future landscape of the workforce

August 1, 2023  |  Business, Markets

Organizations need to be thinking about tomorrow and, more specifically, how the future of work, the workforce and the workplace will be dramatically different from what we know today. And more important, from what it has been in the past.
The role of fabric, shade in reducing embodied carbon

August 1, 2023  |  Markets, Product Trends

By now it is standard baseline that all architects have an existential and fundamental need to begin all projects they design with the knowledge that the built environment contributes around 40% of embodied carbon to the environment. The future of the profession and indeed of the Earth must be kept …
Is it the end of polyester (as we know it)?

July 1, 2023  |  Advanced Textiles, Markets

Where would we be without polyester? Fibers created from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are ubiquitous in our apparel, home furnishings, automotive, filtration and personal care industries. In 2021, they represented 57.57% of the global fiber market, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight t…
Reducing microplastics: Research and what we can do now

July 1, 2023  |  Industry in Focus, Markets

When synthetic textiles and clothing are washed—at both the industrial and the personal level—they shed small plastic particles known as microfibers that make their way into our ecosystem. Microfibers make up more than a third of the type of pollution in our oceans called microplastics, as estim…
Interest in reupholstering rises following the pandemic

July 1, 2023  |  Markets, Product Trends

Growing demand, using environmentally friendly materials and finding ways to address the labor shortage are some of the market trends and challenges upholsterers are seeing in their industry.
ANDRITZ acquires Dan-Web

June 15, 2023  |  Advanced Textiles, Markets

International technology group ANDRITZ has signed an agreement with Dan-Web Machinery A/S based in Galten, Denmark, to take over 100% of its shares.
Smart fabric helps the body heal itself

June 1, 2023  |  Advanced Textiles, Markets

The health and wellness market has been among the first to embrace advances in smart yarns and to take advantage of the versatility of engineered textiles. Supreme Corp., a producer of high-tech textiles and electrically conductive yarn and sewing thread, has created a revolutionary fabric called Th…
Awnings encourage natural light and offer shade protection

June 1, 2023  |  Markets, Product Trends

Natural light can help reduce energy usage in our buildings. This is a lesson known for centuries but seemingly forgotten after the 1940s with postwar technological advances in air conditioning (coupled with the Modernist design movement that declared “ornament is a crime”). These stripped-down …