Survey reveals China’s growing desire for green products

January 9, 2013  |  Industry News

Chinese consumers express greater confidence in green products than North American consumers. A survey released in December by DuPont revealed a growing understanding of green products among urban Chinese consumers. Seventy percent of respondents expressed confidence in the environmental claims of g…
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Transhield supplies U.S. Army with covers

January 4, 2013  |  Advanced Textiles, Industry News

Transhield, Inc. has been awarded a contract to supply 120 protective covers for MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. The covers were purchased by U.S. Army Strategic Logistics Activity Charleston (ASLAC) to maintain readiness for MRAPs being placed into prepositioned stocks. The…
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Material movement: chairs that hug, walls that talk

January 2, 2013  |  Industry News, Projects

Ask Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) assistant professor Neri Oxman what the world will look like in 20 years, and her vision might astound many. “We’re going from an information era to a material era,” she says. “Information will be embedded in the material itself…
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History repeats itself at IFAI Expo

January 1, 2013  |  News

To help celebrate 100 years of existence, IFAI designed an exhibition—printed on fabric (of course!) By Bruce N. Wright The Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), publisher of this magazine, held its annual convention in Boston, in early November. The event marked the culmination…
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Intelligent textiles muscle up

January 1, 2013  |  News

A new hybrid yarn 10 times smaller than a human hair can lift more than 100,000 times its own weight and generate 85 times higher mechanical output than natural skeletal muscles. This discovery by researchers at the University of Wollongong ARC Centre for Excellence in Electromaterials Science (ACES…
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Top-coated for architecture

January 1, 2013  |  News

Seaman Corp. has two new additions to its architectural product line: Shelter-Rite® Brite™ fabrics with two high-end top coats, Kynar® fluoropolymer (Arkema) and Tedlar® fluoropolymer (DuPont). The top coats, combined with the proven high-strength Shelter-Rite base fabric, offer su…
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Growth for carbon fiber composites market

January 1, 2013  |  Industry News, Markets

A joint study by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Munich, Germany, and the VDMA Forum Composite Technology, Frankfurt, Germany, predicts a bright future for high-strength carbon fiber components, a market projected to grow 17 percent per year until 2020. Demand for lightweight, high strength comp…
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Automotive industry expands textile uses

January 1, 2013  |  Industry News, Markets

A report by industry research group Textiles Intelligence, “Automotive Fabrics: Expanding Opportunities in the Vehicles of Tomorrow,” traces the increasing application of fabric components in auto manufacturing—a trend likely to spur growth in the future. In 2000, the average weigh…
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Lasers and biotech for sustainable design

January 1, 2013  |  Industry News

Chemicals are routinely used in traditional dyeing, bleaching, printing and fabric-finishing techniques, which use large amounts of water and energy. De Monfort University (DMU) in Leicester and Loughborough University in Leicestershire, U.K., have recently launched research on using laser and enzym…
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Faster electrospinning for nanofibers

January 1, 2013  |  Industry News

The U.S. Department of Commerce provided $2.3 million to Arsenal Medical Inc., Watertown, Mass., to accelerate production of core-sheath (concentrically layered) nanofibers with features that help release targeted therapeutic molecules in medical applications. At the fall meeting of The Fiber Societ…
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