The 2019 OFPANZ Awards for Excellence Winners

December 1, 2019  |  Awards, OFPANZ Awards for Excellence

This year, 11 projects were recognized as winners in the 2019 Awards for Excellence competition hosted by the Outdoor Fabric Products Association of New Zealand (OFPANZ). The contest offers OFPANZ members a chance to showcase design excellence, technical skill and innovation to other members and the…
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Want a smart fabric? Print it.

December 1, 2019  |  Swatches

What if you could create a smart fabric in just minutes—one that can store energy? Scientists at RMIT University in Australia have developed the technology to make this possible. They’ve developed a laser-printing process to rapidly fabricate textiles that are embedded with energy storage device…
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Future history

December 1, 2019  |  Editorial

On Sept. 12, 1912, 14 manufacturers of canvas and awnings from the central part of the U.S. met at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver to form a new trade association: the National Tent & Awning Manufacturers Association. By 1915, membership had grown sufficiently that the group decided to form a c…
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Training canines with vibrating vests

December 1, 2019  |  Swatches

Haptics is the technology of touch. It’s all about understanding how to use the senses of touch and motion to convey meaning, direction or a command. A research team at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is using haptic technology to train our four-legged friends to respond to nonverbal…
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Sun-powered, citizen-funded LightSail 2 in orbit

December 1, 2019  |  Swatches

Scientists at The Planetary Society have demonstrated the power of solar energy with a spacecraft that orbits the earth fueled solely by sunlight. The LightSail 2 was developed for a CubeSat, a small, standardized satellite about the size of a loaf of bread that hitches a ride to space with larger p…
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Permanent Side Hustles: Turn one-time gigs into long-term revenue streams

December 1, 2019  |  Features

by Jeff Moravec For many people, the so-called gig economy has created an entirely new way to make a living. The idea of side hustles may strike many fabricators as familiar—just with a new name. It’s not difficult to find fabricators who started a business with a narrow, well-defined specialty,…
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New test methods are needed for medical textiles

December 1, 2019  |  Advanced Textiles, Markets

by Matthew Hardwick, ph.D. The spread of infection is a concern for all of us, but nowhere is it more concerning than in health care. The spread of infection both to and from medical environments is an ever-present problem in hospitals and clinics around the world. Numerous resources are being dedic…
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Powerful grommet setting

December 1, 2019  |  Products

The ClipsShop® CS-TIDY-51 Pneumatic Grommet Machine is a compact, portable press that produces 1,895 pounds of force at 87 psi for setting large self-piercing grommets and X-large curtain eyelets including #12 (40 mm I.D. eyelets). Fully portable for attaching metal grommets to oversize fabrication…
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Curated marine collection

December 1, 2019  |  Products

The Marine Upholstery Collection is a curated line of products designed to provide the best selection of fabric options for any marine upholstery project. From new, top-of-the-line fabrics to trusted and proven brands, products included in the collection were specifically chosen because they meet or…
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Shiny signage

December 1, 2019  |  Products

With a glossy surface and a pigment-coated white back for complete opacity, GF4022 Nirvana Purity Shine® is a shiny soft signage fabric for frontlit framing systems. The newest addition to the Nirvana® line of fabrics, the product offers a two-in-one solution for dye sublimation and UV-printable f…
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