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Inventors share challenges of launching new products
November 1st, 2024
B&R Innovations’ Nick Deninno saw a safety need in how temporary structures are ballasted. Block and Roll® Tent Ballast Solutions® was his answer. Image: B&R Innovations LLC Inventing a new product can change an industry—but it isn’t easy. To go from the eureka moment to a finished product available for customers takes longer and costs […]
Textile recycling confronts hurdles of cost, scalability
August 1st, 2024
At the Sweden-based Siptex textile recycling facility, the sorting machines use near-infrared and visual spectroscopy to take mixed textile waste and sort the items by fiber type. These bales are ready for their next processing step, whether that’s chemical or mechanical recycling. Image: Siptex Textile waste is a massive problem throughout the world. The European […]
Outdoor shade and screens ride the storms out
June 1st, 2024
J. Miller Canvas worked with EPT Design on a 2,160 square-foot shade sail installation at the pre-K through eighth grade Pegasus School in Huntington Beach, Calif. Image: J. Miller Canvas LLC Extreme weather that whips up strong winds, releases torrents of rainfall and causes floods, droughts and other hazards is becoming more common, and businesses […]
Geosynthetics companies navigate the infrastructure law
April 1st, 2024
The Indiana Department of Transportation installs Petromat® Enviro™ on a section of Interstate 70 to provide a full pavement moisture barrier and stress absorption layer. Image: Solmax The $1.2 trillion bipartisan InfrastructureInvestment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was passed more than two years ago to invest in America’s crumbling infrastructure, providing funding to rebuild roads and […]
Harnessing technology makes custom work easier, faster
January 1st, 2024
House of Canvas created a sculpture with 24 sails linked together and suspended from a glass ceiling eight stories off the ground at a National Defence building in Ottawa, Canada. Tech advancements have allowed them to take on more complicated custom work than before. Images: House of Canvas Fabricators continually look for an edge in […]
Innovations in smart fabrics: Heating, cooling, bio-data collection and more via e-textiles
December 1st, 2023
A Loomia Electronic Layer (LEL) four-wire serpentine bus laminated onto knit fabric. The LEL was designed to be soft and flexible for use in smart textiles. Image: Loomia Technologies When is a jacket not just a jacket? When it can actually interact with the wearer’s body to warm or cool it or collect biometric information. […]
Safe travels: Airports zone in on geosynthetics
August 31st, 2023
The existing concrete runway was “rubble-ized” and reused below the new runway at Toronto Pearson Airport, saving time and carbon emissions. Photo: Tensar Airport runways are not the same as roads. They need to be built smoother and stronger to support the loads of jet planes without buckling under the weight, which is no small […]
Mar Ricketts and Guildworks soar to new heights
March 1st, 2023
Photography by Mark Skalny Growing up in Maryland, Mar Ricketts liked flying kites and architecture, two interests that continue to influence him today. Ricketts is the principal and founder of GuildWorks LLC, a full-service design, specification, fabrication and installation company that creates permanent and temporary tension and fabric structures. As unlikely as it may seem, […]
The science behind military uniforms
October 1st, 2022
Soldiers assigned to Chaos Company, 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division dismount an M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle during a squad live-fire exercise at Drawsko Pomorskie, Poland, July 13, 2022. The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division is among other units assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, […]