Make your next trade show the business opportunity it truly is. By Richard G. Ensman Jr. It’s that time of year: Your mailbox is filling up with those colorful mailings about your upcoming trade show, and you’re not sure whether to go or not. After all, it is expensive. First, there’s the cost of travel, [...]

Members of the Outdoor Fabric Products Association of New Zealand (OFPANZ) gathered in Auckland on July 3–5 for their annual conference, marking the 20th anniversary of OFPANZ’s founding in 1988 when fabricators from both the north and south islands were seeking a national entity. More than 200 industry representatives from all over New Zealand, as [...]

The American Association of Textile Chemists & Colorists (AATCC) will present “Medical, Nonwovens & Technical Textiles” October 6–7, 2008, at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham, N.C., U.S.A. The two-day program has been developed by AATCC’s Material Interest Group, and is being chaired by Dr. Philip J. Brown, Clemson University. Confirmed topics include next-generation carbon [...]

Nanotechnology may be a manufacturing revolution, but how environmentally responsible (and safe) will it be? In an article in ScienCentral News (produced by ScienCentral Inc. in collaboration with The Center for Science and the Media), technology monitoring firm Lux Research estimates that by the year 2015, the global output of goods using nanotechnology will be [...]

Awning makers use digital printers to adapt to changing industry By Janice Kleinschmidt In the natural world, the strength of a species lies in its diversity. In the business world, the strength of a company lies in its ability to serve customers. Like living organisms, diverse companies adapt to a changing environment in order to [...]

Flexibility, strength and adaptability are bringing textiles to the forefront of patient care, and concerns about safety are inspiring use beyond the hospital By Holly O’Dell Medical textiles present a wide variety of opportunities for manufacturers and applications for end users. As its name suggests, a medical textile—often used interchangeably with “healthcare textile”—is any textile [...]

Compiled by Juli Case What’s the difference between a linear yard and a lineal yard? Our guess is that someone is using the term ‘lineal’ when they really mean “linear.” Lineal is a word typically used more in a genealogical context, meaning someone is descended in a direct line from a particular ancestor. Linear is [...]

Compiled by Juli Case We’re working on a government bid and we need a lacquer that meets TT-50, Type II. Do you know where we can get it? The full designation of this specification is TT-L-50G, with the title Lacquer, Nitrocellulose, Acrylic and Acrylic Butyrate, Aerosol (in pressurized dispensers). Essentially this was a spray-on product, [...]

Compiled by Juli Case I have a customer in France who wants to know if the fabric I use to construct my yurts meets M1 and M2. The fabric we use is certified to California State Fire Marshal Title 19, NFPA 701 and CPAI-84. Will they meet the French certification? To the best of our [...]

Some of the new upholstered furniture styles use a waterfall or dressmaker type of skirt that is very wide. Where can we get a skirt liner that’s at least 30 inches wide? A skirt liner is used to give more body to the fabric, and the standard width is about 6 or 8 inches. We [...]