By Jill C. Lafferty Kurt Lisk watched the development of digital fabric graphics closely, but held off introducing the technology into his business until it was right for his product. “For us it became the right decision when they went to a direct-to-fabric print instead of a paper transfer,” Lisk says. “We were never happy [...]

By Janet Preus In 2009, Mexico City joined San Francisco, Calif.; Mumbai, New Delhi; and hundreds of other cities in banning plastic shopping bags. Entire countries are turning around our dependence on them, either with outright bans or, like Ireland, charging people to use them. The United States still is using around 100 billion plastic [...]

Green roofs and walls, firmly planted in geotextiles, are a growing market. By Frank Edgerton Martin Jeffrey Bruce, FASLA, recalls that when he first came to Kansas City, Mo., from New Jersey as a young landscape architect, he drove out west into Kansas to see the plains. As the sun was setting, the immensity of [...]

The state of the race in photovoltaics and composites. By Marie O’Mahony If you want to stay abreast of future trends in solar, engineered and composite materials, you may want to tune in to a car race—the World Solar Challenge® in Australia. The race, in which solar racecars speed 1,864 miles through the Australian Outback, [...]

Textiles Intelligence Ltd., Wilmslow, England, issued its 2009 edition of the “World Textile and Apparel Trade and Production Trends: the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico” in November, and the Americas are hurting. American consumer demand for clothing and footwear fell by 1.1 percent in 2008 and declined more in the first half of 2009, [...]

Cable television series “Money Matters TV” recently featured independent money managers interviewing Dr. James Chan, president of Asia Marketing and Management, about how to work with Chinese businesses and markets. Now Malvern Press Ltd., Essex, England, has compiled a 60-minute DVD of the broadcast interviews with Chan titled “Secrets of Business Success in China.” Business [...]

Paula A. Calderon, managing director of Caribbean Awning Production Co. Ltd. in St. Lucia, was elected president of the St. Lucia Manufacturers Association (SMA) at their recent annual meeting in October. Calderon was featured in a “perspective” interview in the July 2009 issue of Specialty Fabrics Review.

Gerald Lippman, a pioneer in the heat sealing industry, passed away on Nov. 16, 2009. Lippman was one of the early founders of Cosmos/Kabar, and opened his Thermo-Dielectric Machine Co. in the late 1950s, which later merged with High Tech Automation of Freeport, Long Island, New York. Son Glenn Lipmann founded Novaseal Corp. in Colorado [...]

Jeffrey P. Sponseller, executive vice president of sales and service for Miller Weldmaster, Navarre, Ohio, has been elected to his first three-year term on the Advanced Textiles Association (ATA) Board of Directors. Sponseller’s experience in industrial fabrics, sign graphics, thermoplastic welding and fabric handling will give him added credibility in representing the industry, as will [...]

The TMI Group, a manufacturer of flexible PVC products, has announced the appointment of Christian Nauman as director of sales. Nauman brings more than 10 years of sales management experience, including his recent position as director of strategic and security sales at BEA Inc., a supplier of commercial door sensor technology. He has a B.S. [...]