Most high-school students don’t get to send their class experiments into outer space, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent four projects into the stratosphere on weather balloons to test theories. The winning project in the Balloonsat High Altitude Flight Competition, submitted by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, [...]

New opportunities in billboards and building wraps combine specialty fabrics with dazzling digital effects. By Holly O’Dell Outdoor advertising is big business. In 2009, advertisers spent $5.9 billion on signage—and more than $3.8 billion of that was on billboards alone. As businesses seek new opportunities to make their brands stand out, the sign industry is [...]

Hand injuries make up 47 percent of injuries incurred during space walks, and current glove design may be responsible for astronauts losing fingernails (delamination) and developing infections in exposed nail beds. Gloves are pressurized, creating blisters and friction. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study of hand injuries, published in the journal Aviation, Space, and [...]

In our September 2010 issue, we featured information about Zetix, a blast mitigation fabric from Advanced Fabric Technologies in Houston, Texas. Since the articles were written, the name of that product has been changed to Xtegra™ after legal action was taken by Newtex Industries Inc. concerning the tradename. Newtex makes Zetex® and ZetexPlus® textiles, used [...]

Infestations of bedbugs are bad news for homeowners, hotel chains and even movie theaters, but have generated booming business for American Textile Co., Duquesne, Pa., manufacturer of mattress, box spring and pillow protectors that are bedbug-proof. An estimated 35,000 stores nationwide carry the products, including Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond and Macy’s, among others. American [...]

The Trützschler GmbH & Co. KG, Mönchengladbach, Germany, has restructured the management team for Trützschler Nonwovens, blending new and established leaders in a move to offer successful technologies to producers of nonwoven and technical textiles worldwide. The new CEO, Leen Osterloh, assumed the lead role in September 2010 after serving as chief financial officer at [...]

Atlas® Material Testing Technology LLC, Chicago, Ill., and Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Camas, Wash., will host a technical conference in Shanghai, China, on December 7-8 on new development in the use of photovoltaic (PV) cells for solar power. PV Durability Asia will focus attention on environmental durability, performance and service life of materials, components and PV [...]

As wind turbines spring up across the world, the search is underway to make sustainable wind power sources more efficient. Owens Corning, Toledo, Ohio, launches a high-performance fabric for wind turbine blades in January 2011 that will allow designers to remove a metric ton of weight from a 2.0 megawatt wind turbine that normally would [...]

A composite polymer material that is fluid at rest but hardens on impact, like a cornstarch solution, is being explored by scientists at the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) for use in body armor and sports padding. The material dissipates the impact of falls, injuries [...]

Construction activities in watery environments stir up sediments that can release stored pollutants; clog waterways; and are expensive to store, treat or remove. Blue Boar Contracts, Midlands, England, had a national dredging contract with British Waterways to deepen canals—and extract tons of sediment slurry for removal. The company called on Sedi-filter, a dewatering solution manufactured [...]