As demand grows for cars with gas-sipping, hybrid or electric engines, so grows the demand for other vehicle parts made with less fossil fuel, sustainable raw materials and improved performance features. The Lenzing Group, Austrian manufacturer of TENCEL® cellulose fibers, aims to reinvent automotive materials with new applications for the fibers, derived from eucalyptus wood. [...]

A new line of sleeves developed by Rickshaw Bagworks Inc., San Francisco, Calif., for the MacBook Air® and IPad® tablet uses rugged INVISTA CORDURA® brand fabric to protect these high-tech tools. The sleeves feature American-made 1000D CORDURA Classic nylon fabric exterior, lightweight foam padding and felt plush lining. “Style, light weight and durability are equally [...]

In 1770, explorer James Cook and his crew on the Endeavor landed at Botany Bay, becoming the first Europeans to visit the Australian continent. In celebration of the event, MakMax Australia of Brisbane, custom manufacturer of shade sails and structures, joined Fleming’s Nurseries and Ian Barker Garden Design to create the Trailfinders Australian Garden for [...]

The Neenan Company, an architecture and construction business in Fort Collins, Colo., invited its employees to enter a contest to create a portable, biodegradable, recyclable or sustainably produced festival tent for the launch of the first Eco Music (EMU) festival in Snowmass, Co. The winner, Ben Shepard, a 3D animator with Neenan, excited EMU organizers [...]

When improperly identified and packaged electronics or undeclared hazardous materials end up in the cargo hold of freighter aircraft, a spontaneous fire is the worst-case scenario. AmSafe® Industries Inc., Phoenix, Az., manufacturer of safety and security products, recently introduced a cargo pallet cover that can contain a pallet fire with temperatures of up to 1,500 [...]

What happens when a near legendary American artist and an acclaimed Spanish engineer-architect decide to collaborate? “Stella & Calatrava: The Michael Kohlhaas Curtain,” a bold, stylistically unconventional mixed media work installed in Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, designed by Mies Van der Rohe. Calatrava initially approached Stella about working together on a project that would reflect their [...]

By Galynn Nordstrom Business events and trade shows offer one of the best opportunities to make yourself known within your profession or industry. The converse is equally important: trade shows offer a unique opportunity to get to know people in your industry—the professional contacts who can help you become more successful. If you go in [...]

Fisher Textiles has added GF 901 Glossy Canvas to its line of grand-format fabrics for latex, solvent and UV printing. Fabric is 11.25 ounce per square yard, available at 104 inches wide, and is 65 percent polyester and 35 percent cotton. Two acrylic latex primer basecoats and a glossy solvent inkjet-receptive topcoat present a glossy [...]

Finestra® Decorative Hardware has introduced Aria™, a new line of fashionable metal hardware for contemporary style. The line of fixed-length drapery poles includes eight finial designs in nine fashion-forward finishes, including brushed black nickel, brushed nickel and satin nickel. Accessories include matching rings with eyelet or clip attachments, turned single and double brackets, holdbacks and [...]

Compiled by Juli Case What’s the best type of material to use to make an asphalt tarp? The fabric you use is generally a matter of preference. We’ve seen cotton, vinyl coated and the polyolefins (polypropylene or polyethylene) being used for this application. Asphalt is, of course, delivered hot. The advantage to cotton is that [...]