[Buckminster Upholstery] Falls City, Neb. A customer of Buckminster Upholstery wanted to redo three old chairs to use in a home theater. The company set about a complete restoration by refinishing exposed wood, including the beautiful grooved and curved trim over the arms and on the front of the chairs. New springing and padding were [...]

[CYA Canvas] Helena, Mont. For a wilderness dogsled race, a musher and team of 16 dogs traveled more than 100 miles a day over wilderness mountains, rivers, tundra and sea ice. A dogsled bag by CYA Canvas was designed to carry a specified amount of food, water, supplies and survival gear for the musher and [...]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 office recently honored the OMNOVA Solutions Fitchburg, Mass., specialty chemical facility with an Environmental Merit Award. The Fitchburg facility reduced its consumption of natural gas, electricity and water by one-third in five years, while also reducing its own emissions. The plant also donated more than $27,000 annually [...]

The red dot product design competition gathers more than 14,000 participants from 70 nations to vie for the approval of design experts. Leister Technologies AG, a Swiss manufacturer of plastic welding and hot air equipment, submitted the TRIAC AT, a hot air tool, to the competition. Product criteria include innovation, creativity, functionality, ease of use [...]

Seatbelts save lives, and the conventional three-point seatbelt reduces the risk of serious head injury in frontal crashes by 45-75 percent. Other crash types, such as side impact or rollover accidents, pose different problems, so Autoliv Inc., Stockholm, Sweden, has developed a two-point shoulder seatbelt that helps hold the shoulder not restrained by the three-point [...]

Cortina and Siena, two PVC-free, 100-percent recyclable solar-protection fabrics manufactured by Mermet, Cowpens, S.C., have received Cradle-to-Cradle silver certification. Cradle-to-Cradle CertifiedCM products meet criteria for human safety, environmental health, design for future use and sustainable manufacturing. Certified products are recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building [...]

Duro Textiles LLC, Fall River, Mass., is working on an exclusive commercial agreement with Alexium International Group to license Alexium’s novel flame retardant (FR) treatment for nylon and other synthetics. Duro’s military products include light to heavyweight fabrics used in ponchos, tents and uniforms, and the Alexium FR treatment can add value to these products. [...]

In the fight against surgical site infections (SSIs), two companies—3M, St. Paul, Minn., and Sage Products, Cary, Ill.—have joined forces to create a pre-op antiseptic kit that targets three main reservoirs of bacteria. The patient’s own bacteria cause most SSIs, and the Nose to Toes™ kit reduces bacteria from the nose, mouth and skin that [...]

Developments in fabrics and fibers offering advanced and multiple functionalities continue to drive the industry. By Michael Kutsenko, Ph.D. What are the most exciting or intriguing developments in the industry in advanced textiles? While we all want to see rapid development of intelligent textiles, it is the creation of multifunctional fibers and fabrics that is [...]

Suppliers that want customers to know that their products are tested by accredited labs using accepted test methods can have impartial third-party verification, now that ASTM International offers a new program: Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity. The suppliers register information with ASTM about the product and the results of the ASTM tests that have been run [...]