More than 270 amendments to a $325 highway bill titled the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 are being voted on this week by the U.S. House of Representatives. The amendment to Sec. 1431, “Use of Durable, Resilient, and Sustainable Materials and Practices,” offered by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), includes the addition of [...]

Safety Components Fabric Technologies Inc., Greenville, S.C., was awarded U.S. patent 9,121,131 on its technical outdoor fabric WeatherMAX™ 80, for which it also holds a Canadian patent. WeatherMAX 80 is made using 100 percent pigment solution-dyed SaturaMAX™ for maximum color retention. The water resistance comes from Safety Components' proprietary HydroMax™ finish and unique construction. This [...]

Presented by the Marine Fabricators Association (MFA), a division of ATA, the 2016 Marine Fabricators Conference will be held Jan. 14–16, 2016, at the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key in Clearwater, Fla. The early bird registration deadline is Nov. 16. The conference will include educational seminars on topics from sewing machines and attachments [...]

Scientists from the from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and Konkuk University in the Republic of Korea have developed wearable, graphene-coated fabrics that can detect dangerous gases present in the air, alerting the wearer by turning on an LED light. The researchers coated cotton and polyester yarn with a nanoglue called bovine serum albumin (BSA).

Milliken & Co., Spartanburg, S.C., recently made a donation of $100,000 to the American Red Cross to support the disaster relief efforts in South Carolina. In addition, Milliken employees in each of the company’s 37 U.S. facilities collected supplies during the month of October to be delivered to the Red Cross. “Over 4,000 Milliken associates [...]

The University of Minnesota’s current event series, Headliners, will offer “Stronger, Faster, Brighter: Wearable Technology and the Future of Clothing” Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Continuing Education and Conference Center. The series provides opportunities to meet with university experts as they share firsthand knowledge of current topics, from medical breakthroughs to social trends. [...]

In a joint German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) research project, the Deutsches Textilforschungszentrum Nord-West gGmbH (DTNW) in Krefeld and the Hohenstein Institute in Boennigheim studied new finishes for protective clothing for welders that would be repellent to splashes of molten metal. The goal was to improve the protective effect and the comfort, while [...]

Based in Madrid, Spain, Carpa 10 provides marquees for anything from corporate events to weddings to trade shows. The company recently presented a new logo to represent a rejuvenated, fresh and dynamic image as a symbol of its renewal of intentions.

Special Tactics Airmen from the 24th Special Operations Wing jump out of an MC-130H Talon II at Hurlburt Field, Fla., Jan. 7, 2015. The Airmen were from various special tactics career fields, including special operations weathermen, combat controllers, pararescuemen and tactical air control parties. The 24th SOW’s mission is to provide Special Tactics forces [...]

As the middle class grew, there was a corresponding increase in home construction and more interest in showing status through ownership of awning-bedecked cottages and bungalows as well as upper-class manses on the outskirts of town. Vivatone awning fabric was introduced to the market in 1926 and was used extensively during the 1930's. “The [...]