Sandler AG celebrated its 130th anniversary in Schwarzenbach/Saale on May 15, with many high-profile guests from business, politics and society. Official speaker Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany’s Federal Minister of Economics, recognized the achievements of the family-owned company and its employees, citing its innovation-oriented corporate policies. The anniversary was hailed as a success for both the [...]

London-based , Fiberweb PLC, a manufacturer of specialty nonwovens, has acquired a 50 percent interest in Coroner Composites GmbH from its German joint venture partner Nordenia International AG. Coroner Composites manufactures nonwoven fabric and film composites for medical drapes at the Fiberweb facility in Peine, Germany. The acquisition is part of a plan by Fiberweb [...]

Texas Tech University, Waco, Texas, recently received a patent for its nonwoven toxic chemical decontamination wipe, Fibertect™, from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Fibertect, evaluated with several other decontamination products in December 2008 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, wiped the competition; it out-performed 30 different products on dangerous chemicals such as mustard gas. [...]

Three professors from the University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K., have developed a unique dyeing process that creates colored polymers inside textile fibers via a catalyst, and have formed a new company, DyeCat Ltd., to market the technology. “Simple colorless molecules, some derived from natural starting materials, are linked together by a novel catalyst,” says Dr. [...]

After opening a production facility in China last year, nylon yarn manufacturer Nilit®, Migdal Ha’emek, Israel, took another step toward a global network with the acquisition of Nylstar Inc. and its Martinsville, Va., plant. As part of the acquisition, former Nylstar president Basil B. (Sonny) Walker will be also preside over the new entity, Nilit [...]

In 2006, Rainier Industries, Seattle, Wash., developed a sustainability plan, and in 2008 launched a formal environmental management system. Now, in 2009, the company has received ISO-14001 certification to confirm its commitment to environmental stewardship. Rainier, a producer of fabric shelters, awnings, displays and other products, uses many strategies to minimize its impacts on the [...]

The textile industry represents approximately 12 percent of Portugal’s exports and employs more than 180,000 workers, but has been hard hit in the current world economic slowdown. The Portuguese government has announced a support package of $1.2 billion in financing for the beleaguered industry, including providing bank credit with the state guaranteeing 50 percent of [...]