Posted: May 14 at 7:14 a.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. — About a decade ago, Steve Michielsen was like a lot of inventors. He had a great idea, no money and only a vague plan for how to unleash his genius on the world. This week, a specially treated fabric is rolling off machines that will be used to make face masks that Michielsen thinks will kill virtually any human or animal virus on contact.

LAAMScience, a member of SPPD, has been actively working with on a variety of applications for this exciting new product. If you are interested in more information about this ground-breaking invention, contact CEO Chris Price at christopher.price@laamscience.com  or (919) 428-0220. Visit their website at www.laamscience.com.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/2879320/

Fort Mill, SC, March 24, 2008 - Kuraray America, Inc., a worldwide specialty materials manufacturer, will feature Vectran HT and exhibit a diverse portfolio of advanced fibers and nonwovens at Techtextil North America (Booth 1803), April 1-3, 2008. The company will highlight Vectran HT, a high-tenacity fiber that is increasingly being used by product designers and engineers as a possible alternative to aramid fibers.

Read the news here: http://www.textileweb.com/content/news/article.asp?DocID=%7BE49B22DA-38F0-48B2-9053-8A4CC5063967%7D&Bucket=Current+Headlines

Engineered Yarns Company Announces Name Change to EY Technologies

March 3, 2008, FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS, USA — Engineered Yarns Company, a manufacturer of industrial and composite yarns, is pleased to announce that it has changed its name to EY Technologies effective immediately. The name change reflects the company’s venture into technical textiles.

As the materials technology industry evolves, EY Technologies has shifted its focus to new technologies and smart fibers. Read the full announcement here.

Fenner PLC, a world leader in reinforced polymer technology, has purchased the shares of Prodesco.

See the news: http://www.fenner.com/servlet/HsPublic?context=ir.access&ir_option=RNS_NEWS&item=59534689174085&ir_client_id=276

Global market for advanced protective gear and armor worth $4.5 billion by 2012.

The U.S. market for advanced fire protective clothing, armor, biological/chemical protective clothing, respirators, gloves, and other ancillary protective gear will grow from $3.3 billion in 2007 to more than $4.5 billion by 2012, a compound average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6 percent.

Link to the Military & Aerospace article here:  http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/310683/32/ARTCL/none/EXECW/1/Global-market-for-advanced-protective-gear-and-armor-worth-$45-billion-by-2012/?pc=ENL

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the procurement activity for the Department of Defense, announced that Ehmke Manufacturing Company, Inc. of Philadelphia is the recipient of the 2007 Innovative Business Performer of the Year for HUBZone Small Business. Ehmke was nominated for this honor by Defense Supply Center Philadelphia. See the press release here.

The Boeing Company (Chicago, IL.) has named Ehmke Manufacturing Company, Inc. of Philadelphia the recipient of the 2007 Performance Excellence Award. Ehmke is chosen to receive this award from an international supplier base of approximately 10,000 companies and will be recognized by the Boeing Company at the company’s 2008 Boeing Global Supplier Conference to be held in San Diego, CA. on April 17, 2008. Read more here.

Japanese scientists have proven that spider silk can be produced in commercial quantities - read the latest in the evolution of spider silk at this link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3026488.ece

This research has paired spider genes with silkworms, rather than goats, creating a more manageable source of spider silk.   

The idea of an object that can render a person invisible has been a staple of fiction and mythology for eons, according to a recent posting on ScienceCentral.com. But for about the past year, physicists and materials scientists have been publishing papers that reveal real progress in turning science fiction into fact.

The landmark announcement came in October 2006 when David R. Smith's team at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering published a paper in the journal Science announcing that they had created a device capable of rendering objects invisible to a small bandwidth of microwave beams. The first working "invisibility cloak" was actually a small ring of concentric circles made from precisely arranged "metamaterials".

Metamaterials are constructed in a laboratory from nano-sized elements, and the size, shape, and pattern of elements gives them the ability to interact with electromagnetic waves such as microwaves and visible light differently from ordinary materials. In this case, they exhibited a low refractive index, which allowed researchers to create a structure that guides microwaves around a "cloaked" object and past it. The reflection and shadow of the object is minimal, and so the object becomes effectively transparent to that wavelength.

The ability to hide things from microwaves could give a boost to radar cloaking technology, and metamaterials that can bend microwaves and radio waves in odd ways have already lead to improvements in wireless antenna technology.  

This YouTube show illustrates the idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLbS3M4V7oI

The new European Union law, Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH), has been in effect since June 1, 2007. It is part of a larger EU strategy to drive industry toward more sustainable use of resources and greater control of environmental impacts.

REACH now requires that all chemicals that are manufactured in or imported into the EU in quantities of one metric ton or more per producer or importer per year must be tested for health and safety and registered with the European Chemicals Agency, a newly formed central authority located in Helsinki, Finland.

Read more at this link:   http://global.ihs.com/news/govmil/aviation_defense_enewsletter/dec07_3.html

Thinking of new products? I ran across this article in TerraDaily (www.terradaily.com) and saw the similarity with e-textiles. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Contact_Lenses_With_Circuits_Lights_A_Possible_Platform_For_Superhuman_Vision_999.html

Subcommittees of ASTM International Committee F23 on Personal Protective Clothing and Equipment are developing two proposed standards to protect health care workers and others from hypodermic needle punctures and contact with chemotherapy drugs.

Subcommittee F23.20 (Physical), chaired by Cliff Richardson of HDM (a SPPD member company) is developing WK15392, Test Method for Protective Clothing Material Resistance to Hypodermic Needle Puncture.   

Subcommittee F23.30 (Chemicals) is working on WK15563, Specification for Protective Clothing to Be Used against Chemotherapy Drugs.

For more information, see http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/52901/

10 January 2008

Peratech Limited is pleased to announce it successfully completed the acquisition of the business of Eleksen from Deloittes (appointed as Administrator of Eleksen plc and Eleksen Limited).

Eleksen had developed a wide and impressive range of textile fabric sensors - used in the manufacture of 'smart clothing' and consumer electronic products such as the Eleksen Bluetooth Fabric Keyboard. Eleksen's proprietary and patent protected 'ElekTex®' touch sensitive fabric materials had gained wide acclaim and their systems for controlling consumer electronic devices such as the Apple iPod™, mobile phones and PDA's had made them the 'industry standard' in intelligent textile controls.

Read the full announcement:  http://www.eleksen.com/?page=news/index.asp&newsID=83

Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar, who serves as the co-chairman of INDA's India Committee, has been recognized as one of the Top 20 under 40 Young Professionals of Greater Lubbock, Texas. Dr. Ramkumar's achievements in inventing a new nonwoven military wipe and organizing Indo-US collaborative conferences were duly recognized with this award.  Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar is currently an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University, USA.

Dr. Ramkumar, since 2004, has been making efforts to bridge India and USA to grow the nonwoven and technical textile industry base in India. He annually conducts international conferences in India to enhance the profile of India in technical textiles. He is active in India and serves as a good ambassador by promoting research, exchanges and conferences between India and USA. Most recently, he helped to organize an international business conference, "The Link with India," in Mumbai from October 16- 18, 2007. This conference endeavored to create awareness of the emerging field of technical textiles in India. Honorable Shri. Shankersinh Vaghela, Central Cabinet Minister for Textiles, India and Honorable Shri. E.V.K.S. Elangovan, Central Minister of State for Textiles, India inaugurated the conference which attracted 300 participants.

Dr. Ramkumar may be contacted at s.ramkumar@ttu.edu.  

The BBC has published a fine piece on carbon fibers - watch videos and listen to discussion of the spinning process and fiber potential at this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7038702.stm

Jeff Stull has several articles in Fire Rescue magazine concerning ensembles for firefighters. Check these stories:

• Part 1: http://www.firerescue1.com/Columnists/PPEupdate/articles/245718/
• Part 2: http://www.firerescue1.com/columnists/PPEupdate/articles/275510/

The University of Arizona has announced that a team of researchers from their college have sized down transistors to single molecule size - a breakthrough which will be published as the cover sotry in the ACS's Nano Letters. Read more here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060830215226.htm

This might have applications in industrial textiles. Is your company looking for new ideas? Contact UA physicists Sumit Mazumdar, David Cardamone and Charles Stafford and ask about their Quantum Interference Effect Transistor, nicknamed "QuIET."

Ever wish you could charge your cellphone or laptop in a few seconds rather than hours? As this ScienCentral News video explains, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a battery that could do just that, and also might never need to be replaced.  Read the whole story and watch the video here: http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392803

National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) NIOSH's National Personal Protection Technology Laboratory has completed a key phase of a project to develop new technology that will incorporate sensors into air-purifying respirator filter cartridges. The sensors are intended to provide a low-cost electronic system that will alert the user when 90 percent of a cartridge's capacity has been consumed, signaling the need to replace the cartridge. In the completed phase, researchers constructed a cartridge simulation device that accomodates sensors, and successfully evaluated the simulator against criteria used by NIOSH to test respirators for certification. Over the next six months, the laboratory will place sensors in the simulator and test them to determine if they function as expected. If those tests are successful, NIOSH will distribute sensors to eight respirator manufacturer companies that volunteered to pursue this collaborative research with NIOSH in response to a public notice in 2004. The manufacturers will integrate the sensors into their own cartridges, and return the integrated systems to NIOSH for testing and evaluation. For more information, contact Jay Snyder at JSnyder@cdc.gov. For more information about NPPTL, see http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl.

13 reasons why membership in a trade association is a good fit for you:

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Advantages your company can gain by Membership in SPPD

This is an industry association of specialty fabrics players - it's not a canvas club anymore!