Features

With another producer of polyurethane-coated fabric signing-up to its Insqin Partner Manufacturer Program, Covestro continues to promote and develop sustainable materials in several sectors, including automotive interiors, reports Geoff Fisher from Shanghai, China.

Throughout 2015, capacity expansions and related investments were announced by a succession of UK manufacturers of reinforcement fabrics and prepregs as the basis for composite parts. Adrian Wilson reports on these measures and comments on the effects they are having.

Suppliers to the absorbent hygiene products industry increasingly need global scale, argues Adrian Wilson. This need is behind the creation of the world’s largest manufacturer of nonwovens and related plastic packaging and components.

An award-winning project (At-Sea) that developed textiles for the large-scale cultivation of seaweed has now led to the formation of a company that aims to sell turnkey seaweed farms. Niki Tait investigates on behalf of Technical Textiles International.

Frank Morese, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Olea Sensor Networks, explains the background to radar’s new role in biometrics and wearables.

Adrian Wilson surveys the applications for nonwoven filter media in the manufacturing industries – including metal fabrication, energy generation and biopharmaceuticals – and concludes that the potential is vast.

Using the examples of three bridges – one each in Vietnam, Taiwan and the USA – Adrian Wilson illustrates the wide variety of applications that civil engineers are now discovering for technical textiles in construction projects.

In December 2015 Cytec opened an application centre to develop high-volume methods for the production of composite parts. Editor James Bakewell paid a visit. 

With more than 100 000 health apps, rapid growth in wearables and 70% of the UK population now owning a smartphone, digital technology looks set to revolutionize the future of health and social care, according to a recent report from Deloitte.

In 2015, the ITMA textile machinery show, which has been held every four years around European cities since 1951, went fully digital. In Milan on 12–18 November at ITMA 2015, complete automation of manufacturing lines based on the latest advanced drives was a given, with apps introduced by many companies for full control of manufacturing technologies at any time and from anywhere.