Posted April 26, 2017

 

By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)

 

ATLANTA – The International Society of Industrial Fabric Manufacturers (ISIFM), now in its 43rd year of existence, attracted nearly 100 industry professionals to its two-day Spring Meeting here recently.

 

The organization, which began as a small group of tire fabric converters, has grown and expanded through the years and now counts a number of diverse industry sector representatives among its ranks.

 

Keynoting the event was Hailide America’s Torry Losch, ISIFM’s immediate past president, and Mike Hall of sister company TSI Yarns, Martinsville, Va. Losch’s topic was “Advancements and Innovation in the Air Jet Textured Yarn Market.”

 

Hamilton International, based here, was founded by Art Hamilton in 2007, Losch said. And Hailide America, also headquartered here, is a joint venture established between Hamilton International and Zhejiang Hailide New Material Co, Ltd. Hailide America markets and distributes polyester industrial yarn for China-based Zhejiang Hailide throughout North America for tire cords, airbags, coated fabrics, geo-synthetics and rope/webbing.

 

“Hamilton International purchased TSI Yarns in June 2016 for synergies downstream in air-jet texturing,” said Losch, Hailide America’s sales director.

 

The automotive market represents 48 percent of Hailide America’s business, with tire accounting for 47 percent of that segment, seatbelt 40 percent and airbag 13 percent Losch said.

 

Hailide America, with a presence in seven U.S. cities from coast to coast, makes high-tenacity polyester used in transportation, elastomer reinforcements, narrow fabrics, broad fabrics, linear tension members and energy, he added.

 

Meanwhile, Hall, TSI’s vice president of sales and marketing, covered, “TSI Yarns: Innovators in Air Texturing, Commingled and Interlaced Yarns.” Established in 1987, the company currently employs 47 people and uses an air-jet texturing process developed nearly 50 years ago, he said.

 

“Air texturing yarns offer an entirely different look and hand to any fabric,” he said.

 

Three new and innovative yarn families have been developed and are being introduced into all textile markets in air textured, commingled and interlaced forms, Hall said. They include:

 

• Tensa™ – providing a true “spun-yarn” look and feel with increased performance;

• Sentas™ – which provide cotton-like softness with increased abrasion resistance in warp knitting, circular knitting and woven applications; and

• Diversa™ – mélange-type combinations adding both style and performance for multiple markets.

 

Picanol tackles technical fabrics

 

Cyril Guerin, president of Picanol of America, Greenville, S.C., presented an overview of the company’s weaving machine offerings for tire cord, chafer and conveyor belts. With its parent company based in Belgium, Picanol has focused on technical fabrics since 2000, he said.

 

Picanol has the latest machine platforms to weave technical fabrics, Guerin said, including the OptiMax-I (2016) rapier machine and the OMNI-Plus Summum (2012) airjet machine.

 

“Technical fabrics are important for Picanol,” Guerin said.

 

The company’s strengths in the market include its global presence, best price/performance ratio, a financially strong position and the biggest R&D budget in the business, he said.

 

Picanol’s history in tire cord dates back to 1968 when it developed a fly shuttle loom for this purpose. In 1992, the company delivered machine parts for the Guenne airjet machine and six years later acquired the Germany-based company, he pointed out. Production was moved from Germany to Belgium in 2009.

 

Picanol introduced the OMP-TC machine in 2002 and the updated OMP800-TC in 2006. Four years later, the company unveiled a 900 RPM airtucker feature on the machine with continuous reeds. He later noted the strengths of the OMP800-TC and the OmniPlus SUMMUM.

 

Guerin pointed out that the U.S. is the fourth largest producer of tire cord in number of machines installed worldwide.

 

“Most of that production is in China, but the U.S. is still very, very important, which gives us in Greenville a chance to be close to our customers in that market,” he said.

 

Chafer is an open, lightweight fabric used in most tires and mostly woven on Picanol OptiMax rapier machines, Guerin said. Conveyor belts are also woven on OptiMax machines, he added.

 

Aramid for high-performance tires

 

Botond Szalma, sales and business development manager at Teijin Aramid, Conyers, Ga., discussed “Opportunities with Hybrid Cord Reinforcements and Adhesion Activated Aramid.” The company, with 1,400 employees worldwide, produces three para-aramids, one meta-aramid and one polyethylene, he said.

 

“We have customers in many markets, including protection and defense, automotive, oil and gas and telecom,” he said.

 

Aramid can be used in just about any part of the tire, and the biggest market today is in high-performance tires – basically racecar tires, Szalma said.

 

“Why aramid?” he asked. “Because it has five times the ability of steel cord.”

Teijin’s brand of para-aramid, Twaron, offers a unique combination of material properties that make it suitable for many tire types, he said.

 

He went on to discuss tests conducted to compare full aramid to hybrid solutions in the tire market.

 

Economics and tax reform updates

 

Attendees also heard from Roger Tutterow, professor and director of the Econometric Center, Kennesaw State University, who provided an economic update; and Taylor Kiessig, counsel, Washington, D.C., and Tom Cullinan, partner, Atlanta, Ga., both of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP, who discussed corporate tax reform.

 

Tutterow, a frequent speaker at ISIFM’s Atlanta meeting, noted that the textile industry underperformed during the Great Recession and is currently static overall.

 

“Where we are today is essentially on the flat line year over year for textiles,” he said. “But given what we went through in much of the 1990s and 2000s, we’ll take that.”

 

Tutterow added that he is forecasting 2.2 percent GDP growth this year and asked, “is expansion getting tired?” and “is a recession around the corner?”

 

“We are getting a little bit long in the tooth,” he said. “I think expansions die because of inventory accumulation, bad economic policy and geo-political turmoil. The first quarter is one we’ll likely see some pretty weak growth because we’ll be selling more than we’re producing.”

 

He later added: “Here’s what allows me to sleep well at night. On a monthly basis, the Conference Board releases leading economic indicators (LEI). Last year I told you ‘two months up, one month down, two months up, one month now.’ The LEI was down last April and we were getting a little nervous. But it has surged back up in the last six months. The likelihood of a recession over the next several quarters remains relatively low.”