Posted November 9, 2016
By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Under the theme, “Diverse Elements of the U.S. Textile Supply Chain: Leaders in Action,” the Fall Conference of the Synthetic Yarn and Fiber Association (SYFA) attracted more than 100 industry representatives here recently.
The diverse, two-day program featured speakers exploring a range of issues. Due to a conflict, eTC was unable to cover the second day of proceedings, but was there for the complete program on Day 1. First-day reviews are below.
SYFA conference explores ‘diverse elements’
A quick look at Texprocess Americas 2018
Wrapping up the day was Loui Redmann, product development manager at Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Volcom, LLC, a niche producer of skating clothes, snowboard wear, surfing apparel and street wear.
He showed a dynamic video featuring the toughness of its jeans and chinos for skateboarding and showcasing its partners, including fabric suppliers Cone Denim for denim and Winnetex for non-denim twills. Volcom produces water-resistant garments that are antimicrobial and offer superior stretch, Redmann said. Its stone made denim garments are cut and sewn in Los Angeles, he added.
“We create Volcom brand jeans and chinos with one goal in mind – to provide premium product built to survive life on the road,” he said. “Every detail is scrutinized from durability, functionality, fabric and construction. We create groundbreaking technology at the fiber level.”
The key to creating a successful production, he said, is collaborating with partners, suppliers, customers and even competitors. “We have to have continue to build relationships with each other because, really, we are one family with the same goal.”
Volcom is working to develop a stronger made-in-the-USA program, but admitted that that is difficult “because everybody realizes the costs of producing in the United States,” he said. “But it’s not just cost – made-in-the-USA can be hard to sell. But, there is a way around it. We can do it if we put in that investment together. Find the partnerships that are willing to bring it back. If we find those partners, use them and forget all the others who say it’s not possible.”
AFFOA CTO encourages participation in RFI-MII
Carol Winterhalter, textile technologist at Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, and chief technology officer at the MIT-led Revolutionary Fibers & Textiles Manufacturing Innovation Institute (RFT-MII), updated members on the newly formed entity. The institute is led by the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) Alliance, a new nonprofit research and development consortium comprised of partners from industry, academia and state governments.
The RFI-MII combines $75 million in Dept. of Defense funds and nearly $250 million in cost sharing from non-federal investments for a total of over $317 million. The institute is a collaborative effort between government and the private sector to accelerate the development of the next generation of highly functional textiles from both a commercial and military perspective.
At the time of the SYFA Conference, 10 of 11 AFFOA board members had been identified, a HQ facility in Cambridge, Mass., had been created and 35 members had signed up. AFFOA is actively recruiting members, Winterhalter said.
The RFT-MII ecosystem has 52 companies, 32 universities and five state and other organizations across 28 states, she said.
AFFOA refers to its work as a “Fabric Revolution – From Fiber Devices to Fabric Systems,” according to Winterhalter. Encompassing that tagline are:
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Fibers that have the functionality of semiconductor devices yet are produced at fiber lengths, uniformity and cost; and
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Fabrics, that see, hear, sense, communicate, store and convert energy, regulate temperature, monitor health and change color.
“MIT’s multi-material fibers, which are actually electrical devices, were a very innovative feature in their proposal,” Winterhalter said. “And MIT claims that these fibers can be formed into fabrics that see, hear, sense, communicate, store and convert energy, regulate temperature, monitor health and change color.
“Now that’s all really cool,” she continued. “But believe me when I say that we’re going to hold their feet to the fire on each and every claim that they made. You might be wondering, what does MIT know about textiles? Nothing. But they do know electronics, and there’s a lot of interest in electronic textiles right now.”
Which is where the industry comes in, she said.
“These institutes are all about technology investment,” she said. “And like any other investment, we want a well-diversified portfolio to reduce risk. We don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket. Therefore, we need to hear from you. We need to know your technology needs, we need your participation to help steer the direction of the institute. Without your participation, it will be all about electronics.
“So we need you, the textile industry, to participate and balance the portfolio, to participate on the boards and committees, to be active, voting members and to participate in the project calls,” she added.
For more information on becoming a member of AFFOA, please click here.
Pure Renewables rep: 'Sustainable business
is good business'
Among topics covered was sustainability, presented by keynoter Randi Kronthal-Sacco, chief marketing officer, Pure Renewables, LLC. The company recycles textile waste to produce new products.
“Why are we here today?” she asked in introducing her presentation. “We are here because of necessity, necessity being the mother of invention and innovation. We invented clothing to protect our skin, we invented shelter to keep us safe from the elements, we invented transportation to get around and we invented products to make our lives easier. But now we need to think about how to continue to invent to protect the Earth.”
These inventions, Kronthal-Sacco said, are creating issues such as air pollution and water quality, she said. The textile and apparel industry contributes to air pollution in the production of material and the shipping of product, and impacts the quality and availability of clean water, she added. She cited a 2015 World Economic Forum report indicating that the water crisis is the biggest economic issue facing the world over the next 10 years.
Agriculture is the biggest user of water globally, and water-intensive industries are often set up in water-scarce regions, Kronthal-Sacco said.
For the textile industry, often old forests are cleared to make room for water-intensive eucalyptus plants used to make rayon, she added. And cotton, while only 2.4 percent of the world’s agriculture crop, consumes 25 percent of the world’s insecticides and is the one of the world’s “thirstiest,” using more than 20,000 liters of water to product 1kg of cotton, according to Kronthal-Sacco.
She also said that dyes used around the world can be toxic to people’s health and are often dumped into water streams. On top of that, the textile industry generates a tremendous amount of waste, she said.
“So what can we do?” she asked. “We can use our great minds to rethink and produce sustainable innovation. We must engage ourselves. We must reengineer, reimagine, repurpose, recycle, rejuvenate and create value from what is considered waste.”
According to Kronthal-Sacco, 60 billion pounds of textile waste goes into landfills every year, and 350 billion pounds of post-consumer waste are sent to landfills.
As such, Pure Renewables seeks to change the way the world exposes, manages and creates value from textile waste streams, she said. “We want to make high-quality products from these textile waste streams.”
The company begins by understanding the origins of the waste streams, including chemistry, finishes, analysis of color/dyes and fabric composition so it can accurately process the fabrics and achieve a high-quality finished raw material, Kronthal-Sacco said. Pure then utilizes all the fibers from these streams because fiber length equals value, i.e. long fibers for yarn and apparel, medium fibers for nonwovens and short fibers for paper, packaging and composites, she noted.
“Our systems allow us to provide quality fibers, a superior sustainable good with zero waste,” Kronthal-Sacco said. “Net/net, we believe we bring textiles back to new again. We create value from what is considered waste. We call it rejuvenation, not recycle.”
Pure Renewables also is focused on ensuring that its textiles are free of microbial contamination to provide consumers with a safe product, she added. Its process includes numerous steps to eliminate microbes, contamination and other undesirable elements, she said.
“We at Pure believe sustainable business is good business.”
Dr. Thomas Theyson of CTW Development, LLC and TensTech, inc., gave an interesting discussion on “The Death of Research in the Chemical and Fiber Industry: What Can We Do About It?”
He discussed the origins of chemical research and discoveries, focusing on companies such as U.S.-based DuPont, and how those breakthroughs expanded into new developments over the years. He then delved into the rise of fiber technology after during and after WWII, particularly nylon and Teflon, polyester, Orlon, Lycra/spandex, Tyvek, Nomex and Kevlar.
But by the late 1960s, the rate of “new technology” emerging from the DuPont Laboratories had slowed, and DuPont responded by doubling down on its “basic research” programs, Theyson said.
“This ‘New Ventures’ program at DuPont failed to reverse this trend and in the late 1970s, the increasing cost of research and the economic downturn led cutbacks and ‘greater executive control,’ ” he said.
A period of acquisition and diversification ensured over the next few decades at DuPont as it sought unsuccessfully to “recover the glory years,” until it began to sell off its core technologies.
This year, DuPont announced its merger with Dow, and the last vestiges of the DuPont model will disappear with the closing of Central Research/Research Station, Theyson said. “Should we cry or should we say ‘it was its time?’ ” he asked.
He then asked if chemical research died of natural causes or was it a case of murder? In answering the question, he cited a number of factors that probably played a role, including the death of the old DuPont model, optimized second- or highly optimized third-generation technologies displacing new technologies, regulatory changes and rising research costs. And the merger/take over/acquisition/divesture boom of the late 1970s and 1980s decimated research, he added.
Regarding the future of chemical research, Theyson said there are two options: Find a way to develop cost-effective, productive chemical research programs; or hire a good process chemist, a good controller and a good purchasing agent and put any idea of any “new chemistry” out of your mind.
The most productive research options for the future, he added are to: rebuild internal research capabilities (which he said he doesn’t think will happen); create an outside innovation office; utilize university-based research; utilize innovation networks; work with a focused innovation company; and create an internal-external research group.
In doing so, companies should recognize limitations, he said.
“Really big changes like Nylon or Lycra will never happen again,” he said. “Also, some markets are very low probability due to regulatory and market structure issues. Choose your targets carefully, find the right people and structure a productive program and select a model and commit to it for a period of time. And, most importantly, be smart.”
The death of research in the chemical and fiber industry explored
Presenting on the second day of the conference were:
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Marty Moran, Buhler Quality Yarns Corp., “Buhler Spinning Better Brands;”
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Margaret Dunford, global director of design, Sage Automotive Interiors, “Sage’s Trans4mative Trends;”
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Aubrey Hilliard, president of the Carolinas, Texican Natural Gas Co., “The Economics of North American Shale Oil and Gas;”
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Alasdair Carmichael, director – Americas, PCI Wood Mackenzie, “Global Fiber Review;” and
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Roger Tutterow, Ph.D, professor of economics and director, Dept. of Economics, Finance and Quantitative Analysis, Michael J. Coles College of Business, Kennessaw State University.
Customization one key
to Vanguard's success
John Bray, CEO of Vanguard Furniture, discussed his domestic upholstered furniture manufacturing company. He provided an overview of the family-held company, which employs about 600 people at six manufacturing buildings in Hickory, N.C., and a new facility in Hillsville, Va.
The company primarily manufactures high-end upholstered furniture, but also produces whole home case goods. It also is a founding member of the Sustainable Furniture Council.
Bray, a member of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame, also went over Vanguard’s principles of success, including differentiation and customization.
“It’s all about giving the customer what they want and letting them design their own furniture,” he said.
As part of its customization model, the company offers 2,500 fabric and leathers and 5,000 unique frames for upholstered furniture and more than 1 million options for each case.
“At retail, we found that some of our customers were putting some bad-looking case pieces in front of our sofas,” Bray said. “So about 20 years, ago we started designing pieces to surround our products.”
An important success story for Vanguard is a self-insured healthcare plan it offers employees, where company and employee contributions are put aside to pay for healthcare bills, he said. Through what it calls its Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) system, Vanguard’s healthcare costs have decreased by 17 percent over the past years, compared to a +21 percent U.S. increase over that period, he added.
About six years ago, the firm proactively offered health risk assessments to employees and wellness incentives, which have played a key role in reducing healthcare costs, he said.
Also playing a role in its success is providing better information on its extranet to reduce phone calls – now down 40 percent from 2013, Bray said.
“We’re a little bit low-tech,” he said. “We don’t have an ERP system at Vanguard, but we developed a system and connected our customers to our system. We’re connected to our customers and that’s very important.”
Things that keep Bray up at night are the skills gap and “motivating Millennials,” he said. On finding interested and trainable employees to fill its manufacturing positions, he said the company has shifted traditional classified advertising from newspapers to the Internet, particularly Facebook.
“We have a P.R. problem in our industry, largely resulting from people leaving our industry during the economic crisis and people retiring,” he said. “We haven’t had a significant number of young people joining our industry in last 25 years.”
Vanguard, along with four other companies, resurrected furniture as a curriculum at the local community college to create the Catawba Valley Furniture Academy, Bray said.
“We will soon have a 40,000 square foot factory where people in the Furniture Academy will go to train,” he said. “Our biggest challenge, as we open this factory, I predict will not be applicants … it will be trainers. We need people to train these folks and teach them these disciplines.
“We’ve never had to train in our history,” he added. “People came with a skill level. When we got into the training business, we didn’t really know anything. And training could take five years, but we didn’t have that long.”
As such, it has started a Lean Greenbelts program at the college to train 50 managers. It also has invested in automation to help offset the skills gap, Bray added.
