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The Fiber Year 2020 – Rising investments in manmade fiber feedstocks
World fiber supply was balanced between natural and manmade fibers a quarter of a century ago but the latter considerably gained momentum afterwards, holding a current market share of more than 70% in recent years. Consequentially, corresponding feedstocks have been expanded likewise. Massive investments in Chinese industry will increasingly impact today’s major supplying nations. Nylon …
COVID-19 Update: HeiQ Viroblock wins First Place in 2020 Swiss Technology Award program
With the coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading worldwide, International Fiber Journal is tracking stories relevant to the textile fiber industry. Facemasks, personal protective equipment, medical supplies and wipes are among the fiber-intensive technologies particularly relevant to the COVID-19 response effort. And as manufacturers of these technologies and others struggle to meet global demand in the face of the …
From linearity to circularity – new technologies drive sustainable innovation
With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to hamper the fiber community with restrictions on travel and public gatherings, the 59th Dornbirn Global Fiber Congress was, for the first time, held virtually. Opening the congress, Austrian Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology Leonore Gewessler stressed the importance of the circular economy. She noted …
Student Spotlight: The hot and cold of smart fabrics
Kony Chatterjee is a doctoral candidate in the Fiber and Polymer Science program at Wilson College of Textile’s Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science at North Carolina State University. Kony is conducting research in the field of flexible and wearable electronics under the guidance of her advisor, Professor Tushar K. Ghosh in his SmARTextiles …
How should we handle the plastics in the environment problem?
Environmental footprints are a metric for the measurement of human demand on natural capital. This measurement attempts to consider multiple impacts of an activity rather than focusing on a single one. In the textile industry the environmental footprint considers the impacts of carbon, water, land and air from textile production. The textile industry is a …