TEXTILES.ORG
A full schedule of sessions on new technology and developments in safety products and applications are planned on Oct. 13, the first day of IFAI’s Advanced Textiles Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center, Minneapolis, Minn. Sessions begin at 8:30 a.m. with IFAI market research manager Jeff Rasmussen’s presentation on smart and interactive fabrics markets, followed by symposiums in two tracks: Safety and Protective, and Medical.
The Safety and Protective track includes six presentations:
Connie Huffa of Fabdesigns Inc. presents “Creating Safety and Protection from the Fiber Level Upward in Developing Products,” which argues the importance of building protection from the beginning of the development process, from polymer, to yarn, to fabrication for the end use.
David O’Keefe of Advanced Fabric Technologies presents “A Different Approach to Understanding Auxetic Materials,” which looks into a variety of auxetic materials and the product areas they serve. Among them are safety curtains to protect against high PSI failures, engineered lightweight fabrics that are capable of mitigating blast waves caused by explosive events, and next-generation wound care products.
“Textiles, Technology, Tomorrow: From Laboratory to Life Saving,” presented by Amit Kapoor of First Line Technology, discusses in-depth how textiles have been integrated with non-textile technologies and how First Line Technology, manufacturer of disaster preparedness and response equipment, uses textiles for its products.
Stuart Smith of Norafin Inc. presents “Norafin Komanda Engineered Materials and the Significant Performance Advantages in FR Workwear Applications.” Specifically, Smith addresses arc flash protection and flame-resistant protective clothing markets.
“New Approaches for Enhancing the Thermal Performance and the Moisture Management of Protective Garments” will be presented by Dr. Barbara Pause of Textile Testing and Innovation LLC. The improvement of thermal performance and moisture management of protective garment systems by the application of Phase Change Material (PCM) technology and Shape Memory Material (SMM) technology will be introduced and discussed.
“Failure Analysis of Industrial Fabrics and Design for Failure Prevention” is the subject of a session by Dr. Haskell Beckham of Exponent Inc. With so much diversity in industrial fabrics, failures may appear to occur for many different reasons. Specific examples of failures will be presented and analyzed in order to demonstrate how design considerations and testing can be employed to protect against failures due to environmental exposure, mechanical load or delamination.