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New name for Bayer MaterialScience
September 4th, 2015
Polymer materials supplier Bayer MaterialScience began operating under a new name, Covestro, on September 1. The company is now legally and economically independent, but will remain a 100 percent subsidiary of Bayer. Covestro’s independence is intended to allow parent company Bayer to focus on its life sciences businesses. Sporting goods and textiles will remain among […]
Emerald Specialty Polymers introduces Nychem emulsion
August 17th, 2015
Emerald Specialty Polymers, a business group of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio-based Emerald Performance Materials, has introduced Nychem™ 1561X604, a nitrile latex emulsion designed to improve tensile strength, abrasion resistance, chemical resistance and other performance characteristics in textile coating, paper saturation and gasket applications. This product is designed to improve upon the performance of previous generation polymers, […]
Heat the furniture, not the room
June 24th, 2015
A team at the University of California has received a $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency to research a temperature-regulating textile which they hope could reduce heating and air conditioning bills for homes. Joseph Wang, professor of nanoengineering at UC San Diego, says, “In cases where there are […]
Partnerships eyed as innovation spur
June 5th, 2015
As funding is more difficult to obtain and lending is tighter, companies are looking into collaborating with suppliers to lower financial risk, speed up the pace of innovation and open new markets, according to a survey conducted by Sweden-based Trelleborg AB. The survey by Trelleborg’s engineered fabrics operation found that 50 percent of manufacturers say […]
Bayer MaterialScience offers improved mattress foam
June 1st, 2015
Hoping to assure consumers of a good night’s rest, Bayer MaterialScience LLC has introduced new viscoelastic foam formulations for bed mattresses. Unveiling new formulations for its Softcel™ VE-1100 polyol, the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based polymer developer notes consumers’ growing demands for foam mattresses that more quickly “recover.” Bayer MaterialScience’s viscoelastic polyurethane flexible foams are highly compressed […]
ExxonMobil Chemical demonstrates polymer solutions for new hygiene applications
May 18th, 2015
ExxonMobil Chemical demonstrated its portfolio of high-performance polymers for creating new hygiene at the Asia Nonwovens Exhibition and Conference (ANEX) 2015, showcasing a range of polymers, application expertise and commitment to the hygiene industry, including soft nonwoven fabrics that are comfortable for babies; elastic film that provides discretion and comfort in adult incontinence products; protective […]
LED fiber research yields color-tunable textile
April 24th, 2015
Researchers have developed thin, light-emitting fibers capable of being woven into color-tunable textiles. Huisheng Peng of Fudan University, Shanghai, and colleagues found that a fiber-shaped PLEC (polymer light-emitting electrochemical cell) could be made by coating a thin steel wire with a layer of zinc oxide nanoparticles. The fibers are around one millimeter thick and can […]
Akcros Chemicals offers solid biocide product line
March 9th, 2015
Akcros Chemicals of New Brunswick, N.J., has announced a successful startup for manufacturing solid isothiazolone-based INTERCIDE biocide pellets at their home facility, capping off a more than $1 million investment designed to offer enhanced quality control, regulatory approvals and reliability of supply. In 2014, Akcros Chemicals and Dow Microbial Control, a Dow Chemical subsidiary, extended […]
Bayer MaterialScience and IAF collaborate
March 3rd, 2015
Germany’s Bayer MaterialScience and the International Apparel Federation (IAF) of the Netherlands are collaborating to improve innovation and sustainability in the apparel and footwear industry. The partners recently ran a series of INSQIN workshops addressing the concerns of brand owners that use polyurethane (PU) coated fabrics—for example, PU synthetic leather. INSQIN is Bayer MaterialScience’s solution […]
When is a fabric a fabric?
February 10th, 2015
This month, our featured material is not about a specific market area, per se, but rather about the challenge of commercializing new technology in any segment of the industry. There’s enough to talk about here to fill a shelf of encyclopedias (remember those?), so the challenge was to manage the topic, given the expanse of […]