Embroidery and Direct To Garment Extravaganza by SWF

Whether you are starting a business or want to improve your existing business, the Embroidery and Direct To Garment Extravaganza 2010 hosted by SWF East is a two-day education and workshop conference devoted to apparel decorating. This 2-day event June 18 -19 in Louisville, Kentucky at the Hilton Garden Inn is an opportunity to take advantage of in-depth education from top industry suppliers; learn about the latest in apparel decorating equipment and new technology. Demonstrations on machines and techniques will be shown providing an opportunity to have any questions answered about embroidery machines, software, hooping, screen printing presses and direct-to-garment digital printing.

Some of the free seminars include “The Business of Apparel Decorating”, “DTG A To Z” and “How to Sell to Sports Teams”.There are also four formal advanced classes available “Advanced DTG Machine Maintenance”, Advanced SWF Machine Maintenance” and “Advanced Getting Your Business Found on the Web” on Friday and “How to Profit from Rhinestones” on Saturday, each for a small additional fee.

Attendees can walk the floor on a come-and-go basis to see hands-on demonstrations conducted in the exhibitor’s area. Participating suppliers include SWF East, Topsail Sportswear, Ideal Image, Sierra, and Dakota Collectibles among others. Included in the admission price all attendees receive a buffet deli style lunch that will be available from noon to 1 p.m. each day. This is the perfect opportunity to network with peers in your area.


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Owens Corning opens technical fabric testing facility

Owens Corning a leading global producer of glass fiber reinforcements for composite systems and residential and commercial building materials, announced that the company has established an excellence center for technical fabrics at its manufacturing facility in Zele, Belgium. The 5,500-square-meter (about 60,000 square feet) facility will have both pilot- and full-scale state-of-the-art production equipment for developing, testing and evaluating new fabric technologies before production and use in customer processes.

In addition to equipment for weaving, stitching and assembling multi-axial fabrics, the center will have a laboratory for testing new fabric technologies in infusion molding and other closed-mold processes.

"The new excellence center is a dedicated facility for partnering and working closely on new fabric developments with our customers using state-of-the-art equipment," said Mark Neville, vice president and managing director of OCV™ Technical Fabrics.

"By centralizing our fabric development activities in Zele, we will have more flexibility in scheduling and can continue the work 24/7 if necessary," added Neville. "The expertise at this center will also further drive standardization and quality in our manufacturing facilities to better serve our customers."

Dr. Chris Skinner, director of global technical marketing for OCV Technical Fabrics, says having a focused fabrics excellence center is a logical next step in the evolution of composite materials.

"A lot of development has already been in invested fabrics for composites," explains Skinner. "But our processes and our customers' processes continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, requiring technical solutions. As a major integrated company, we are able to work systematically on the design and optimization of the total reinforcement system as it is prepared for and used by our customers. The excellence center takes this ability to work on the total system to the next level."

Skinner says it is no small undertaking to set up equipment for running multi-axial fabric trials. "A production machine may have 1,000 or more packages of roving in the creel that is feeding it," he explains. "Even a pilot-scale machine requires changing many packages. The new facility gives us the flexibility to make multiple changes and stay with a project until we get the answers we and our customers need.

"The center enables us to deliver on what customers expect from the world's largest and most knowledgeable technical fabrics supplier," concluded Skinner. "We continue to be the partner of choice for major fabricators in existing markets like wind energy, pipe rehabilitation, marine and industrial."

Ashish Diwanji, vice president for innovations in the Owens Corning Composite Solutions Business, said the center is also a strong addition to the company's global science and technology network.

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5th ECOCERT Convention on Organic and Fair Trade Textiles

ECOCERT India, is organizing a one day convention on 17th April 2010 at New Delhi for awareness creation about organic and fair trade textiles. This event will also serve as a B2B meeting place for all the sectors in the textile supply chain.

“We at ECOCERT are providing certification service not only for the food products, cosmetics but also for the textile finished goods manufacturers, their immediate and indirect raw material suppliers as per the internationally recognized organic standards GOTS and OE. ECOCERT also provides certification service as per ECOCERT fair-trade standards”, says Dr. Selvam Daniel, Managing Director of ECOCERT India, a subsidiary of multinational organic and fair-trade certification agency ECOCERT SA.

ECOCERT India has been organizing these conventions since past one and a half year. This convention is fifth of its kind. Before, similar conventions have been organized in Bangladesh (Chittagong), Indore, Bengaluru and Mumbai. The purpose of this convention is to create the awareness about organic market opportunities among the textile players in Indian subcontinent. At this moment standards and requirements of certification will also be discussed.

Mr. S. Vaidheeswaran, a textile engineer and the product manager for organic textiles at ECOCERT India says,” there has been a well marked awareness amongst all in the supply chain as far as organic textiles are concerned. Ideally a journey of a textile manufacturer, who is in search of the third party guarantees for his product about the socio-environmental compliance, does end at ECOCERT, thanks to the provision of organic as well as fair trade standards for the entire textiles supply chain under a one roof.”

“A consumer, especially from consuming countries is more and more concerned about their consumption habits. They wish to buy organic and fair trade certified garment, even at a higher cost, just to be ensured about the compliance to issues like, no environmental pollution, no discrimination, no child labor, no forced labor, payment of fair wages etc. The upsurge in this ethical business is the result of this growing awareness among the consumers. They are really convinced about the fact that fashion and sustainability can go hand in hand; says Daniel”.

Approximately 1,500 companies with a total of 2,811 facilities in 55 countries around the world were certified to the Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS) in 2009. That is almost a 40 percent increase over the 1,977 facilities certified to the standard in 2008.

Business Development Officer at ECOCERT India remarks, “such convention proves an excellent B2B meeting place for the people from all sectors of textile industry i.e. spinning, weaving, knitting, wet processing, garment manufacturing, home textiles, dyes and auxiliary manufacturers and retail malls etc” 

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