From the Sector

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, announced three recipients for the INDA Lifetime Service Award and Lifetime Technical Achievement Awards. David Powling, Paul Latten, and Arnold Wilkie are being recognized for their key contributions to the advancement of the nonwovens industry and INDA.

David Powling and Paul Latten will receive their awards at the World of Wipes® (WOW) International Conference, June 18th beginning at 4:30 pm
Arnold Wilkie will receive his award at the RISE® Conference, October 1st at 4:30 pm.

The Award recipients are:

David Powling
David Powling has worked for Kimberly-Clark Corporation for nearly 25 years and has been a contributor to the Wipes Task Force and Technical Committees at INDA and EDANA for over 15 years. Powling served as Chairman of the INDA Wipes Task Force from 2009-2013. His work on these committees include developing the first and second edition of the Flushability Guidance Document (GD) and he was later instrumental in the roll out of the third and fourth edition GDs. Throughout this time, Powling coordinated activities with Kimberly-Clark Corporation to provide critical supporting data, as these flushability test protocols were developed.

Powling has been actively involved in collection studies where he was key in framing the work packages of those studies, collating and analyzing the data, and drafting reports. These collection studies include: Moraga, CA (advisor); Maine – Part #1 and Part #2 (hands-on); Jacksonville (hands-on); and the Northern and Southern California studies in 2023, which combined, was the largest study to date. Powling led the charge in the California study and was personally involved in identifying 1,745 samples.

Powling has been a key technical contributor to the INDA Government Relation efforts that has resulted in labelling regulations in multiple U.S. states. He has also been an active participant in efforts to develop an ISO standard for flushable products.  In this effort, he was a test method sub-team leader during the preparation of the proposed ISO standard responsible for organizing appendices of existing flushability methodologies. Additionally, Powling has been awarded, or has pending, 25+ U.S. patents, including many covering the development of dispersible wet wipes.

Paul Latten
Paul Latten has been an active member of the nonwoven and fiber industries for over 35 years. Most recently he has led innovation at Southeast Nonwovens, commercializing more than 75 new nonwoven products per year. Prior to joining Southeast Nonwovens, Latten held senior leadership positions with Basofil, Consolidated Fibers, Invista, and KoSa (and Trevira and Hoechst Celanese precursors to KoSa.)

Latten has a successful career of reinvigorating company R&D efforts by instilling a focus on customer-centric innovation. He is an inventor of record for a number of patents and pending applications. Latten has given numerous presentations on innovative nonwoven materials, at events such as INDA’s World of Wipes® (WOW) International Conference, RISE® (Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics), the VISION International Conference, and the Converting and Bonding (CAB) Conference.

His recent innovations have been diverse in scope and include nonwovens for use in hydrogen fuel cells, moisture detection media, proprietary wipe designs, and natural fiber-based packaging. Aside from new fiber and nonwoven products, Latten has championed process innovation that has resulted in tangible output gains that broadened the market opportunity for his current and prior companies.

Latten’s portfolio of innovations has spanned across the nonwoven markets, often involving wetlaid and drylaid nonwovens. These include materials for moisture detection, synthetic papers, fuel cell cathodes, protective covers for treats, melamine nonwovens for surface treatment, and the development of binder fibers. His work also touched upon disposable hygiene applications entailing dry-laid web containing hollow synthetic fibers to improve absorbent core fluid uptake.

Latten has been a board member of INDA for multiple terms and served as Chairman in 2008-2010. Additionally, he has contributed to many INDA conference planning committees, helping drive the success of these events.

Arnold Wilkie
Arnold Wilkie has a distinguished career in advancing yarn, fiber, and nonwoven technologies since 1970. Since 1988, he has been President and Owner of Hills, Inc. where he has sustained their innovative culture. Wilkie has over 40 patents and applications covering yarns, bicomponent fibers, ultra-fine fibers, nanofibers, dissolvable filaments, meltblown nonwovens, and polymer processing innovations. He established Hills as a leading innovator in bicomponent fiber nonwovens and in the equipment to produce these materials. During Wilkie’s time leading Hills, their pilot capabilities have become well-known and highly regarded for enabling material innovations.

Many of his patents pertain to the development of equipment solutions that enable the production of complex bi- and multi-component fiber structures. These solutions include the method of forming a continuous filament spun-laid web, the method and apparatus for producing polymer fibers and fabrics including multiple polymer components, the method and apparatus for controlling airflow in a fiber extrusion system, and controlling the dissolution of dissolvable polymer components in plural component fibers.

Arnold Wilkie, President, Hills, Inc., earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from the University of West Florida. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Florida, and has been engaged in the synthetic fibers industry since 1970. The first 17 years were with the Monsanto Company, where he held positions in Fiber Process Engineering, Fiber Product R&D, and Product Management. Since 1988, he has been a majority Owner and President of Hills, Inc., a 52-year-old company located in West Melbourne, Florida, specializing in the development, manufacture, and supply of advanced custom fiber extrusion equipment. Wilkie has been involved with and supported The Nonwovens Institute, since its founding in 1991 as the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC), with Hills joining as a Member in 2001

It looks like a normal shirt, but it has it all: The new SmartTex shirt uses integrated sensors to transfer physiological data from astronauts to Earth via a wireless communication network. In this way, the effects of the space environment on the human cardiovascular system will be evaluated and documented, especially with regard to long-term manned space missions. Developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in cooperation with DSI Aerospace Technology, the Medical Faculty of Bielefeld University and textile research partner Hohenstein, SmartTex will be tested for the first time as part of the Wireless Compose-2 (WICO2) project by German ESA astronaut Dr. Matthias Maurer, who will leave for his ‘Cosmic Kiss’ mission on the International Space Station (ISS) for six months on October 30, 2021.

"We were already able to gain valuable insights into the interaction of the body, clothing and climate under microgravity conditions during the previous projects Spacetex (2014) and Spacetex2 (2018)," explains Hohenstein Senior Scientific Expert Dr. Jan Beringer. The insights provided at the time by the mission of ESA astronaut Dr. Alexander Gerst have now been directly incorporated into the development of the new SmartTex shirt at Hohenstein. "Matthias Maurer can wear his tailor-made shirt comfortably on his body during his everyday work on the International Space Station. For this, we used his body measurements as the basis for our cut development and the production of the shirt. We integrated the necessary sensors as well as data processing and communication modules into the shirt's cut in such a way that they interfere as little as possible and are always positioned in the right place, regardless of the wearing situation. This is the prerequisite for reliably measuring the relevant physiological data." The SmartTex shirt is intended to provide a continuous picture of the vital functions of astronauts. This will be particularly relevant for future long-term manned space missions to the Moon and Mars.

For example, during the BEAT experiment (Ballistocardiography for Extraterrestrial Applications and long-Term missions), Matthias Maurer will be the first astronaut to wear a T-shirt equipped with sensors that measure his ballistocardiographic data such as pulse and relative blood pressure. For this purpose, the sensors were calibrated in the :envihab research facility at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne. Details on the contraction rate and opening and closing times of the heart valves, which are normally only accessible via sonography or computer tomography, can also be read from the data material. The goal is to study the effects of the space environment on the human cardiovascular system. To be able to analyse these effects realistically, Matthias Maurer's ballistocardiographic data will be recorded before, during and after his stay on the ISS. For the future, a technology transfer of the SmartTex shirt for application in the field of fitness or even in telemedicine is conceivable.

Wireless Compose-2 (WICO2)
The project was planned and prepared by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and its cooperation partners DSI Aerospace Technology, Hohenstein and the University of Bielefeld. The wireless communication network reads sensor data and can determine the position of people and objects in space by propagation times of radio pulses. It is also available as a platform for several experiments on the ISS. The determined data is temporarily stored within the network and read out at regular intervals by the astronauts. These data packets are then transferred to Earth via the ISS link and analysed by the research teams. It can generate its own energy from artificial light sources via solar cells.

ESA astronaut Dr. Matthias Maurer in summer 2021 during preliminary talks on the Cosmic Kiss mission in DLR's :envihab in Cologne. © DLR

Sensors measure physiological data during a test run on Earth. © DLR

With the "SmartTex" shirt, astronauts can wear the necessary sensors comfortably on their bodies. © DLR

Dr. Jan Beringer, Hohenstein Senior Scientific Expert. © Hohenstein

Aachen - Warden Schijve, former Chief Scientist Composites at SABIC, recently joined the AZL engineering team in October. As Design Leader, he is further expanding the product and application development division of the service provider for business development and technology development in lightweight.

AZL Aachen GmbH supports companies along the entire value chain in implementing competitive lightweight technologies. "We develop component and production concepts for companies, including the analysis of costs and production-relevant KPIs. With our broad range of material and production technologies, we provide a comprehensive solution for the development and evaluation of products and identify the most suitable paths to implementation. Warden Schijve will use his many years of experience to support our partners in the efficient development, evaluation and implementation of component and production solutions through to market readiness," says Dr. Kai Fischer, Managing Partner of AZL Aachen GmbH.

From his 35 years in the composites industry with Fokker, DSM and SABIC, Warden Schijve brings a broad and deep expertise in structural design, plastics and composites, as well as processing technology.
Warden Schijve: “In my career I’ve always seen that it pays off to evaluate various different design concepts, which may use different materials or material combinations, to finally come to the most cost-competitive lightweight applications. Taking into account different manufacturing technologies right from the beginning can save a lot in later stages of component development. And this is what fascinates me about AZL and its eco-system: the available knowledge on a wide variation of process and production technologies, including cutting edge equipment, at both the AZL Tech Center, and the various institutes present in the total RWTH Aachen Campus.”

Dr. Michael Emonts, Managing Partner of AZL Aachen GmbH: "We are delighted that Warden Schijve, as a well-known face from the AZL community, will enrich us in developing lightweight applications, production systems and processes, identifying competitive technology optimizations through the analysis of markets and applications, and supporting our customers in the industrial implementation of the developed technologies."

Warden Schijve will also lead the project for a concept study for future battery casings based on composite-based multi-material systems. The AZL started the project in October together with 30 participating companies from the entire value chain to get an overview of existing component solutions, evaluate the advantages of a multi-material approach and develop a multi-material component design including a production concept for battery casings.