From the Sector

• Hexcel’s Composite Innovations For Aerospace, Automotive, Energy And Marine Applications At JEC World 2019 Hall 5 - Stand J41

STAMFORD, Conn. – At this year’s JEC World taking place in Paris on March 12-14, Hexcel will promote a wide range of composite innovations for customer applications in aerospace, automotive, energy and marine markets.

Aerospace Innovations

Hexcel’s HiTape® and HiMax™ dry carbon reinforcements were developed to complement a new generation of HiFlow™ resin systems, producing high quality aerospace structures using the resin infusion process. HiTape® was developed for the automated lay-up of preforms and HiMax™ is a range of optimized non-crimp fabrics (NCF). Both products incorporate a toughening veil to enhance mechanical properties, meeting the structural requirements for aerospace parts.

Visitors to JEC will see an Integrated Wing Panel demonstrator and an I-beam, both made with HiTape® reinforcements, and an Opticoms rib made with HiMax™ NCF. The Opticoms rib and I Beam were both manufactured using C-RTM (Compression Resin Transfer Molding). They were injected with Hexcel’s RTM6 resin in a process taking less than 5 minutes. The total manufacturing cycle for both parts was just 4.5 hours.

Also among the Aerospace exhibits, Hexcel will display a composite petal for a satellite antenna, manufactured by Thales Alenia Space Italia. The petal is part of a set of 24 deployable structural elements that form the large area reflector assembly used on board Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observation satellites. Thales Alenia Space Italia selected Hexcel’s HexPly® M18 prepreg for this application, acknowledging the superior mechanical and outgassing properties provided.

Another Hexcel prepreg application on show is a “zero” frame, manufactured by Aerofonctions for the engine area of Daher’s TBM 910/930 single-engine turboprop aircraft. Hexcel’s HexPly® M56 prepreg was selected by Daher for the “zero” frame – a product developed for Out of Autoclave applications that provides the same high quality and performance as autoclave-cured prepregs, from a simple vacuum bag cure in an oven.

With 50 years of experience behind its comprehensive range of high-strength, high-strain PAN-based carbon fibers, Hexcel continues to innovate, and is introducing two new fibers to its portfolio. HexTow® HM50 combines high modulus and high tensile strength, making it ideal for commercial and defense aircraft and engines. HexTow® 85 was developed specifically to replace rayon-based carbon fiber for ablative applications.

HexTow® carbon fiber holds the most qualified carbon fiber positions on aerospace programs in the industry and is the best unsized fiber available on the market. It provides excellent bonding interfacial properties with thermoplastic matrices and is the best-performing fiber for 3D printing applications.

Additive manufacturing is another area of expertise for Hexcel, using PEKK ultra-high performance polymers and HexAM™ technology to manufacture carbon-reinforced 3D printed parts. This
innovative process provides a weight-saving solution for intricate parts in highly demanding aerospace, satellite and defense applications. HexPEKK™ structures offer significant weight, cost and time-to-market reductions, replacing traditional cast or machined metallic parts with a new technology.

Hexcel is well known for its range of weight-saving, stiffness-enhancing honeycombs and the company adds value by providing a range of engineered core solutions to customers from facilities in the USA, Belgium and the newly opened Casablanca plant in Morocco. Hexcel’s engineered core capabilities enable highly contoured parts with precision profiling to be produced to exacting customer specifications. An example of such a part will be on display at JEC. Made from Aluminum FlexCore®, the part is CNC machined on both sides, and formed and stabilized with both peel ply and flyaway layers of stabilization. Aircraft engines benefit from a number of Hexcel core technologies including HexShield™ honeycomb that provides high temperature resistance in aircraft engine nacelles. By inserting a thermally resistant material into honeycomb cells, Hexcel provides a core product with unique heat-shielding capabilities that allows for the potential re-use of material after a fire event.

Hexcel’s Acousti-Cap® broadband noise-reducing honeycomb significantly improves acoustic absorption in aircraft engine nacelles. The acoustic treatment may be positioned at a consistent depth and resistance within the core, or can be placed in a pattern of varying depths and/or resistances (Multi-Degrees of Freedom and 3 Degrees Of Freedom), offering an acoustic liner that is precisely tuned to the engine operating conditions. These technologies have been tested at NASA on a full engine test rig and meet all 16 design conditions without trade-offs.

HexBond™ – the new name in Adhesives

Hexcel’s range of high performance adhesives has expanded considerably following the company’s acquisition of Structil. The company has now decided to unite the range by marketing all of its adhesive products using HexBond™ branding. The comprehensive range of HexBond™ structural film adhesives, foaming adhesive films, paste adhesives, liquid shims, epoxy fillets and Chromium free liquid primers is suitable for a wide range of applications in combination with Hexcel’s prepreg and honeycomb products.

Automotive Innovations

Hexcel’s carbon prepreg patch technology provides an innovative way of locally stiffening and reinforcing metal parts, providing noise and vibration management functionality. HexPly® prepreg patches consist of unidirectional carbon fiber impregnated with a fast curing epoxy matrix that has self-adhesive properties, enabling it to bond to metal in a highly efficient one-step process. These key technology properties are demonstrated in an 18.5kg aluminum subframe (that is 50% lighter than steel equivalents), which was reinforced with 500 grams of HexPly® prepreg and tested by Saint Jean Industries. The part demonstrates a significant reduction in noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). Other benefits include lower production costs, energy savings, increased driver comfort, production flexibility and part count reduction. With this technology Hexcel is a finalist in the JEC Innovation Awards 2019 in the Automotive Applications category.

HexPly® prepreg patch technology was also applied to a hybrid side sill demonstrator developed with Volkswagen and Dresden University to address future crash test requirements, specifically for electric cars. Combining fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) with metal, the hybrid construction allows for optimum performance including weight savings, enhanced safety, increased energy absorption, battery protection in a crash situation and production flexibility.

Hexcel will also display a lightweight CFRP transmission crossmember produced from Hexcel’s high performance HexMC®-i 2000 molding compound. The transmission crossmember was developed in partnership with the Institute of Polymer Product Engineering (at Linz University), Engel and Alpex. As the part connects the chassis together and supports transmission it has to be stiff and strong, resisting fatigue and corrosion. Hexcel’s HexMC®-i 2000 was selected as the best-performing molding compound on the market, curing in as little as two minutes to produce lightweight, strong and stiff parts.
To produce the transmission crossmember HexMC®-i 2000 preforms are laid up in Alpex molds and compression-molded in a v-duo press that was tailored for the application by Engel. Ribs, aluminum inserts and other functions can be molded into the part using the single-stage process, reducing component-count. Any offcuts from the preforms can be interleaved between the plies of material to provide additional reinforcement in key areas - meaning that the process generates no waste.

Other Automotive promotions on Hexcel’s stand at JEC World include a composite leaf spring manufactured by ZF using HexPly® M901 prepreg. In contrast to steel leaf springs, composite versions offer many advantages including weight savings of up to 70%, high corrosion resistance, optimized system integration and superior performance. HexPly® M901 prepreg reduces the cure cycle to below 15 minutes and provides 15% higher mechanical performance, with enhanced fatigue properties. It also operates at high temperatures, providing a Tg of up to 200°C following a post cure.

Marine Innovations

Hexcel has a comprehensive range of products aimed at racing yacht and luxury boat builders that include America’s Cup, IMOCA class and DNV GL-approved prepregs, woven reinforcements and multiaxial fabrics for hull and deck structures, masts and appendages.

At JEC World Hexcel will display an IMOCA yacht mast manufactured by Lorima using HexPly® high modulus and high strength carbon fiber prepreg from Hexcel Vert-Le-Petit. Lorima is the exclusive official supplier of masts for IMOCA 60 class racing boats.

Hexcel’s HexTow® IM8 carbon fiber has been selected as the highest performing industrial carbon fiber on the market and will be used by spar and rigging manufacturer Future Fibres to manufacture their AEROrazr solid carbon rigging for all the teams in the 36th America’s Cup.

Hexcel’s HiMax™ DPA (Dot Pattern Adhesive) reinforcements are non-crimp fabrics supplied pre-tacked, allowing multiple fabrics to be laid-up more easily in preparation for resin infusion. Providing an optimal, consistent level of adhesion, they allow a faster and more consistent resin flow, as well as eliminating the use of spray adhesive for a healthier working environment and lower risk of contamination. Simply unrolled and applied to the mold or core layer before the introduction of resin, HiMax™ DPA fabrics are widely used in boat building, where lay-up times can be reduced by up to 50%.

Wind Energy Innovations

Hexcel has developed a range of HexPly® surface finishing prepregs and semi-pregs for wind turbine blades and marine applications. Providing a tough, durable and ready-to-paint surface without using in-mold coats, these products shorten the manufacturing cycle and reduce material costs. HexPly® XF2(P) prepreg is optimized for wind blades and has a ready-to-paint surface, straight from the mold, saving at least 2 hours of takt time.

Polyspeed® pultruded carbon laminates were developed for load-carrying elements in a blade structure and are manufactured with a polyurethane matrix that provides outstanding mechanical performance in terms of stiffness and durability. The blade manufacturing process is optimized, with increased throughput. The pultruded laminates are supplied in coils as continuous cross section profiles.
HiMax™ non-crimp fabrics using E-glass, high modulus glass and carbon fibers are also available in a wide range of unidirectional, biaxial and triaxial constructions. HiMax™ fabrics have applications throughout the turbine, from the stitched carbon fiber UDs used in the main structural elements, to glass fabrics and hybrids for blade shells and nacelles. There are also specialist applications such as lightweight fabrics for heated leading edge de-icing zones.

Gianluca Croci's priority will be to support Lectra's French customers in their transformation towards Industry 4.0
Lectra announces the appointment of Gianluca Croci as Managing Director, Lectra France. Based in Paris, Gianluca Croci reports to Fabio Canali, President, Southern Europe & North Africa.

Gianluca Croci has more than 20 years of experience in the fashion industry. He began his career in 1998 in the department store chain La Rinascente before joining the Giorgio Armani group in 2002, where he managed, from 2006 to 2015, the Belgian and French subsidiaries. Gianluca Croci later held management positions for major fashion and luxury brands, such as Roberto Cavalli and Marcolin, and was recently the Sales & Marketing Director for Technogym France, a designer of sports equipment.

Gianluca Croci will fulfil Lectra's promise to fashion companies in France: to facilitate the digitalization of their know-how in order to empower them to make a successful transition to Industry 4.0. This ambition is being realized by the 2018 launch of the revolutionary solution, Fashion On Demand by Lectra, which enables fashion companies to customize a garment or make it to measure. This end-to-end personalization offer—the first of its kind—complements a portfolio that is known to solve the pressing challenges confronting the fashion industry. The latest, Kubix Link, developed by Kubix Lab, a start-up acquired by Lectra in January 2018, is an innovative platform for managing product information.

"France is known worldwide for being a leader in fashion and technological innovation. It is a country where brands, retailers and manufacturers have already begun their transformation towards Industry 4.0. I am proud to support our customers’ pursuit of greater connectivity and collaboration in their operations, as well as in assisting them to make the shift to personalization," says Gianluca Croci.
Gianluca Croci and his teams are committed to providing their French customers with the high level of expertise and service that characterizes Lectra's value proposition.
Gianluca Croci's efforts are also tied to the dynamic activities of Lectra Southern Europe & North Africa. There are many synergies in the region’s fashion industry, ranging from the sharing of expertise between French and Italian companies to the integration into their ecosystem of the Moroccan and Tunisian subcontractors.

"Our regional organization enables us to be closer to our customers’ challenges and to provide them with the support they need to achieve their ongoing targets. Gianluca Croci will lead the French teams and contribute to the region's growth," says Fabio Canali. "His extensive experience with major Italian and French companies brings new energy to the development of Lectra France.”
Gianluca Croci is a graduate of the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD), Fontainebleau (France), and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan (Italy).

Emphasis on Process, Third-party Validation and Outcome-based Testing

Healthcare laundry and linen provider Hospital Central Services (HCSC) has earned the Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification for its Baltimore plant, reflecting their commitment to best management practices (BMPs) in laundering as verified by on-site inspection and their capability to produce hygienically clean textiles as quantified by ongoing microbial testing.

The Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification confirms the organization’s continuing dedication to infection prevention, compliance with recognized industry standards and processing healthcare textiles using BMPs as described in its quality assurance documentation, a focal point for Hygienically Clean inspectors’ evaluation. The independent, third-party inspection must also confirm essential evidence that:

• Employees are properly trained and protected
• Managers understand regulatory requirements
• OSHA-compliant
• Physical plant operates effectively

To achieve certification initially, laundries pass three rounds of outcome-based microbial testing, indicating that their processes are producing Hygienically Clean Healthcare textiles and diminished presence of yeast, mold and harmful bacteria. They also must pass a facility inspection. To maintain their certification, they must pass quarterly testing to ensure that as laundry conditions change, such as water quality, textile fabric composition and wash chemistry, laundered product quality is consistently maintained. Re-inspection occurs every two to three years.

Emphasis on Process, Third-Party Validation and Outcome-Based Testing

Canadian Linen and two U.S. AmeriPride Services Inc.’s locations have recently earned have earned the Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification, reflecting their commitment to best management practices (BMPs) in laundering as verified by on-site inspection and their capability to produce hygienically clean textiles as quantified by ongoing microbial testing. The company’s Canadian Linen and Uniform Service facilities in these locations have earned the Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification:  

• Alberta: Edmonton and Lethbridge
• British Columbia: Victoria and Vancouver/Burnaby
• Manitoba: Winnipeg
• Nova Scotia: Halifax
• Ontario: Etobicoke, London, North York and Ottawa
• Quebec: Quebec City
• Saskatchewan: Regina and Saskatoon

The recently-certified U.S. AmeriPride laundries are located in Vernon, Calif. and Durant, Miss.  
The certification confirms the laundry’s dedication to compliance and processing garments and linens using BMPs as described in its quality assurance documentation, the focal point for inspectors’ evaluation of critical control points (CCPs) that minimize risk. The independent, third-party inspection must confirm essential evidence that:

• Employees are properly trained and protected
• Managers understand legal requirements
• OSHA-compliant
• Physical plant operates effectively

In addition, these facilities each passed three rounds of outcome-based microbial testing, indicating that their processes are producing Hygienically Clean garments and other reusable textiles with diminished presence of harmful bacteria. To maintain their certification, laundry plants must pass quarterly testing to ensure that as laundry conditions change, such as water quality, textile fabric composition and wash chemistry, laundered product quality is consistently maintained.
This process eliminates subjectivity by focusing on outcomes and results that verify textiles cleaned in these facilities meet appropriate hygienically clean standards and BMPs for animal processing, dairies, fruit/vegetable, bakeries, grain and other food and beverage industry segments.
These Vernon, Calif. and Durant, Miss. locations of the AmeriPride chain join these laundries who have previously received the Hygienically Clean Food Safety certification:

• Tuscumbia, Ala.
• Bakersfield and Fresno, Calif.
• Twin Falls, Idaho
• St. Cloud and Minneapolis, Minn.
• Amarillo Texas

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) practices are examined in the Hygienically Clean Food Safety inspection process, evaluating the plant’s techniques for:

• Conducting hazard analysis
• Determining CCPs, monitoring their control, correcting them if not under control
• Validating and verifying HACCP system effectiveness
• Documenting and record-keeping to show ongoing conformance

On-site inspections also evaluate practices relevant to handling and processing textile products used in food manufacturing/processing establishments for adherence to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directives. Introduced in 2014, Hygienically Clean Food Safety brought to North America the international cleanliness standards for laundering garments and other textile products for food manufacturing used worldwide by the Certification Association for Professional Textile Services and the European Committee for Standardization.
Twelve of the company’s U.S. locations have achieved the Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification:

• Little Rock, Ark.
• Phoenix and Watkinsville, Ga.
• Twin Falls, Idaho
• Topeka, Kan.
• Bemidji and Minneapolis, Minn.
• pringfield, Mo.
• Omaha, Neb.
• Roswell, N.M.
• Memphis, Tenn.
• Lubbock, Texas

The company’s Canadian Linen and Uniform Service facility in Lethbridge, Alberta, is also Hygienically Clean Healthcare-certified.
In January 2018, Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. announced the completion of its acquisition of AmeriPride, making AmeriPride a wholly owned subsidiary. Aramark’s uniform rental and career apparel business is headquartered in Burbank, Calif.

"Datacenter in a box" is the new powerful, flexible and secure IT infrastructure solution for the textile industry of the future

Remscheid/Berlin – Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment Industrie 4.0 solutions for the production of polyester, nylon and polypropylene are based on the digitalization of the production landscape and the intelligent processing of the flood of data generated in this way. In the future, the segment will offer its customers a new powerful, flexible and, above all, secure IT infrastructure. The "Datacenter in a box" was presented for the first time at the OpenStack Summit in Berlin, Germany, to a broad specialist audience. The compact datacenter works on the basis of the open operating system OpenStack, which enables virtual computing in a secure private cloud environment.

Externally, the datacenter looks unspectacular: The box contains standard hardware such as server rack, network components, batteries for reliability, monitoring sensors and a few more things. But what counts are the inner values. The Open Source software OpenStack consists of many different services and allows the virtualization of a large pool of computing, storage and network resources in a flexible, scalable private cloud. This brings two central advantages: On the one hand, virtual operation reduces costs and simplifies configuration, adaptation and expansion of the IT infrastructure today and tomorrow. On the other hand, long-cherished wishes for high data protection are fulfilled, because a private cloud maintains secure, highly encrypted data connections away from the World Wide Web.

"The functional diversity of a cloud, operation and hardware in one's own four walls at the same time – our customers immediately understood these advantages" reports Mario Arcidiacono, specialist for Business Intelligence & Data Warehouse at the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment. The IT architecture also guarantees infrastructure management without downtime, the system and virus protection are automatically kept up to date at all times. Another major advantage is the scalability of the hardware and software, which can be adapted to changing requirements.

OpenStack Summit: Project example with yarn manufacturer from Vietnam presented

With these trump cards and a project example, the Group segment confidently presented itself to a genuine specialist audience in mid-November. At this year's OpenStack Summit in Berlin, where thousands of cloud professionals met, Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment CEO Georg Stausberg presented the customer installation at Century Synthetic Fibre Corporation, which supplies many well-known sporting goods manufacturers. The Vietnamese producer of high-quality yarns not only uses the new datacenter, but also the connection to the new "Common Service Platform (CSP)" of the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment as well as an innovative new dashboard solution in prototype status. In this case, the digital instrument panel supports employee communication during shift changes in the yarn factory and introduces agile methods into the work process. The board visualizes the progress of central key figures and operating parameters from the current production process. Based on this, the employees of the successive shifts can now exchange important process and quality information and possible instructions for action within a few minutes in a structured stand-up meeting. "For the customer this means an immediate improvement of the processes, and he can significantly increase the efficiency and quality of his employees' work," assures Joerg Gross, Senior Manager in the IT-architecture team at the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment.

New IT-basis for the Plant Operation Center (POC) already successful established on the market

The fixed connection to the "Common Service Platform (CSP)" of the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment plays a pioneering role in such solutions. This enables services and software updates to be provided smoothly, quickly and automatically. In this way, service applications can transform collected data into instructions or automated commands to secure and improve processes. For example, the secure availability of management solutions such as the Plant Operation Center (POC) for process monitoring can be increased and possible errors can be rectified very quickly. The new digital solution AIM4DTY (AIM = Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing), which was unveiled at the ITMA ASIA + CITME 2018 in Shanghai, China, a few weeks ago, can also be implemented in this way. AIM4DTY uses methods of machine learning, determines probable causes of errors in texturing and helps to improve quality during production.

Launch at ITMA Barcelona 2019

The Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment offers such remote-supported services on request. Data will therefore only be transferred to the “Common Service Platform (CSP)” with the customer's consent. In addition, all data is processed in accordance with the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and all other international data protection standards. Against this backdrop, the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment plans to provide its datacenter with graded or customer-specific solutions: from complete service to provision with customer training for its own operations. After initial practical experience with several pilot customers, the segment intends to launch its offering on the market next year and officially present it to the textile industry at ITMA 2019 in Barcelona, Spain.

TRSA recently held its Annual Membership Meeting for the nomination, election and swearing-in of new Officers and Directors.
Jim Buik, president of the Roscoe Co. in Chicago is TRSA’s new chairman. Buik served as vice chairman of TRSA in 2017-2018. The Roscoe Company is Chicago’s leading independent uniform service company.

Jim has been active in linen, uniform and facility services associations. He’s a graduate of TRSA’s Executive Management Institute (EMI). He served on various committees, task forces and boards and was chairman of UTSA, which blended with TRSA, from 2003 to 2005. He has been a pioneer of industry technologies and best practices. Through association programs he has shared Roscoe’s experience in developing these innovations, including marketing automation, wastewater treatment and employee skill certification.

Additional officers and directors sworn in at the meeting:
•    Noel Richardson, Officer-Vice Chair, Shasta Linen Supply, Sacramento, CA
•    Jim Kearns, Officer-Treasurer, Alsco Inc., Salt Lake City
•    Bob Dudley, Director, APPEARA, Norfolk, NE
•    Scott Finkelstein, Director, Ace Uniform Services Inc., Baltimore
•    Dan Sanchez, Director, Medline Industries Inc., Mundelein, IL

In addition, Directors Randy Bartsch, Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service and P.J. Dempsey, Dempsey Uniform & Linen Supply were re-elected for second terms and will be officers serving on the TRSA Executive Committee.

TRSA said today that a study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology painted an unnecessarily alarming picture regarding the risk of C. difficile contamination from hospital linens and potential infectious outbreaks.
The study, titled From ward to washer: The survival of Clostridium difficile spores on hospital bed sheets through a commercial UK NHS healthcare laundry process concludes that “processing infected linen in commercial washer/extractor cycles could disseminate low levels of C. difficile spores and may be contributing to sporadic outbreaks of C. difficile infection (CDI).”

“Therefore, even in the study’s assessment, the findings are conditional,” said TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci. Ricci said that additional facts mitigate them even more:
•    The conclusion is based on one wash formula’s inability to meet the British National Health Service (NHS) standard. This standard indicates that water temperature and the amount of time that linen is washed are the true indicators of wash quality.
•    Best-management practices dictate that the quality of the wash process is maximized by using a complete wash formula that includes temperature, chemistry and mechanical action, which are customized to address various soil levels and generate hygienically clean textiles. In addition, heat from drying, ironing and finishing these linens also contributes to the linens’ cleanliness. Perhaps the only valid conclusion that can be reached from this research is that the one wash formula tested in the study is inadequate to remove C. difficile.
•    Most outsourced, professionally laundered healthcare linens and uniforms are processed using a tunnel washer, not washer/extractors used in the research.
•    Most healthcare-related wash formulas are designed to account for time, temperature, chemistry and mechanical action that appropriately eliminate C. diff. For example, the FDA recently approved the use of a disinfectant specifically formulated to kill off C. difficile spores.
•    TRSA has been collecting microbiological testing data since 2014 on linen and uniform service laundries that have achieved and maintained the Hygienically Clean certification by eliminating bacteria on soiled linens to negligible levels; there have been no positive identifications of C. difficile.
•    difficile contamination linked to linens is extremely rare. The best way to protect your facility and patients is to partner with a Hygienically Clean certified laundry.

ERIC PIERREJEAN, CEO OF JEC GROUP

Mr. Eric PIERREJEAN, who joined the company in January, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, succeeding to Mrs. Frédérique MUTEL. He will be in charge of the further development of the company after two decades of growth under Mrs. MUTEL leadership, dedicated to the development and the promotion of the composite materials industry. Before joining JEC Group, Eric PIERREJEAN was Division General Manager at Comexposium from 2011 to 2017. Prior to this, he spent much of his career in sales and marketing positions, spending more than 15 years in the automotive sector (BMW Group, Land Rover) as well as in the sports goods industry (Nike).

ADELINE LARROQUE, EVENTS DIRECTOR FOR EMEA

Mrs. Adeline LARROQUE joins JEC Group as Show Director JEC World and EMEA Events with more than 15 years of Global work experience as she has worked in several countries such as USA, UK, China, India, Qatar and UAE where she has developed a strong skill set in exhibitions and events management. After a successful experience at Reed Exhibitions France and China managing numerous exhibitions in the Aerospace, Material, Security, Maritime, Logistics, Construction and Medical industries, she then worked for Qatar Tourism Authority as Head of Exhibitions driving growth for the Doha Jewellery Show, Qatar Motor Show and Women Fashion exhibitions. Lately, she worked for the Events division of the Daily Mail Group supervising the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference as Event Director.

With an investment in an Innovation Center with testing labs and additional production facilities, Carl Meiser GmbH&Co KG gives a clear statement to it’s location in Albstadt in Central Europe. As well this underlines the know-how and the motivation of the whole team. The constructions were already launched. The first buildings for production and a part if the Innovation Center will be ready end of this year. State of the art offices and social facilities will be ready to move in mid of 2019.

“After our suffered setback with the fire in our production facilities in November 2017, this investment will move us much more forward and will give us the motivation to offer our customers even better and more innovative service and products. In long-term view this will creates the base for further growth”, says Jens Meiser CEO of Carl Meiser GmbH&Co.KG. During the last months we already invested in production technology and machines. During the last weeks we changed the complete production organisation to reach a lean product flow.

As well Meiser expanded it’s apprenticeship programme during the last years. At the moment we apprentice new staff members in three different education programmes. It is planned to add a fourth in management in future.

The company Carl Meiser GmbH&Co.KG with it’s brand „MEISER – Know How in textiles“ delivers to the high end underwear and lingerie industry as specialised dyehouse for knitted fabrics. With the brand “NOPMA technical textiles” the company acts as a fast growing development and production partner for the aviation, automotive and furniture industry as well the protection fabric industry. For this industries coated fabrics are developed and delivered to the markets. “In this sector we grow continuous during the last years. We are convinced that our investment in the Innovation Center will support this growth next to our first presence as exhibitor on the fair Techtex in 2019”, says Jens Meiser.

In the approval phase the company was supported by the city of Albstadt in all necessary questions. Fast and possible solutions were found. This shows the Mittelstands-friendly climate in this region in south Germany. The invest is supported by the national programme “Spitze auf dem Land” by the country of Baden-Württemberg and the EU.

• Product innovations, thought-leadership and the new certifications.
• A set of strategic green actions, aimed at increasing transparency and traceability in the company and throughout the industry.

Garmon Chemicals relaunches its commitment to an increasingly green and transparent use of chemicals. The new goal for the company, which in January 2018 has become part of the US Kemin Industries group, is to embark on an actual journey towards sustainability, integrating product innovation with increasingly distinctive strategic actions.

There are three main innovations spearheading Garmon’s commitment. The partnership with the ground-breaking project Alliance for Responsible Denim in the exclusive workshop “Doctor Visits”, held in London June 12. The new ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 9001:2015 process certifications.  The innovative “Stretch Care” collection which features a whole package of eco-compatible solutions, specific for finishing in the world of stretch fabrics.

In partnership with Alliance for Responsible Denim for the “Doctor Visits” workshop
On June 12, in London, the stage was set for “Doctor Visits” an event-workshop organized by Alliance for Responsible Denim focusing on the dissemination and promotion of best practices for sustainable manufacturing. The meeting was dedicated to six selected denim brands, which had a chance to meet the greatest experts in the finishing of indigo fabric.

Garmon Chemicals made available its inimitable experience as technical partner for finishing, as well as conducting team sessions with the Jeanologia staff, a leading company for eco-sustainable technological solutions. The six brands brought the finishing recipes of their Never out of Stock styles, to receive support and recommendations from the experts about the most innovative alternatives in terms of sustainability. The goal was to show the brands new possibilities to migrate towards more responsible finishing, improving their recipes as well. This was a way to reaffirm how ecodriven innovations can also increase finished product quality.
 
The new ISO certifications: increasingly high standards
Garmon Chemicals is also pleased to announce that it has been awarded two important certifications for compliance with ISO international standards as regards safety, reliability and quality. Reference is made here to ISO 9001:2015, a certification which sets international criteria for quality management systems, and most notably, to ISO 14001:2015, a standard acknowledged worldwide stipulating all requirements for an environmental management system. This certification, in particular, helps organizations improve their environmental management performance levels through a more efficient use of resources as well as by reducing production waste. Indeed ISO 14001:2015 mandates that an organization should take into account all aspects relevant to its core business. Amongst assessed parameters there are: air pollution, managing water resources and discharge, waste management, soil contamination, mitigation and adjustment to climate change, as well as an efficient use of resources.

These certifications, once again, provide evidence of the constant commitment on the part of Garmon for an increasingly sustainable use of chemicals, aimed at truly reducing its impact on humans and the environment.
    
A commitment which comes to life in the new “Stretch Care” collection
Introduced on the occasion of the Kingpins exhibition in April 2018, the new “Stretch Care” collection is a line of products completely dedicated to enhancing the qualities and performance of stretch fabrics. The special formulations developed for this line, with their cutting-edge raw materials, are especially suited for treatments with a high eco-compatibility rate; at the same time they optimize the production process. It is worth mentioning in particular the innovative Geopower NPS (= no pumice stone), a compound which helps eliminate pumice stone from denim washings, thus reducing environmental costs and impacts. Another ground-breaking product is Avol Oxy White, the innovative bleaching agent designed to achieve localized effects on denim. Thanks to its composition it is an ecologically advanced product whose environmental impact has been reduced to a minimum, a real challenge to the use of potassium permanganate which tends to be pervasively used as part of industrial processes.

“We firmly believe in developing sustainable chemistry” – concludes Donald Mulazzani, Marketing and Business Development Director at Garmon Chemicals – “not only in terms of product, but also as evidence of our responsible approach on several levels. In this way, we want to contribute to disseminating what will need to be the best practices in the future, for the whole industry”.