Aus der Branche

The Biden Administration has awarded two contracts to National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) members Parkdale Mills and Ferrara Manufacturing Inc., following through on the President’s pledge to procure millions of fully Made in America face masks for community health centers, food pantries and soup kitchens across the country.  A third contract is expected to be awarded to a small business early next week.

North Carolina headquartered Parkdale Mills, the nation’s largest cotton yarn spinner, has partnered with Ferrara Manufacturing, a tailored clothing company based in New York City’s garment center whose workforce is union represented by Workers United/SEIU, to manufacture over 17 million reusable masks. The government said it could purchase up to a maximum of 22.2 million masks under the two contracts announced today. The masks will be Berry compliant and thus 100% U.S.-made.

Ferrara Manufacturing and Parkdale Mills will contract with additional U.S. companies across the manufacturing supply chain, employing nearly 5,000 American workers as a result of these awards.  Parkdale will be utilizing yarn from their facilities in NC, VA, and GA and Ferrara will deploy their cut and sew operations in New York City.

The U.S. textile industry has produced over a billion lifesaving PPE and other medical products over the last year.  Since the spring of 2020, both Ferrara and Parkdale have retooled their production chains to help produce millions of masks and gowns to help workers on the frontlines. 

The Swiss Technology Award announced the 2020 prizes, and among all the notable finalist innovations of the year, HeiQ was bestowed the highest honor as First Prize Winner for its breakthrough antiviral textile technology HeiQ Viroblock.

Developed in record time and launched after the Swiss authorities announced the lockdown in March 2020, HeiQ Viroblock has had a major impact on the global textile industry and is being unprecedently adopted by mills around the world.

The technology that makes HeiQ Viroblock a unique innovation
What exemplifies HeiQ Viroblock is its ability to turn any fabric antiviral. It’s among the first textile technologies in the world to be proven effective against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). HeiQ Viroblock consists of a combination of HeiQ’s patent-pending vesicle and silver technologies. The two mechanisms of attack result in an over 99.9% destruction of viruses in 5 minutes that is unrivaled in the industry. HeiQ Viroblock is a unique patent-pending formulation of 72% bio-based ingredients, made with 100% cosmetic-grade materials from the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients list. HeiQ Viroblock is also a shining example of Swiss cooperation between academics and the industry. The silver technology was developed at ETHZ (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich), the vesicle technology at EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne), and the production was scaled up at FHNW (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz).

HeiQ Viroblock has demonstrated unparalleled speed from laboratory to consumer
HeiQ launched the new antiviral textile technology HeiQ Viroblock on March 16, 2020 – two hours after Switzerland declared a state of emergency. This was made possible with the indispensable support of Swiss research Partner FHNW and the EPFL which helped accelerate product validation. The fast scale-up of production was enabled by the FHNW School of Life Sciences with their new Process Technology Center (PTC) by special permit. With its agile operations and global footprint, HeiQ also brought HeiQ Viroblock face masks and other PPE (personal protection equipment) to different corners of the world where are needed. Now, Swiss consumers can also acquire HeiQ Viroblock enhanced face masks online.

Reacting to the news of HeiQ Viroblock winning this year’s Swiss Tech Award, Co-founder and CEO Carlo Centonze says: “I am both amazed and honored that HeiQ has won this award a second time in just ten years, and from among some incredible tech innovation finalists. It confirms our resolve to push the boundaries and push innovations to help the world with its most pressing and imminent problems. This award is recognition for our company and team that have spared no efforts to develop and launch HeiQ Viroblock at such speed and make a valuable contribution to the global pandemic efforts. We remain true to our mission: enhancing the everyday lives of people with smart and efficient textile effects.”

• Bangladeshi supplier offers production capacity to produce face masks and PPE on non-profit basis
•  Reaching out to global agencies to build partnerships to help tackle COVID-19 crisis

A Bangladeshi garment manufacturer is offering the manufacturing capacity for the production of protective face masks and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on a non-profit basis to help tackle the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Many hospitals in Europe and USA are already running short of masks and PPE as they creak under the strain of the pandemic.
At present, COVID-19 is most prevalent in Europe, where demand for surgical masks and other protective garments has increased this past two months. However, other countries – including Bangladesh – are several weeks behind Europe but are expected to follow the same pattern in terms of cases and deaths.

Denim Expert Limited Managing Director, Mostafiz Uddin, has reached out to the global community including brands & retailers, governments, embassies, donors, development agencies, global apparel associations and bodies in these unprecedented times.