From the Sector

Far Eastern New Century (FENC) has presented a broad range of fibre and textile developments at TITAS in Taipei, spanning sportswear, mono-material design, recycling and industrial protective materials. The Taiwanese manufacturer used the October 6–8 event to demonstrate how its vertically integrated polyester business is being applied to both high-performance products and circular material systems.

Among the new sportswear materials is FENC TopCool Petal, a profiled fibre with a petal-shaped cross-section. The company says the geometry supports moisture transport and fast drying while providing a soft handle and increased opacity when fabrics become wet with perspiration. FENC reports that the material has been selected by a major global sportswear brand for 2026 World Cup apparel. The company also supplies textiles used in professional tennis clothing.

On circularity, FENC is extending its recycled-polyester activities beyond post-consumer PET bottles toward textile-to-textile recycling. Its strategy focuses on a polyester-based material ecosystem intended to simplify recovery and reuse. A new all-polyester synthetic leather was recognised with an iF Design Award in 2026. The company also highlighted its AirTek low-carbon polyurethane technology, although the release does not provide comparable lifecycle figures for each product.

Working with the Taiwan Textile Research Institute and other partners, FENC has developed a mono-material polyester footwear concept combining TOPGREEN rTPEE with a one-step separation and decolourisation process. This project received a 2026 R&D 100 Award. For technical markets, the company introduced Telix aramid fibre, designed for strength, puncture resistance and abrasion durability.

The technologies address different industrial challenges. Profiled yarns seek to improve wearer comfort through fibre geometry; mono-material constructions target more practical end-of-life processing; aramid materials serve demanding protection and industrial applications. For buyers, the next step is to assess the material-specific performance and verified environmental claims under actual manufacturing and use conditions.

With the foundation of STC Extrusion GmbH, headquartered in Chemnitz, Germany, a technical competence and know-how hub for the production of artificial turf and technical monofilaments has been established within the Starlinger Group.

The newly founded machine manufacturing company is part of Austria-based Starlinger Group and has taken over selected assets from the insolvent STC Spinnzwirn GmbH. STC Extrusion GmbH is a legally independent entity and does not act as the legal successor to STC Spinnzwirn GmbH. The company plans to focus on the core areas monofilament production for artificial turf and technical monofilaments made from a wide variety of polymers.

 “With the founding of STC Extrusion GmbH, we are opening a new chapter in STC’s history—with the experience, passion, and dedication to our customers that have always distinguished STC,” said Managing Director Nico Dürrschmidt. “We are convinced that with this solution, we have laid a solid foundation that will enable us to continue delivering value for our customers and partners worldwide in the future.”

In addition to production technology for artificial turf applications and technical monofilaments, STC Extrusion GmbH offers a Customer Experience Center for customer tests, raw material evaluation, research, and product and technology development. Furthermore, the company will take over and continue to provide service and spare parts for installed STC Spinnzwirn extrusion systems. This ensures that existing customers receive the technical support they need.
To leverage the established know-how in the field of winders, synergies with Georg Sahm GmbH & Co. KG—a winding technology specialist that is also part of the Starlinger Group—will be deepened to advance innovative winding technology and offer automation solutions and handling systems for bobbins. The expertise of Starlinger’s recycling division will also be incorporated into the development and implementation of environmentally friendly solutions with higher recycled content.

“With this strategical reorganization we aim to make STC Extrusion GmbH the knowledge and competence hub for artificial turf and technical monofilaments within the Starlinger network and establish it as a technology leader and brand for these specialized areas,” explains Angelika Huemer, CEO and Managing Partner of Starlinger & Co Ges.m.b.H., which holds the shares in the newly founded company. “We intend to make even better use of the synergies that arise among the companies in the Starlinger Group and to further develop and expand their individual areas of expertise.”

Two GRAPHERGIA research teams received poster awards at Graphene Week 2026 for work on energy harvesting, sensing and storage. One project uses graphene-based triboelectric nanogenerators in aerospace composite structures to convert mechanical movement into electrical signals for real-time monitoring.

The second development is directly textile-based. Researchers at FORTH/ICE-HT use a laser-assisted process to convert graphene-oxide-coated polyester textiles into conductive architectures.
Continuous conductive tracks serve as current collectors or electrodes for triboelectric nanogenerators, while laser-patterned interdigitated structures form micro-flexible supercapacitor electrodes.

The objective is to couple energy generation and storage in one self-charging textile platform that can support IoT integration. The work therefore moves beyond attaching electronics to fabric: the textile itself becomes part of the electrical architecture.
The project is funded under Horizon Europe and brings together partners including Adamant Composites and FORTH/ICE-HT.

The University of Washington's Wearable Intelligence Lab is advancing textile structures as tactile sensing systems for healthcare, robotics and human-computer interaction. A new university profile of Yiyue Luo shows how digital fabrication, conductive yarns, sensing and AI are being combined.

One example is MultiSensKnit, a sensor-packed knitted sleeve designed for rehabilitation assessment. Other projects range from smart gloves for tactile capture and robot learning to machine-knitted magnetoactive textiles that provide sensing and haptic feedback.

The textile form factor is functional rather than decorative: knits can cover large body areas, conform to movement and capture physical information in situations where cameras or conventional rigid electronics are limited. Luo uses digital knitting machines to integrate conductive yarns and functional structures reproducibly into fabrics.

The work also illustrates a broader transition in smart textiles from isolated demonstrators towards integrated systems in which material, textile construction, electronics and data processing are developed together.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a route in which lignin replaces a substantial share of the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) normally used in carbon fibre. Lignin is generated in large volumes as a by-product of pulp and biorefinery operations. The university reports that PAN use can be cut by half, with corresponding potential reductions in production cost and emissions.

The central technical challenge is mechanical performance. The team functionalises single-walled carbon nanotubes and incorporates them into the lignin-PAN matrix. The nanotubes act as nanoscale reinforcement and promote stronger crystalline alignment during spinning and thermal treatment.

The precursor solution is wet-spun, tension-assisted heat-treated and carbonised. The researchers report that the resulting renewable carbon fibre can reach quality requirements relevant to automotive manufacturing. Aerospace, energy infrastructure, sporting goods and wind energy are cited as additional markets.