From the Sector

Prof. Manfred Renner and Prof. Christian Doetsch will take joint leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT from August 2022. As renowned scientists, they have most recently shaped the direction of the institute as heads of the Products division and Energy division respectively, and will now follow in the footsteps of Prof. Eckhard Weidner, who has entered retirement.

This is the first time in its history that Fraunhofer UMSICHT is led by two directors. Both institute directors began their professional careers at the institute and from August they will have a joint hand in its future.

Prof. Manfred Renner holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering, specializing in process engineering and business development. Since 2006, he has held various roles at Fraunhofer UMSICHT, most recently heading up the Products division and overseeing its 126 employees and its budget of 14.8 million euros. He has set international standards through his award-winning research into a free of water tanning leather tanning process that uses compressed carbon dioxide. With the development of innovative aerogel-based insulation materials for building facades, he has made a significant contribution to environmentally friendly, circular applications in the construction industry and initiated a number of industrial projects. One of the notable technological breakthroughs made by his team was the development of a new type of fire-resistant glass, which can withstand even the most extreme heat. This won his development team the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize in October 2020.

Alongside becoming institute director, Prof. Renner will also take over the leadership of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE in August 2022. In this role, he will represent the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft on a national and international level with regard to the transformation of industry and society to a circular economy. In addition, he will start his professorship in Responsible Process Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Over the course of his professorship, he will shape the systemic development of the circular economy at a corporate, regional and European level.

Prof. Christian Doetsch has worked in energy research for more than 25 years, spending most of this time at Fraunhofer UMSICHT. As head of the Energy division, he managed a team of around 145 employees and was responsible for a budget of approximately 10.4 million euros. His technological focal points are energy storage, Power-to-X technologies including hydrogen electrolysis and chemical conversion, catalysts, and energy system modeling and optimization. His overarching aim is the integration of renewable energies into a cross-sectoral, resilient energy system.

In 2015, Doetsch co-founded the award-winning start-up Volterion GmbH & Co. KG, which develops redox flow batteries. He attained high visibility on a global scale by redesigning stacks, one of the main components of redox flow batteries, an achievement for which he, his team and Volterion representatives were awarded the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize in May 2021. The energy expert also acts as deputy spokesperson for the Fraunhofer Energy Alliance and task manager for the energy storage group at the International Energy Agency (IEA). He also co-founded the “Open District Hub e. V.,” an association that promotes the energy transition in the sector by means of energy systems integration.

Since January 2020, he has been Professor of Cross Energy Systems at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. In this role, he conducts research into ecological evaluation and resilience of cross-sectoral energy systems.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) named the winners of ‘RECO Young Designer Competition’, Thailand's largest upcycling fashion design event, parading haute couture garments containing at least 60% recycled materials.

Eleven finalists showcased 33 handmade sustainable outfits at the 9th edition of the fashion show at IVL’s headquarters in Bangkok, using recycled PET and polyester items to craft creative fashions. Under the concept of ‘REVIVE: Start from the Street,’ RECO supports young Thai designers while raising awareness of recycling. The designs use a range of recycled materials including recycled PET yarns, discarded fabric from factories, and even repurposed safety belts.

RECO awarded finalists and winners with 500,000 baht in prizes to support their careers. First prize of 125,000 baht was awarded to 23-year-old emerging furniture designer Prem Buachum for his ‘The Origin of Rebirth’ collection, using fabric recycled from post-consumer PET bottles. The first runner-up, Sathitkhun Boonmee, was awarded 75,000 baht for his ‘Remembering Your Favorite Teddy Bear’ collection, using old dolls made of polyester fibers. Second runners-up, Worameth Monthanom and Tanakorn Sritong, received 50,000 baht for their ‘Regeneration of Nature (into Spring)’ collection, using unused fabrics and discarded PET film. Napat Tansuwan, a finalist with his’ Don’t Judge’ collection, will go on to create designer merchandise for sponsor Buriram United Football Club using local weaving techniques from communities in Buriram province.

Mrs. Aradhana Lohia Sharma, Vice President at Indorama Ventures and RECO Young Designer Competition Chairperson, said, “Since 2011, RECO's ambition has been to uplift recycling and inspire people to realize the value of recyclable materials to produce great new products for daily life. We have witnessed many thoughtful initiatives on upcycling through the collections created by our talented young Thai designers. The designs this year showcase stunning wearability and innovation while using a large percentage of recycle materials. Public interest in recycling has been growing immensely, and we are grateful to strengthen the relationship with partners like Buriram United Football Club.”

“Indorama Ventures hopes this competition will be a driving force in nurturing sustainable fashion concepts and increasing the acceptance of recycled materials, especially post-consumer PET. We are proud to be a stepping-stone for our youth's design journey and our community’s sustainable future.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular disease is one of the most common natural causes of death. Every year, it is the cause of death of around 17 million people worldwide. The Peter Dornier Foundation Prize 2022 has now awarded a research work that is to improve the medical care of people with insufficient heart valve function in the future and prolong the patients' lives.

The human heart is a high-performance machine: over the course of a person's life, it beats almost three billion times, pumping around 200 million litres of blood through the body. Enormous stresses that can sometimes lead to life-threatening signs of wear and tear. If a heart valve gets out of step, patients usually get artificial-mechanical or biological valves as a replacement. However, mechanical solutions imply patients to take blood-thinning medication for the rest of their lives. In addition, there may be audible closing noises. For example, almost a quarter of patients with mechanical heart valves complain of sleep disturbances. Biological heart valves, on the other hand, such as those made from animal tissue, require a great deal of manual work and have a shorter lifetime.

Potential of weaving for medical products demonstrated
For this reason, Graduate Engineer Mathis Bruns at the Institute for Textile Machinery and High-Performance Textile Materials Technology (ITM) at the TU Dresden is researching an implant alternative made of fabric. As part of a research project that also involved heart surgeons from the Dresden Heart Centre and the University Hospital in Würzburg, Mr. Bruns provided important findings for weaving an artificial heart valve in his diploma thesis. For his work entitled "Development of tubular structures with integrated valve function", Mathis Bruns has now received the Peter Dornier Foundation Prize 2022, endowed with 5,000 euros. In his laudation, Dr. Adnan Wahhoud, former head of the development department of air-jet weaving machines at DORNIER in Lindau, said: "With his work, the winner of the award demonstrates very clearly the potential of weaving technology to produce fabrics of complex form, geometry and structure with the aim of prolonging and improving people's lives." The award-winning thesis enriches research into three-dimensional tissues for use in medicine.

Weaving replacement heart valves without seams
"A particular advantage of our approach is the integral production method", says foundation prize winner Mathis Bruns. “The geometry and function of a heart valve is that complex that woven heart valves could not be produced in this form previously. Through the combined use of a rigid rapier weaving machine with bobbin shield and a Jacquard machine, it is possible to weave the replacement heart valve in such a way that it no longer has be sewn together. Even the tubular structures for the blood vessels and the integrated valve function are ‘all of one piece’. Seams are always a weak point in textile medical products," Mr. Bruns adds. “Another advantage of the woven heart valve is the possibility to insert it by the help of minimally invasive surgery. Hence, the folded valve which is about the size of a tea light is to be pushed with a catheter via the bloodstream to the target position in the heart and unfolded there. The patient's chest and heart would then no longer have to be cut open”, explains prize winner Mr. Bruns.

Textile structure is similar to human tissue
A wide variety of medical products have always been produced on DORNIER weaving machines. Customers use them to produce fabrics for bandages, prostheses, blood filters and orthoses among other things. For Mathis Bruns, it is only evident that implants such as heart valves will more and more be woven on the machines from Lindau in the future. "Textile tissue is very similar to human tissue," he says. The human body consists largely of thread-like materials, just as a textile fabric is made up of thousands of individual threads. "Muscle fibres convey force impulses, nerve tracts send stimuli such as pain and brain cells convey information via thread-like dendrites and axons." Because of their ‘thread-like properties’, woven implants are therefore particularly suitable for medical applications.

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, announces online nominations are now open for the prestigious Hygienix Innovation Award™. The Award recognizes a new product or technology innovation in the absorbent hygiene and personal care sector that uses nonwoven fabrics in novel, technically sophisticated, uniquely creative and expansive ways. The Award will be presented at Hygienix™ 2022, Nov. 14-17 at The Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel, in New Orleans, LA.

Nominees will be selected from a broad range of new products or technologies that have been commercially available at most two years prior to Hygienix™ 2022. Nominees can include end product components, fabrication techniques, or products that use a nonwoven technology in manufacturing. Award categories include feminine care products, diapers, incontinence products, raw materials, equipment technology, reusable products or technologies, and composites or laminates that use nonwovens. Three finalists will present their innovations to over 450 participants at the eighth edition of Hygienix™, the premier event for the absorbent hygiene and personal care markets. The winner will be announced Thursday, Nov. 17.

Last year’s Hygienix Innovation Award™ was presented to Kudos for their Kudos Diaper Subscription Box, a disposable diaper featuring 100 percent breathable cotton touching baby’s skin.

David Herberg, Vice President Engi-neering EMEA at automotive supplier Adient, has been named Rising Star 2022 in the Engineering category by Automotive News Europe magazine.

Every year since 2010, Automotive News Europe has recognized talents in the European automotive industry for their outstanding careers and special achievements in the service of their company and the industry as a whole. To be eligible, candidates must have a minimum of ten years’ experience in the industry, speak at least two languages and be aged 45 years or younger at the time of the nomination.

"The 19 people we are honoring this year are special," said Luca Ciferri, Associate Publisher & Editor of Automotive News Europe. "They’ve made it to the top from a pool of more than 130 candidates, making this year's selection process the most competitive in the history of the award."

Herberg, graduate industrial engineer and aged 45, looks back at a career spanning more than ten years at Adient, a leading supplier of seating systems for the automotive industry. After several years at the management consultancy McKinsey and various management positions at Adient as well as its predecessor Johnson Controls, Herberg has been responsible for around 1,200 employees in the development of seat structures, trim and complete seating systems since May 2020.

The 2002 prize of the Walter Reiners Foundation of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association for the best Master's thesis in German textile mechanical engineering was awarded to a young engineer from the ITA Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University. The prize ceremony took place at Techtextil 2022 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Peter D. Dornier, Chairman of the Board of the Walter Reiners Foundation, presented the award at the VDMA Textile Machinery Association’s booth.

Felix Xaver Zerbes, M.Sc., was awarded the "Promotional Prize for the Best Master's Thesis of the German Textile Machinery Industry 2022", endowed with 3,500 EUR, for his master's thesis "Development and Construction of a Separation Unit for Weft Yarns in Air Jet Weaving".

The subject of the master's thesis was the development of a mechanism with which faulty sections in the weft yarn can be sorted out before they are woven into the textile. This way, both yarn-related weft defects and material defects can be drastically reduced. The prototype developed by Mr Zerbes shows how this can be done even during the ongoing weaving process without having to stop production. Due to its modular design, the yarn rejection unit can be retrofitted to many different types of air-jet weaving machines, which represents an enormous savings potential not only in Germany but in weaving mills all over the world.

Albstadt-based Mayer & Cie. has been named a Top 100 award-winner for the third time as one of Germany’s most innovative small and mid-range businesses. The jury made special mention of the circular knitting and braiding machine manufacturer’s innovative processes. At the centre of the family firm’s further digital development is on the aim to boost its customers’ productivity. Last Friday, 25 June, members of the Mayer & Cie. management received the award from the science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar at the SMB summit in Frankfurt am Main.

For some time now, the focus of development work at Mayer & Cie. has been on lean management in assembly processes, on optimisation of aftersales service, including setting up an online shop for spare parts, and on product lifecycle management, or PLM, which stands for a concept of seamless integration of all the information that arises during a product’s lifecycle. A clean data structure is the basis for these measures, it’s called the “digital backbone”. It means that all product data is processed in the same database and all information is available only once and can be downloaded immediately.

In all, 436 companies, including about ten per cent from machinery and plant engineering, competed for the Top 100 seal of innovation this year. Nearly 300 were successful and were congratulated in person by Ranga Yogeshwar at the SMB summit. He noted that the award winners set a role model example. “Innovators are thought leaders; they are always pioneers too,” said Yogeshwar, who mentors the competition. “They put their products to the test and ask themselves what an ecological society and a climate-oriented world will require of them. And they check the opportunities and challenges that increasing digitisation will bring for forms of cooperation, social relationships and, with them, for employee retention.”

• Biotransformation technology for nonwovens

Avgol^® has received the prestigious Innovation Award at the RIGHT Hygiene conference in recognition of its collaboration with Polymateria in development of pioneering biotransformation technology for nonwovens.
 
Biotransformation is a unique functionality wherein a conventional nonwoven fabric can be modified to react to certain triggers to then begin a cascade, and importantly a fundamental chemical transformation of the polymer resin into a wax that is readily degraded by natural bacteria, microbes and fungi normally found in the environment.
 
“The transformation is triggered through the combined effects of the natural elements of decay - air, moisture, heat and sunlight,” said Mr. Sanjay Bhayani, Director of India Operations with Avgol. “Once triggered, the material will transform into a low molecular weight wax structure leaving no microplastics or toxic residue behind. Moreover, if the product comprising the biotransformation technology is disposed of in the normal way and facilities are available, then it can be recycled by readily available means.”

“By bringing the Biotransformation technology to the various potential markets in India, we hope to offer a real-world solution to waste management,” he said. “We particularly hope to address aspects of the creation of fugitive waste and remove this from the environment without causing additional, and potentially more dangerous, problems.”

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, has announced the nomination process is now open for the annual RISE® Innovation Award. The prestigious award will be presented at the RISE® (Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics) Conference – September 27-28, 2022, at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.  RISE^® 2022 is a two-day conference presenting insightful research and science that propels product development.

Companies, academic institutions, research centers, and individuals are invited to nominate their advances in nonwovens and engineered materials at https://www.riseconf.net/award-submission.html until the July 15, 2022 deadline.

The RISE^® Innovation Award recognizes innovation within and on the periphery of the nonwovens industry that uses revolutionary science and engineering principles to solve current and future industry needs. Raw material advances, advances in process or manufacturing technologies including web forming and converting, new product or application development, and other areas that may extend or enhance the use of nonwovens will be considered for nominations.

Industry professionals involved with product development, material science, and disruptive enabling technologies for both consumer and industrial products are encouraged to nominate their product(s) for the RISE^® Innovation Award.

Nomination Process
Technical experts serving on the INDA Technical Advisory Board will review nominations and select three finalists who exemplify the use of cutting-edge science and engineering principles to advance the field of nonwovens. Finalists will present their innovations to technology scouts, scientists, researchers, and next level industry professionals at the RISE® Conference on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022.

Criteria and eligibility, nomination process timing, and prior award recipient information is available online: https://www.riseconf.net/award-submission.html

Natural fibers are among the most important raw materials in the textile and fashion industry worldwide. For centuries, they have fed millions of people through their cultivation or breeding, and it is impossible to imagine daily life without them. Especially at the moment, natural fibers are gaining special importance due to the intense discussions about sustainable living. Even though natural fibers have accompanied mankind for a long time, they are changeable, technical, and adaptable to the challenges of the textile industry.

The Discover Natural Fibres Initiative (DNFI) is celebrating natural fibres in a program to be conducted during Heimtextil in Frankfurt on 23 June. Anyone with an interest in the role of natural fibres in the world economy, economic indicators of textile activity, innovations in natural fibre research, and updates on proposed EU legislation affecting textiles is welcome to attend.

The program will include various presentations by the previous and current award winners, presentations, and discussions:

Overview of world natural fibre production, employment, and value,

• Economic indicators and impacts of coronavirus on textile industries,
• Updates on innovative uses of natural fibres:
• Use of wool in automobile insulation applications for enhanced sustainability,
• Using cellulose from cotton to produce a biodegradable plastic substitute,
• Manufacturing waterproof fabric from a blend of cotton and jute as sustainable
• Substitute for polypropylene tarps
• Proposed EU textile legislation and potential impacts on natural fibres