From the Sector

In the latest short film released on the Monforts YouTube Channel – captured at the recent Denim Première Vision show in London – some of the leading global manufacturers discuss their initiatives for more sustainable denim production.

Cone Denim, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, for example, can lay claim to having put in place its first environmental control measures back in the 1940s when the company first started recycling its water.

“It was a method of efficiency even back then, eighty years ago,” says Gabriel Magopat, of the company’s UK customer service centre, “but  producing high quality products is another method of being sustainable and of being efficient, and I think that’s what Cone stands for. We have an amazing history.”

Cone Denim is known for its signature S Gene® stretch denims which have traditionally incorporated polyester components to provide the stretch. It has now partnered with Intrinsic Advanced Materials of Gastonia, also in North Carolina, to introduce patent-pending CiCLO stretch polyester fibres into its denim collections. 

While still being synthetic based, CiCLO polyester is able to biodegrade in marine environments, wastewater treatment plants and landfill conditions, at rates similar to natural fibres like wool. 

This more sustainable solution for stretch is also being introduced to China for the first time by another leading denim supplier, Advance Denim.

“Advance Denim is spending its resources on being the most technologically advanced company in China, and also the most sustainable,” says Mark Ix, the company’s Director of Marketing. “We are investing heavily in our manufacturing to save both water and chemicals to create cleaner products.”

Monforts denim customer Berto is a family-owned company with its main denim mill in Bovolenta, a small rural town near to Padua in the north east of Italy, where respect for the environment has always been a must.

“The family has always been focused on respect for the environment,” says Berto’s Marketing Manager Francesca Palento. “In particular, we have a river next to the company from which we take our water for production and we then return it cleaner than it was before. We are also now producing GOTS and Global Recycling Standard jean produced with yarns made from our own internal waste production.”

Pakistan’s Soorty has recently received Cradle to Cradle Gold certification – the most stringent and exacting sustainable standard currently in existence – for its Pure D range of denims. These are produced using the company’s proprietary Zero Waste Water dyeing technology, in combination with the most advanced Monforts finishing machines. 

“Our very latest collection is called Climate Jeans, because every single product we now produce draws attention to the climate emergency we are living through right now,” says Eda Dikman, Soorty’s Marketing Communications Manager. “Sustainability is very important to us because we produce at scale and all of the actions we take reflect on the planet.”

SGL Carbon and Solvay collaborate to develop highly-competitive advanced carbon fiber composites for aerospace primary structures

SGL Carbon and Solvay have entered into a joint development agreement (JDA) to bring to market the first composite materials based on large-tow intermediate modulus (IM) carbon fiber. These materials, which address the need to reduce costs and CO2 emissions, and improve the production process and fuel efficiency of next-generation commercial aircraft, will be based on SGL Carbon’s large-tow IM carbon fiber and Solvay’s primary structure resin systems.

The agreement encompasses both thermoset and thermoplastic composite technologies. It builds on Solvay’s leadership in supplying advanced materials to the aerospace industry and SGL Carbon’s expertise in high-volume carbon fiber manufacturing.

“For Solvay, this is an opportunity to lead the aerospace adoption of a composite material based on 50K IM carbon fiber. This is a highly competitive value proposition that brings more affordable high-performance solutions to our customers. We see this as the first step in a long-term partnership,” said Augusto Di Donfrancesco, member of Solvay’s executive committee.

“By combining SGL’s carbon fiber expertise in our newly developed, unique 50K IM fiber with Solvay’s resin formulation and aerospace market expertise, both partners are aiming to develop an advanced aerospace material system. This alliance supports our strategic direction and accelerates our growth in the attractive aerospace market,” said Dr. Michael Majerus, spokesman of the management board of SGL Carbon.

Composite materials for aerospace applications represent a multi-billion-dollar market that is expected to grow strongly in the coming decade. Solvay and SGL Carbon are uniquely positioned to develop solutions to address the needs of this market.

Next summer, whether you plan to sun-bathe by the pool, swim in the ocean, or jog along palm-trees boulevards, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it sustainably. Starting from what you wear. ROICA Eco-Smart™ family, the multi-certified collection of premium stretch fiber ROICA™ brings, through partners innovations, sustainability and cutting-edge performance at MarediModa, the international fair dedicated to fabrics and accessories for the beachwear, underwear and ‘athleisure’ sectors.

The new collection comprises two responsibly made yarns. Made with 58% of pre-consumer recycled content, the ROICA™ EF comes with the Global Recycled Standard - GRS - certification by the influential Textile Exchange, one of the most known and recognized global players in the market.

Celebrating 25 years as Asia’s leading trade fair for the interior textiles industry, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles opened its doors from 28 – 31 August. Covering seven halls at the National Exhibition and Convention Center, around 1,150 exhibitors from 27 countries and regions displayed their latest products and technologies for the home and contract textiles sectors (2018: 1,091).

Exhibitor highlights from 2019

•    Country and region pavilions from Belgium, Pakistan, Taiwan and Turkey
•    Expanded finished products zone: more sourcing options were available in hall 8.1 this year for finished products and a range of home décor items.
•    Finished curtain zone located in the North Hall
•    Bed, bath, kitchen and table: suppliers from China were joined by exhibitors from Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Japan and elsewhere in these product categories.
•    Whole-home and editor zones: buyers could source the latest luxury branded products and gain decoration concept inspiration in these high-end zones.
•    Textile design zone: 20 design studios from 12 countries including China, Finland, France, India, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK showcased their avant-garde collections.

Hexcel, Arkema and their partners are pleased to announce that their joint collaborative project “HAICoPAS” has received approval from Bpifrance and the support (grant of 6 million euros) of France’s Investissements d’Avenir program.

HAICoPAS project is a collaborative project with a total amount of 13.5 million euros lead by Hexcel and Arkema and their industrial partners (Ingecal, Coriolis Composites, Pinette Emidecau Industries (PEI) et l'Institut de Soudure), and academia lead by CNRS (PIMM (CNRS - Arts et Métiers ParisTech - le Cnam), LTEN (CNRS - Université de Nantes). This project follows last year’s announcement of the strategic partnership between Hexcel and Arkema to develop high performance PEKK/carbon fiber UD tapes targeting composite parts for primary aerospace structures.

Companies get a close-up of new consumer buying journey and explore how they can meet challenges with Lectra’s latest technologies and industry experts

Lectra cements its position as a fashion industry opinion maker by leading a much-awaited discussion on new consumer behavior at its latest fashion event, ‘Winning Over the New Fashion Consumer’ in Bordeaux-Cestas, France.

More than 75 industry insiders and market experts from 14 countries convened at Lectra’s International Advanced Technology and Conference Center (IATC) for two days to examine how the digital age is bringing about major shifts in consumer behavior. Today’s digitally attuned consumers have become co-creators in the production process, changing the fashion landscape entirely.

The keynotes, live demonstrations, and customer testimonials highlighted the importance of process digitization and data analysis for meeting new consumer needs. The event kicked off with two keynote speakers. Peter Jeavons, Managing Director of First Insight Europe, stressed the importance of using data to understand the hyperconnected fashion consumer. Craig Crawford, Strategist and Founder of CrawfordIT, outlined the arising challenges and opportunities from these changes, and urged fashion companies to embrace digital transformation internally by cultivating a conducive environment for it.

Beyond just understanding the new fashion consumer, the event stressed on the importance of leveraging data to deliver customer-centric services and products. Lectra presented their responses to this challenge in the form of two new major solutions, Kubix Link and Fashion on Demand by Lectra.

JEC WORLD 2019 is turning Paris into the composites capital of the world.

As well as dozens of conferences, composites circles and live demos, plus hundreds of other events, the first day of the show was marked by the announcement of the three winners of the largest international startup competition in the composites field!

In the last three years, 270 projects have been picked out from over 30 countries, with 30 finalists and a total of nine winners.

THREE WINNERS
Ten finalists selected from 120 entries pitched to an international jury. The pitch session opened with an inspiring speech by Enrico Palermo, President of The Spaceship Company. He introduced the next generation of reusable space vehicles and their impact on costs, safety and the environment during the launch into space.
The programme incited enthusiasm from Peter Hopwood, founder of Hopwood Communications, who encouraged the finalists to develop their stage presence and galvanise their pitches.

At the afternoon’s award ceremony, three competitors were selected for the following prizes:

AIRGO DESIGN (Singapore)
World's first full composite economy class passenger seat developer.
www.airgodesign.com

AREVO (USA)
Delivering the future of composite manufacturing today through breakthrough advancements in software, materials, and robotics. Through enabling the 3D printing of large, mass-produced parts and structures, AREVO is revolutionizing mainstream manufacturing and the global supply chain.
www.arevo.com

WOODOO (France)
Augmented wood.
https://woodoo.fr

The public vote: LAVOISIER COMPOSITES (France)
New generation of material entirely sourced from the French aerospace transformation sector.
www.lavoisier-composites.com

Composite reinforcement specialist Chomarat will exhibit its latest woven and multiaxial carbon fibre reinforcements at JEC World 2019. "Prepregs are used in the most demanding markets, such as aerospace or the automotive industry. Due to their high performance, Chomarat’s carbon fabrics are highly considered by prepreggers. Compared to standard solutions, the multiaxial reinforcements developed by the group offer Chomarat’s converter customers significant productivity gains. With its production sites in France, Asia and the United States, Chomarat is able to supply its customers and guarantee the same high level of quality in all countries," explains Group Managing Director Michel Cognet.

C-WEAVE™ - THE QUALITY AND RELIABILITY BENCHMARK
In just a few years, prepreggers have come to consider Chomarat's C-WEAVE™ carbon-fibre fabrics as a benchmark for surface-finish quality and processability.
The reinforcement contributes to productivity and reliability during the prepregging process. Helen Doughty, Director at SHD Composites, testifies: “The consistent high quality of C-WEAVE™ has been a key part of SHD Composite Materials continued success and growth.”
"Prepreg users often manufacture Class A surface parts for demanding applications, and they need excellence and reproducibility," explains Chomarat’s Prepreg Market Manager Ulrike Salmon.

C-PLY™: GOING FURTHER WITH CARBON MULTIAXIALS
The advantages of multi-axial reinforcements are now well established - oriented axes, absence of resin-rich areas allowing a high fibre content, and improved mechanical tensile and/or bending performance thanks to the non-crimp fibres.
By developing its C-PLY™ range, Chomarat further demonstrates that multiaxials are a real asset in terms of performance and appearance. "Chomarat strives to minimize marking on parts and to optimize surface quality through fibre spreading and the use of suitable stitches. C-PLY™ can also integrate aesthetic functions by using the assembly seam as a graphic design", continues Ulrike Salmon.
These new advantages are important for the automotive, sports-equipment and consumer-electronics markets, which seek to combine premium quality and productivity.

Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, and Carlin, the trend office who pioneered trend forecasting back in 1947, are heading together to Premiere Vision Paris, where they share a booth fully dedicated to color creativity, inspiration and performance.
Carlin is well known in France and abroad for its "trend-oriented" expertise from brand strategy and collection design, to color creation and trend forecasting. Carlin serves famous brands in the fashion, cosmetic or sportswear industry, such as GAP, Empreinte, Byredo, Birchbox, or Samsung.

Carlin x Archroma collaboration
Archroma launched the 'Color Atlas by Archroma®' in 2016, a unique tool dedicated to providing fashion designers and stylists with off-the-shelf color inspiration that can be implemented in production with just a few clicks.
The Color Atlas contains 4,320 colors on cotton poplin, and online, almost double compared to similar tools available to textile and fashion specialists. More brands are turning to the Color Atlas and Archroma for color creation and implementation, such as American Eagle Outfitters, Athleta, Express, and Lands’ End.
Archroma and Carlin started their collaboration in July 2018. Carlin is using the color references of the Color Atlas during its color workshops throughout France, as well as in its 20 yearly publications.
At Premiere Vision, Archroma and Carlin will be together in one exhibition space, allowing visitors to enjoy a full consultation from color trends to color inspiration to color implementation from the first mood board all the way into production.

The annual meeting for the Asia-Pacific professionals of the composites industry, organized for the second time in a row in Seoul, has met its high expectations attracting +12% participants and acting as a major showcase for the composites industry in the region.

KEY FIGURES

• +230 companies
• 45 speakers
• +7,000 professional visits
• 49 countries represented
• 12 JEC Innovation Awards
• +450 Business meetings
• 3 Composites Tours
• Top 3 visitors’ countries: Korea - China - Japan

Gauging from the attendance of more than 7,000 professional visits from 49 countries, Eric PIERREJEAN, CEO of JEC Group, has already announced during the opening ceremony that JEC Asia 2019 will return next year on November 13, 14, 15, 2019. This ceremony was attended by industrialists, academics and officials, reflecting the huge interest that composite materials generates. Thus, at this ceremony we could notice the participation of Mr. BANG Yun Hyuk, President of KCTECH, Mr. Song, Ha Jin Jeonbuk Provincial Governor, Mr. HAN Byung Do, Senior secretary to the South Korean President for political affairs, Mr. CHOI Jin Hyuk, Director at MOTIE, Mr. KIM Yang Won, Vice Mayor of Jeonju, demonstrating the whole support of the Korean community; and Mr. Fabien PENONE, French Ambassador, was also present to underline the strong links and industrial interactions between Korea and France.

Hosting, this year again, the International Carbon Festival organized by KCTECH and the Jeonju region, JEC Asia also provided a comprehensive program dedicated to the Automotive professionals with a leadership circle attended by top stakeholders of the industry worldwide, top-notch conferences on automotive automated processes and composite applications for structural parts with speakers from Hyundai Motor Group, e-Xstream Engineering, L&L Products, Cobra International, Hanwha Advanced Materials, Daimler, Hankuk Carbon, Arkema, Cetim, Saertex & Co. KG to name a few.

“Aeronautics: 53% and beyond” conferences took place and attracted many attendees to discover new composites solutions and their wider use in this sector with Stratasys,IS Group, Cevotec… JEC Asia also offered its participants a chance to find out new business opportunities, highlighting the most relevant for the region and various application sectors.
All in all, the show floor was filled with innovations as JEC Asia 2018 showcased innovative parts and awarded 12 composites International champions among which 3 were about automotive, at the JEC Innovation Awards ceremony.

Also, to be noted at JEC Asia was the focus on networking with pre-arranged Business meetings that generated +450 qualified one-to-ones over the 3 days. Likewise, 3 composites tours opened exclusive doors to attendees when they visited Hanyang University, the composite architecture of the House of Dior, LG Hausys & Kolon and a day trip in Jeonju region and the Carbon Valley of the KCTECH.
For the first time, JEC Asia teamed up with MAI Carbon to offer a brand-new Student Program that keeps abreast of composite-industry needs to hire young, committed well-trained engineers. The two-part program included workshops with a focus on theoretical foundations and a guided tour through the JEC Asia trade show and the innovation planet.