From the Sector

It is exactly 100 years ago on August 17th this year that Carl Axel Gustafsson returned from the USA to Sweden with a significant agency agreement from the Boston-based sewing machine leader Reece.

Back in 1921, Reece, along with its competitor Singer, entirely dominated the buttonhole machine market and were the world’s only manufacturers of these machines for jackets, trousers and coats.

Gustafsson’s license enabled his new company A C Gustafsson to become one of Europe’s first leasing organisations, hiring out Reece buttonhole machines and receiving payment per sewn buttonhole stitch.

This business thrived for many decades and formed the basis for the entire ACG Group as it exists today.

Forty years later, on September 2nd 1961 to be precise, Reimar Westerlind walked out of a restaurant after a long and enjoyable lunch with someone he’d never met before, having signed his intention to buy a company he knew nothing about on an improvised contract written on the back of a menu.

“What I didn’t know then was that my dining partner was the family lawyer of Carl Axel Gustafsson,” Reimar explains. “I had no money and knew nothing about the textile industry and I also quickly discovered the business was not doing so well at that time and tried to get out of the agreement, but he insisted I honour it. He told me he had money and would back me, but I’d have to work hard and pay him back in full.”

Reimar certainly took that advice, and at the age of 92 still travels to his office every day to oversee the operations of the diverse companies now operating under the ACG umbrella.

Although textiles remain the bedrock of the business, under Reimar Westerlind’s management, ACG Group has branched out into many other fields of activity over the past 60 years, and its diversity has also led to some highly unexpected developments.

Like many other European manufacturers, ACG also began to expand beyond its traditional borders from the 1970s onwards – initially into the former Soviet Union and subsequently establishing subsidiaries in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, the Ukraine and Denmark.

• Harmonized Language Increases Efficiency to Communicate Globally Consistent Descriptions, Production and Testing

EDANA and INDA, the leading global nonwovens associations, jointly announce the launch of the 2021 edition of standard procedures for the nonwovens and related industries.

These Nonwovens Standard Procedures help technically define the nonwovens industry, with specifiers for the properties, composition, and specifications of its products. Offering harmonized language for the industry across the USA and Europe, and recognized by many other individual markets, the procedures offer a way for the nonwovens industry to communicate both across the globe, and within the supply chain to ensure that product properties can be consistently described, produced, and tested.

The harmonized methods contained in the Nonwovens Standard Procedures (NWSP) edition include 107 individual test procedures and guidance documents to support applications across the nonwovens and related industries, and are available on both www.inda.org and www.edana.org.

The 2021 edition includes updated or modified procedures with a numbering structure that makes the document intuitive to search and use. Additionally, each method also includes a page to summarize and track relevant changes made to the document. In an effort to make all methods more consistent, each one is now presented in a format building on the International Standards Organisation (ISO) template, facilitating any future possible submission to ISO in an effort to become a recognized international standard or technical specification.

As in previous editions, the table of contents for the Nonwoven Standard Procedures document includes references to existing related ISO standards, which makes it easier for technicians to choose the most relevant procedure or methods to apply to their product.

Founded in 1952, Svegea of Sweden – a member of TMAS, the Swedish textile machinery association – has over 60 years of experience in exclusively designing, manufacturing and installing high quality collarette band cutting machines worldwide.

These are used by garment manufacturers around the world for the production of tubular apparel components such as waistbands, cuff and neck tapes and other seam reinforcements, such as Triteks Trejd.

Founded in 1994, this family-owned business employs over 280 people at its plant in Prilep, North Macedonia, where high quality cotton fabrics are expertly converted into the products of the Tritex Underwear brand.

The Prilep operation encompasses the processing of fabrics, design, cutting, sewing, quality control and packing in a fully integrated workflow.

With around 200 sewing machinists, the Tritex product range encompasses briefs, boxers, slips, t-shirts, pyjamas and body slips which are primarily sold to countries within the European Union, as well as the domestic market.

The company has also just completed the digitalisation of its full production via the in-house DPC-SYS system, installing around 200 industrial PCs linking each of its workstations and departments.

Triteks Trejd currently operates three of the latest Svegea collarette cutting machines and is highly satisfied with their performance, as well as the service provided by the Swedish company.

NCTO President and CEO Kim Glas testifies on “COVID-19 Part II: Evaluating the Medical Supply Chain and Pandemic Response Gaps, before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

In written testimony submitted to the committee, Glas provides an overview of: the U.S. market prior to the pandemic and the root causes of America’s dependence on offshore sources for medical PPE; the heroic response of the U.S. textile industry; the federal government’s response to the crisis; and a series of policy recommendations to incentivize the establishment of a permanent domestic PPE supply chain.

Glas details key policy recommendations designed to establish a permanent domestic PPE supply chain, including:

• Create strong domestic procurement rules for federal PPE purchases and other essential products--substantially similar to the Berry Amendment and the Kissell Amendment which require 100% US content from fiber production forward
• Implement forward-looking policies to shore up the Strategic National Stockpile and issue long-term contracts to incentivize investment in the domestic PPE manufacturing base
• Create federal incentives for private sector hospitals and large provider networks to purchase domestically-produced PPE
• Continue to deploy the Defense Production Act to shore up the textile industrial base from raw materials to end products for all essential products

View the full written testimony here.

AMAC cooperates with ITA (Institute for Textile Technology of RWTH Aachen University and their ITA GmbH) for the business development in composites 

As of April 19th, 2021, AMAC is pleased to announce its cooperation with the Institute for Textile Technology, ITA, of RWTH Aachen University and their ITA GmbH. The aim of the cooperation is to strengthen and develop their business activities in composites.

ITA, as one of the largest institutes on the campus of the excellence University RWTH Aachen, Germany, develops complete solutions from the manufacturing of the fiber itself over the processing of textile intermediates with thermoplastic and thermoset resins, textile-based part manufacturing, capabilities such as braiding, pultrusion and in-situ impregnation of textile preforms. Top 3 focused industries are transportation and particularly the e-mobility sector, building and construction as well as the wind energy sector. Additionally, ITA GmbH is the partner of the industry in R&D, focusing on 8 business segments, providing technology and knowledge transfer, as well as offering comprehensive solutions along the entire textile value chain.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Gries, Director of ITA, explains the background of the strategic cooperation with focus on composites: „Our long-term experience and unmatched know-how with all aspects of continuous fibers, non-wovens and web-based reinforcements allows us to deliver to the composite manufacturers a complete technology and service offer around the development of technical textiles, from the development of glass and carbon fibers to the textile-based processing of composite parts. In all process steps of our research and developments, we focus on sustainable and recyclable solutions, an efficient cost-performance ratio, the possible use of bio-based materials and the reduction of the CO2 footprint. We are glad to cooperate with Dr. Michael Effing and AMAC in order to benefit from his door-opening network in the composites industry. “

Dr. Michael Effing, Managing Director of AMAC GmbH: „I am very happy to support the ITA to generate innovation thanks to further industrial networking and pre-competitive joint projects. ITA is indeed a one-stop source for composite solutions from the fiber to the cost-efficient manufacturing of final parts. In the context of the Covid-19 impact to the entire industry, it makes sense to bundle forces. Furthermore, ITA, with its long tradition and satisfied customers offers further valuable networking opportunities to the composites industry as well as access to relevant complementary fiber-based excellence and 250 different technologies in their machine-park with an outstanding infrastructure in Aachen.”

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. 

National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas issued a statement today on the White House announcement that President Biden will sign an executive order today, “ensuring the future of America is Made in America by all of America’s workers.”  Further, NCTO launched a new industry video campaign today that outlines steps the Biden administration and Congress must take to re-shore the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the entire supply chain for critical products. The video can be found here: MakeAmericanPPE.

National Council of Textile Organizations President and CEO Kim Glas said:
“We commend President Biden for taking action in his first days in office to strengthen our domestic supply chain and manufacturing base with a “Made in America” executive order directing the federal government to spend taxpayer dollars on American-made goods produced by American workers using American-made components.

Increasing the domestic procurement threshold and the price preferences for domestic goods under the current Buy American law will bolster domestic production and stimulate more investment in U.S. manufacturing.

We believe it is critical that taxpayer dollars are used to invest in American manufacturing and our workforce. It is essential that we close loopholes in our Buy America laws, expand application and product coverage of domestic content rules, and close unnecessary contract waivers that undermine American manufacturing and its workforce.
 
We look forward to working with the Biden administration and Congress on immediately strengthening our domestic procurement laws. The COVID-19 crisis was exacerbated when foreign supply chains broke down leaving our frontline workers vulnerable, underscoring the vital need for America to manufacture essential medical products at home. We look forward to working with the Biden administration on implementing this Executive Order, and with members of Congress to push critical bipartisan legislation to help ensure this onshoring effort is fully realized.

We also sincerely thank Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Representative Kathy Manning (D-NC) for their leadership in sending a recent letter to President Biden, requesting the president prioritize “Made in America” personal protective equipment (PPE) purchases and outlining key steps the administration can take to produce and procure quality American-made PPE for frontline workers.”

National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas issued a statement today welcoming President Biden’s action plan and COVID-19 response, accompanied by a series of executive orders, including an order signed today to strengthen U.S. supply chains by directing federal agencies to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to address shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and related vaccine supplies.

“We are closely reviewing President Biden’s national strategic plan to confront the pandemic and welcome the executive order signed today to strengthen our supply chains by directing all federal agencies to use the Defense Production Act to address shortages of personal protective equipment, vaccine supplies and essential products. These are important steps that will help ramp up critical manufacturing of these essential PPE products and other critically needed supplies like tests and vaccines.”

American manufacturers have been at the forefront of the effort to build a domestic PPE supply chain since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. textile industry retooled production and operations virtually overnight, producing millions of face masks, isolation gowns, testing swabs and other critical medical textiles.

The industry is dedicated to making significant investments in automated equipment for PPE, but the industry needs long-term, multiyear contracts to help realize that investment.

The deployment of DPA is one of the critical tools that will help incentivize investment in equipment, propel the hiring of U.S. workers and expand these critical production chains.

Since its inception, the DPA has been utilized by the Department of Defense to make critical investments in domestic textile manufacturing infrastructure and capacity, creating private-public partnerships through the government’s capital investments under the DPA and guaranteeing purchases through long-term contracts.  

NCTO applaud President Biden’s action and anticipate further steps including a reported order that will seek to strengthen government procurement of U.S. products in the coming days. NCTO appreciate President Biden outlining the “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness” a series of actions and steps the administration will undertake to deploy and manufacture the vaccine and other essential products.

Starting on December 8, professionals from the whole composites value chain across the globe will be able to meet online, network, and build long-lasting relationships thanks to the JEC Summit Sport & Health. The goal of this event is to allow decision-makers to learn about the current challenges and opportunities of the sports and medical fields, this thanks to the three-day program integrating keynote speeches, industry sessions, workshops, startups, and business meetings.

Please read attached document for more information about the program.

Der Bundesverband Medizintechnologie, BVMed, schlägt zur Vermeidung von Lieferengpässen bei Krisensituationen in Deutschland eine „Digitale Bestandsplattform Versorgungskritischer Medizinprodukte“ vor. „Die Medizinprodukte-Industrie steht für smarte Lösungen bereit, um die Verteilung versorgungskritischer Medizinprodukte in Krisensituationen besser über eine Bestandsdatenbank mit offenen GS1-Schnittstellen zu organisieren“, sagte der BVMed-Vorstandsvorsitzende Dr. Meinrad Lugan, Vorstand bei B. Braun, auf der digitalen Jahres-Pressekonferenz des deutschen MedTech-Verbandes am 1. Oktober 2020. Der BVMed-Vorschlag bezieht sich auf die vom Bundesgesundheitsministerium geplante „Nationale Reserve Gesundheitsschutz“. „Hier muss unbedingt die logistische Expertise der MedTech-Branche eingebunden werden“, so Lugan.

Zum Hintergrund erläutert der BVMed-Vorsitzende, dass es zu Beginn der Corona-Krise zu einer Nachfrage-Explosion für einige Medizinprodukte und Pharmazeutika zur Intensivbehandlung kam. Spontane und multiple Bestellungen führten zu Lieferengpässen. Zudem kam es zu einer Kettenreaktion durch „protektionistische“ Aktivitäten einiger Staaten. Lugans Einschätzung: „Für über 80 Prozent aller kritischen Produkte gibt es keinen Mangel, sondern ein Verteilungsproblem. Hier wäre eine digitale Bestandsplattform versorgungskritischer Medizinprodukte eine gute Lösung“. Erste Gespräche mit dem Bundesgesundheitsministerium haben bereits stattgefunden. Derzeit organisiert der BVMed eine Industrieallianz aus den Bereichen Medizintechnik und Pharma.

Lugan nannte sechs Entwicklungsschritte zur digitalen Bestandsplattform:

1. Definition kritischer Arznei- und Medizinprodukte
2. Ermittlung von Produkten / Rohmaterialien mit fehlender EU-Produktionskapazität
3. Nutzung eines einheitlichen global eingeführten Produktidentifikationsstandards und Klassifikationsstandards
4. Festlegung der Teilnehmer an der Bestandsplattform und Zugänglichkeit
5. Aufsetzen eines Pilotprojektes
6. Strategie zur Vermeidung von außereuropäischen Abhängigkeiten

Lugan forderte, die Industrie-Expertise bei den Maßnahmen zur Überwindung der COVID-19-Krise stärker einzubinden. Er verwies darauf, dass die industrielle Gesundheitswirtschaft – abgekürzt IGW – ein für Deutschland enorm wichtiger Wirtschaftszweig sei. „Die IGW steht für rund 85 Milliarden Euro Wertschöpfung, ein Exportvolumen von 120 Milliarden Euro und über 1 Million Arbeitsplätze“, so Lugan. Die Medizinprodukte-Industrie sei ein bedeutender Teil der Gesundheitswirtschaft. Die MedTech-Branche beschäftige in Deutschland über 215.000 Menschen, sei stark mittelständisch geprägt und investiere 9 Prozent ihres Umsatzes in Forschung und Entwicklung.

„Deutsche Medizintechnik ist auf dem Weltmarkt sehr erfolgreich. Die Exportquote lag im Jahr 2019 bei rund 65 Prozent. Der Inlandsumsatz liegt bei über 33 Milliarden Euro“, betonte der BVMed-Vorsitzende. Dennoch mangele es aus seiner Sicht noch immer an einer ausreichenden Wertschätzung der Branche in der Politik und der Öffentlichkeit. Die Corona-Pandemie habe sehr deutlich gezeigt, „wie unentbehrlich Medizinprodukte für die Gesundheitsversorgung der Menschen sind."

Als Lehren aus der Corona-Krise formulierte Lugan folgende Forderungen der MedTech-Branche:

• „Wir müssen auch in Krisenzeiten unbedingt einen weltweiten freien Warenverkehr sicherstellen. Die globalen Lieferketten dürfen nicht durch staatliche Eingriffe unterbrochen werden. Wir brauchen hier gute vertragliche Lösungen und Handelsabkommen.
• Wir brauchen Verbesserungen bei den regulatorischen Rahmenbedingungen – beispielsweise durch virtuelle Fernaudits.
• Wir müssen die Krise als Innovationstreiber nutzen. Die Erleichterungen für die Wirtschaft in der Corona-Krise, die sich als wirksam erwiesen haben, sollten nach der Krise beibehalten und sogar ausgeweitet werden. Dazu gehören auch telemedizinische Lösungen sowie flexiblere Lösungen bei der Verordnung von Hilfs- und Verbandmitteln.
• Wir brauchen eine Entbürokratisierungs-Offensive durch digitale Lösungen. Digitalisierung und bessere Datennutzung können hier helfen.“

Lugans Schlussappell: „Mittel- und langfristig benötigen wir einen gesamtgesellschaftlichen Dialog über die Bedeutung des MedTech-Standorts Deutschland und ein Konjunkturprogramm für die überwiegend mittelständisch geprägte Medizinprodukte-Branche – möglichst abgestimmt auf europäischer Ebene.“