Eleven Things That Mattered In Technical Textiles in 2015

Steve Warner

Publisher, BeaverLake6 Report

In 2015, I posted more than 425 items of interest for the technical textiles industry on the BeaverLake6 Report website (www.beaverlake6.com) . In reviewing it all last week, it got me to thinking about putting together a list of influential events, news and trends that I observed during the past year. I have focused primarily on the US marketplace but each of “the things that mattered” to me has global implications. 

1. Trade Agreements – The passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the completion in the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Twelve nations, seven years of negotiations, and an agreement now before the US Congress is quite an achievement for the Obama administration. The potential of making TPP into US law would have been poor if not for the passage last June of the Trade Promotion Authority act that permits the “fast-tracking” of the agreement once the negotiations were finalized. “Fast-tracking” means no changes.

 As I said throughout the past year, I don’t think the final TPP agreement can affect the technical textiles industry too much; it is more for the apparel industry, particularly a few dominant yarn and fabric producers. I don’t anticipate the TPP agreement will come up for a vote in Congress in 2016, an election year for our voter-conscious lawmakers who want to avoid controversial issues. We will have to wait for 2017.

 The true worry, though, is that TPA will allow a potential disaster if the now being negotiated Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) agreement includes the elimination of the Berry Amendment that protects military products. This is a stated objective of the European Union in its negotiating stance. Can’t happen, you say? Ha. Where does the textile industry stand in the matter of give-and-take negotiations when compared with the pharmaceutical, the agriculture, and the automotive industries?

2. The Takata Airbag Fiasco – How else do you put it? It’s an embarrassing public relations cesspool. More than 20 million vehicles in the recall. Damning emails unveiled from Takata engineers on the possible manipulation of safety test data. Carmaker after carmaker announcing they are switching suppliers. It’s been a death by a thousand cuts this past year. I started 2015 fully confident Takata could weather the situation; now, I don’t know. 

Let’s be clear, though: The actual Takata problem doesn’t have anything to do with technical textiles. It’s a propellant problem. Unfortunately, the trouble is encapsulated in the phrase “airbag system.” The message being sent to the public day-after-day is that airbags can be dangerous.

Perhaps more critical for our industry is that a Takata exit could cause a serious shortage of airbags for the automotive industry. Takata is the number 2 manufacturer of airbags and there are only four other significant players in the world.

 3. Passage of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015– What a historic achievement! More than $325 billion allocated to rebuild the US crumbling roads and bridges. The Act had the inclusion of the specific recognition of geosynthetic materials and other innovative technologies.

 The icing on the cake? Somewhat baffling to me but the Act included the reauthorization of funding for the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im). I don’t quite understand why it is in a transportation bill but I will take it because the Ex-Im is a critical lender for many businesses making or using domestically produced technical textiles who are seeking financial loans to export their products.

 4. The DuPont-Dow Merger – The announcement came in December and so has little impact in 2015 but technically it happened in 2015 and I have included it so I can say “I told you so” when we look back at 2016. The merger could have a tremendous impact in 2016. Once merged, the new “DupDow” behemoth intends to then break up into three distinct companies by the end of 2016. The critical issue that matters to us is where the Kevlar?, Nomex? and other ground-breaking DuPont fibers will be heading under this breakup and reorganization.

 5. Trade Show Successes – There were three 2015 events that had a significant impact for the technical textiles industry. The Techtextil show in Frankfurt attracted more than 28,000 visitors and almost 1,400 exhibitors. It is easily the dominant show for makers of technical textiles and related products. The most significant new aspect was the increase in the showing of technical fabric making equipment. Equally impressive in the Techtextil success was its European location, a region that has seen a very blah economic recovery for the technical textiles industry.

 There were a lot of questions going into both the IFAI Expo 2015 in Anaheim, Calif., and ITMA in Milan. The doubts were answered. Both events saw impressive participation increases. The IFAI Expo had a significant jump in attendance after three years of visitor decline. ITMA was a record-setting show, the best in years. ITMA saw an increased emphasis on technical textile equipment. It answered the question of the need for a textile machinery show located in Europe.

 All these events demonstrate that if you put together a critical mass of exhibitors and have focused marketing, you will attract the visitors.  

 6. Passage of the US Defense Act for Fiscal Year 2016 -- Whew. We were looking at additional sequestering for the military which could have been devastating for our dwindling military contractors. While the needs of the military for shelters, clothing, and other textile items continues to decline, the military product segments remains one of the largest for our industry. I read through the Congressional committee’s supporting report that accompanied the Act and found three specific mentions of technical textiles: 1) The emergence of antimicrobial fabrics for medical tactical shelters and the protection from the adverse effects of electromagnetic interference for tactical shelters; 2) An exploration of the potential of utilizing non-halogenated flame retardants in military uniforms; and, 3) The acknowledgement of a consolidation of manufacturers making ballistic vests and the need of the military to encourage more competition.

 7. The Decrease in Fuel Costs – It bodes both good news and bad for the technical textiles industry with the price of oil dropping throughout the last half of the year.  The good news is it becomes less expensive to make technical textiles. The bad news is that one of the new emerging markets for FR protective clothing has been the oil and gas industry and with the fuel prices so low, the energy companies have cut back on their work force, reducing the need for protective clothing.

 8. Government Creation of New Innovative Manufacturing Institutes – Last March, the Obama administration announced its intent to create the Revolutionary Fiber and Textiles Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (RFT-IMI), joining a series of already announced and yet-to-be planned centers for research for particular market segments. The Department of Defense will provide oversight and funding of $75 million over a five-year period. State governments and companies in the industry are expected to provide an additional $75 million. The RFT-IMI is expected to address both military and commercial needs and it applies to the entire supply chain from design to end product. The institute is intended to accelerate innovation by investing in manufacturing technologies with broad technical applications. Two proposed groups have submitted applications for managing the RFT-IMI. The government was supposed to announce which one was selected in December but as of this writing nothing has been revealed.

Not to be forgotten: Other Innovative Manufacturing Institutes are being developed for the composites and wearable products that will be of interest to our industry.

 9. The Development of Smart Textiles – In this case, I am looking more forward to 2016 because I think we are right at the cusp of seeing this industry really take off with medical, protective and sports applications. In 2015 there was a lot of predictive talk, a lot of experimenting but all-in-all few commercial successes. The problem which remains to be solved if smart textiles are ever to move into the apparel industry is the ability to wash the product and, in the case of electronic textiles, the source of energy to power its smart textile properties is developed or harnessed from current technologies.

10. International expansion of the Airbag Market – Forget about Takata. Let’s talk about the opportunities. Mexico’s hottest selling car for the last two years is the Chevrolet Aveo. It has no airbags. Mexico is the world’s 4th largest automotive manufacturing country. It’s under increased pressure by automotive safety groups to produce more safe cars. Brazil and India are now beginning to make airbags mandatory in the cars sold in their countries. These are huge markets. It won’t be that long before airbags will be required in most countries.

11. Moving Away from Traditional Fabric Tents to Hard-Shell Shelters – Yes, it pains me to say this because the fabric tent is probably the first finished product ever made from technical textiles. But lately I am starting to see it being replaced in certain circumstances both for military and refugee shelters. IKEA has led the way with its rigid wall flat pack shelter for refugees. This type of shelters is perfect when used in situations intended for any length of time. They are twice as expensive but their durability results in rapid payback and the rigid modular structures can come with greater thermal protection and more amenities such as pre-wired plumbing and electrical. There will always be a market for fabric tents but the market could be a little smaller as new non-textile materials are being used in applications.    

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