Fibers and Fabrics

I wonder why our American textile industry has ignored the fiber reinforced composites business that uses Kevlar, Nomex, carbon, glass, etc.

Bobguz

Hello Forum and Bobguz, I just found this forum and want to share my experience with the American Textile Industry e.g especially for high tech fiber reinforcements. I am an inventor and shareholder in a start-up company (www.mdfibertech.com) and we own process patents and product patents for a new "revolutionary" fiber to fabric conversion technology for filament type of fibers (e.g. Carbon, Aramid, Glass, Dyneema etc.) competing with the current processes of UD, weaving, braiding and stitchbonding. Even so our technology will make a reinforcement : - 30% lighter than weaving or stitchbonding (savings in material + resin) - have better TS - have a perfect smooth surface - much faster produced (our production process is 20 x faster than weaving and 6 x faster than stitchbonding) we were in 3 years not able to find the first customer in the USA to give our technology a shot. Even considering that we have a world class European machine builder on our side who is commited to built the first MD (Multidirectional) unit within 12 month once the first customer is found. I wonder why there is no need for innovation in this industry, especially considering that the new capacities in Carbon Fiber coming to the market within the next 48 month have to be processed one way or another. I have to change all my patriotic thinking of going with a US company and might be forced to go with the Chinese who have offered to buy our company respectively our patents. I wonder why we were ignored so far...........but this lack of willingness for innovation is why the American textile industry will continue to go down the drain. Fritz

A great part of textile costs can be removed by machinery. So automatic spinners and knitters added to automatic tailoring machines would allow the USA to compete. The trouble is these machines use little labor, so the end effect on unemployed US workers remains tha same as if the total task was shipped to Asia. Rising fuel costs will make shipment to the USA increase, as well as all costs associated with synthetics (many of which have their roots in oil). If there is a war between Iran and Israel, we will soon have $250 oil, and huge numbers of people will stay home a lot more of the time, as well as carpool and organize shopping expeditions among neighbours to save gas. A 40 mile commute now costs about $20/day = quite a lot for many people.

So I think we are going to see a drop in gas use, and possibly the fuel costs for freight will help USA workers....all except the UAW, who have simply killed their jobs with greed, and for who I have little sympathy.

Hybrids will boom for the next 50 years and the SUV will all become almost worthless in the car auctions (this is happening now)

<...automatic spinners and knitters added to automatic tailoring machines would allow the USA to compete. The trouble is these machines use little labor, so the end effect on unemployed US workers remains tha same as if the total task was shipped to Asia.>

Welcome to 21st century America. Your answer sounds like you desire to turn back the clock to the good ole days when America's factories were filled with hard working men and women doing the same jobs we exported to low wage countries like China.

Yes, our future will be different and robots will replace people. See, Motorola, etc. Our high tech composites industry needs high tech textiles that can be made in the USA.

Bobguz

"Welcome to 21st century America. Your answer sounds like you desire to turn back the clock to the good ole days when America's factories were filled with hard working men and women doing the same jobs we exported to low wage countries like China."

are you nutz? what do you think automatic taylors and knitters are?...they are indeed robots. We can now measure people dimensionally with scanners and it is a short step from there to an autotaylor. In fact, many off the rack items are now made by fabric bonding methods for the most part, although some manual stages remain. Once a person has been fitted automatically the first time he can teach his tastes to the machine as to loose/tight and keep that as his profile for other orders in various places. Is bonding as good as sewing? It suffices and will get better with time.

and what I say is the truth. Job losses drive by wage differentials will be abated by added costs of freight and raw materials.

The biggest enemy of US workers is now the union. Where once they styled themselves as the workers biggest friend, now all they are is parasites, and like all parasites they extract a cost and make their prey less capable of survival, as we saw with big steel, and big car. We also see how unions have ruined many jobs in New York state, where companies will not locate anymore, no matter what the inducement, due to the risk of a union starting in their factory.

Just looks at the damage done by hospital, city, state and teacher unions in upstate New York to the rest of the people. Look at house prices and the empty houses and factories.

I think we're getting off topic with discussions of unions and robots. The question is can the American textile manufacturer survive. I think, Yes, and suggest they visit the composites trade shows such as those of the ACMA (American Composites Mfgs Assn) and SPE (Society of Plastics Engineers) to find new markets for textiles. Textiles are used to make reinfored plastics.

Bobguz

in that case, with no machines/robots, US makers are doomed.

They can only adapt or perish.

The low-tech, labor-intensive aspects of textiles has gone overseas for good.Chinese workers stand in line for jobs that pay 50 cents/hour. Non-wovens can be made at less cost than most woven fabrics, and can often offer equal or better performance in certain applications. Even cheap imported fabrics can be jazzed up with high performance, high technology coatings. Specialty chemicals used in binders and coatings can impart tremendous properties to ordinary fabrics. Large, low margin commodity markets will continue to suffer, but specialized hi-tech, hi performance coatings and binder additives will allow manufacturers of these type products of bring products to the market with performance worth paying for.These technology coatings can be applied to cheap imported fabrics. Small, hi-performance niche markets should be profitable for those who develop the technologies needed to bring performance.

Dear All,

I am not American but British, please don't let your textiles industry die! The textile industry in the UK was once a mighty force, but lack of innovation combined with poor margins, lack of good pay led to lack of investment. Now we are at the mercy of poorly paid chinese manufacturers who are foistering poor quality merchandise onto the mass market. The question asked was can US companies survive? Well the answer is yes, you could go down the route of automation and innovation, but this merely delays the inevitable brain drain effect which will lead to no industry in 15 years. The other option is for import levies, charge companis who are making huge profits providing mass market rubbish and then they will start to look at home grown companies to make for them. This leads to more jobs, a healthy economy where US dollars are circulated within the US by US citizens. Cor is it really that easy, if you did this across the board you would be left with a really healthy large economy, perhaps someone should suggest this to those in Washington?

Niche makers survive, as to government contracts for uniforms etc in US hands.

The only solution is a levelling of wage rates over the globe so the global average wage is the same. This is happening little by little and in time there will be no low wage countries to be used.

And these countries are not exploited at all. The workers line up as the wages paid are better than domestic mankers will pay, so this helps. These foreign countries have no culture of child education as better for the long term economic wealth of the country. So they send their kids to work young. This lack of educated workers caused by making kids work is the main factor in keeping many of these countries in poverty.

Most new built factories treat the workers quite well, from self interest, to keep their trained workers. A lot of the old industries, like tanning and scrap metals, are very harsh.

Perhaps we forget that the term 'shoddy' came from the UK textile industry where used cloth was cut into strips that were then frayed by children into fibers that were then spun into strands that were then woven into cloth that was called 'shoddy'.

U.S. Manufacturers can and will survive if they innovate like Glenn Raven. For decades, the emphasis in textile manufacturing has been low cost. Giant manufacturers competed to automate and produce products at the lowest possible cost. The missing element was innovation in product development. When you are selling to retailers and the only benefit you can offer is low price, you are caught in a "Death Spiral". Someone will always offer a lower price eventually and you can match or lose the business. Manufacturers, who survive today, have created demand for their products that reaches beyond low cost. These manufacturers provide creative products, technology, solutions, or services that create demand. Demand created by price alone will lead to eventual failure.

This is partly true, if the innovative products drove the others from the market, then what you say would be true.

There is such a niche in the fashion business, with designer gowns, followed by cohorts of copiers, emulators who try to make similar copies and not break the law. There are also illegal copies of designer goods, other who make hard good, like Rolex, are also copied, and so the game goes on.

The large commeon pool market will always be price driven etc., with layers of higher price and better designs etc = a market.

Most can not be buyers of the niche goods as most cannot afford them

Perhaps we should look at the situation in the last year, the guest has pointed out that you can have a healthy economy with buying locally sourced goods. Recently the US dollar was under a lot of pressure as it went into near free fall, and the US government was put under pressure by China because the chinese government had US dollar stocks of 13 trillion dollars which suddeny weren't worth as much globally as they were six months previously. There was a real threat that this amount was to be put into the international money markets which would have been disastrous for the US dollar, it would have crashed overnight! If the jobs for manufacturing were kept in the US and you didn't have a situation where your currency is constantly going overseas, then this would never have happened. Be careful out there, as the japanese say "business is war"

As aurizon has pointed out, shoody is a word for old english fabrics. This was at the time of the industrial revolution and the practice is no longer operated. I agree that the newer factories offer better prospects, but the idea that we will miraculously have a world where all workers are paid the same is rubbish. The way to protect the interests of US manufacturers is by levies applied to imports. Lack of cheap imports will equal a growth in demand for US textiles which will lead to more jobs and thus more investment and a healthier economy. Pride would be returned, the days of buying US items from US firms could return, this sounds archaic, but could happen. From an environmental point of view, less throw away goods equals less landfill which equals less stress on the environment. Surely well made items which last six or seven times longer than cheap items would have less of a financial impact on consumers, because you don't have to buy lots of items. All of this is a win win situation, anyone who can't see it is short sighted. Level the playing field so that higher paid workers in areas that have a higher cost of living have an equal chance of getting the contract!