Expanding inflatables

April 1, 2022  |  Features

The year has been a good one so far for David Abramowitch, Inflatable Engineer and CEO of Giant Inflatables, in Melbourne, Australia. “We’ve got two divisions: a sports marketing division and an industrial division. The sports marketing side is giving us a lot of work right now with projects for…
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Optimizing awnings

March 1, 2022  |  Features

Last November the Professional Awning Manufacturers Association (PAMA), a division of the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) introduced a web-based tool that calculates the energy savings for residential and commercial awning products. 
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Exceeding expectations

March 1, 2022  |  Features

Shari Albertson is vice president of sales at Austin Canvas & Awning, a commercial and residential awning manufacturer and installer in Charlotte, N.C. She has over 15 years of awning sales experience and is the qualifying representative for the company’s general contractor’s licenses in Nor…
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Cutting through the fabric ceiling

March 1, 2022  |  Features

Faith Roberts, Ltm, MFC, IFM, owner of Ham Lake, Minn.-based Banner Canvas, can think of several examples of gender-based discrimination she’s encountered over her 40-year career.
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The Link

February 1, 2022  |  Features

When the five-star Hotel Chadstone was built in Melbourne, Australia, developers wanted a visually stunning way to connect the hotel to the nearby Chadstone Shopping Centre, the largest mall in the southern hemisphere.  They created The Link, a fabric-over-glulam (glued and laminated) timber st…
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Growth Path

February 1, 2022  |  Features

Like many textile entrepreneurs, Amy Bircher got her start in the industry in a family business—even as she blazed her own path.  “I got into the textile industry because my family owned a dyeing and finishing facility of wide fabric, broad-woven fabrics in the Carolinas,” Bircher says. In 19…
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Finding balance

February 1, 2022  |  Features

There’s always challenges to running a successful business—keeping a step ahead of the competition, anticipating the changing needs of the customer, paying attention to the financials. But the past two years have posed difficulties that, being largely unprecedented, were nearly impossible to ant…
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New textile solutions for thermal management

January 1, 2022  |  Features

Life on Earth—as we know it—would not be viable without managing the temperature levels of our personal climates, our environments and the perishable materials we use. Textiles play an important role in these efforts. As we watch our planet’s climate change, the textile industry is stepping up…
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The ethical dilemma of ransomware attacks

January 1, 2022  |  Features

The recent proliferation of well-publicized cyberattacks has revealed ransomware to be a serious national security threat. Still largely hidden from public view, however, are the attacks on small businesses, including many within the industrial, specialty and advanced textile industry, that don’t …
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Biolumen Lab

January 1, 2022  |  Features

It may look like an alien life form, but Biolumen Lab is indeed a classroom—an inflatable, cell-based one at that—for secondary school students to experience a week of science-based learning, generating curiosity and­ promoting science as a potential career path. “Biolumen Lab is an experienc…
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