Tech Institute Offers Glimpse of Nonwoven Materials Lab.

Zach Long/Avalanche-Journal

Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Story last updated at 4/7/2009 - 2:07 am

Here, ragged tufts of cotton can be transformed into neat, nearly paper-thin sheets with the flip of a switch.

A machine whirs. Inside, thousands of tiny needles arranged at an angle quickly punch the fluffy strips, transforming them into a seamless web.

There's no telling where this machine and the million-dollar lab it sits in will take Lubbock's king crop, perhaps to the battlefield as a protective liner in soldiers' uniforms or inside auto shops as a durable wipe, those associated with this new lab say.

The Texas Tech Institute for Environmental and Human Health at the Reese Technology Center unveiled its Nonwovens and Advanced Materials Laboratory on Monday.

The addition makes Tech the only university in the nation to own contoured needlezone nonwoven technology. Another machine in the lab acts like an oven, using heat to smooth out fabrics.

Zach Long/Avalanche-Journal

"Our aim is to find value-added applications for products made of cotton grown on the High Plains, and we believe this laboratory ... may open up all kinds of new doors to leverage what we grow here, which is a lot of cotton, into technology that can help us improve the quality of our lives and improve our national security and homeland security," said the director of the institute, Ron Kendall.

Located at the Reese Technology Center on the edge of Lubbock, the institute is tapping into the $100 billion nonwoven fabrics industry, Kendall said.

Everyday nonwovens include disposable diapers, cleaning wipes, dryer sheets and envelopes. Nonwoven fabrics, which can be produced chemically, thermally or mechanically, can be up to 20 times cheaper to produce than knitted or woven fabrics, those in the industry say.

"We are one of the few brights spots in American textile industry in that nonwoven businesses continue to grow 4 to 5 percent a year even now in this difficult time," said Rory Holmes, the president of INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry.

Less labor and less energy are needed to produce nonwovens, said Holmes, who came to Lubbock for Monday's unveiling.

But researchers have yet to find a way to make nonwovens wearable, said Seshadri Ramkumar, the manager of the lab and the inventor of Fibertect, a nonwoven wipe that can clean up toxic spills.

Ramkumar said he and his team will explore ways to produce wearable nonwovens and add valuable properties to them, producing, for example, cotton clothing for athletes that is liquid repellent or new, sturdy materials for cars. They'll also research ways to make Fibertect thin enough to use as a protective liner in emergency workers' clothes, masks and air filters.

Funding for the $1.5 million lab came mostly from the U.S. Department of Defense. The Lubbock Economic Development Alliance contributed $125,000 to the project. The university system contributed as well.

The lab will employ about 10 people, mostly researchers, Kendall said. The institute will likely contract with businesses to research nonwovens, he said. Future partnerships may be similar to the one the institute announced with Enercon Industries Corporation earlier this year, Ramkumar said.

The Wisconsin-based company will collaborate with the lab to try to produce wearable nonwovens. It would manufacture any products developed through its Tech partnership and would share intellectual property rights and patents for the products with the university, officials with Tech and the company told The Avalanche-Journal.

Ramkumar's Fibertect - a thin layer of carbon encased in absorbent fibers - has been recommended as part of a new, model portable kit that a national lab designed for people to use after a chemical attack to clean equipment, skin and even sensitive eyes and wounds.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory introduced the two-part kit in March in its periodical, Science & Technology Review.

The kit would need to be approved by the FDA before it could go on the market.

A Waco-based company, Hobbs Bonded Fibers Inc., manufactures the Fibertect wipe, which some states are interested in purchasing to use in the case of toxic spills, Tech officials have said.

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