Testfabrics Inc. 2000 AATCC

	Greetings in Winston-Salem! Testfabrics, Inc. is pleased to be here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the year 2000 AATCC International Conference and Exhibition! In the booth this year is: Mr. W. Finley Klaas, Director of Operations Mr. Thomas A. Klaas, Technical Director Mr. Shawn Meeks, Laboratory Manager and Dyer We look forward to meeting and discussing your needs and requirements for textile test materials and related issues. Introduction to Shawn Meeks, Laboratory Manager and Dyer Shawn joined our firm after last year’s ICE and quickly became a definitive asset to the firm. He is a 1993 graduate from NCSU with a degree in Textile Chemistry and several years’ experience in dye house and laboratory work. He is an experienced dyer and good color matcher. He has adapted well to relocating from western North Carolina to northeast Pennsylvania and we are glad to have him with us. Shawn has taken control of the daily operations of our lab, is responsible for our various wet processing activities including washing and drying of our various multifiber and single fiber fabrics and the development of our dyeing services. He participates in many of the technical committee functions of ASTM, AATCC and other groups whose test methods require our firm’s products and services. We hope you get a chance to meet him during this conference or at the various committee meetings he attends. Testfabrics, Inc. Information and Catalog on-line for Easy Access www.testfabrics.com Our informational web page is up and being used by clients and interested parties daily. It is updated frequently with newsletters and product information. It is also in an easily downloadable format to facilitate those who wish to take out only specific portions without have to download the entire page. We look forward to your feedback about our website, what you like, what you don’t like, suggestions for improvements, information needed etc. You can reach us by email: testfabric@aol.com New Products and Services Custom Dyeing and Textile Chemical Application Services We have been developing new services in custom lab and small lot dyeing services and with Shawn’s help, are finally able to provide some laboratory and sample dyeing services. If you have needs for these services, please discuss them with us at your earliest convenience. We are very open and flexible. We also have an excellent lab padder and drying unit for doing finishing chemicals applications and related activities to supplant your lab’s functions when they have no time for those special projects that you need done. Please feel free to talk to us about our capabilities and your requirements. We now have a 57” wide jig at our disposal as well as a Burlington beam dyeing unit and are doing small production lot dyeing. We have many relationships with other service suppliers in this field and will try to accommodate your special dyeing requests. We hope to have our sample becks in service soon to offer more services in this area. Pre-Treated Substrates, Paper Backed for Digital Printing with Dyes We have been making steady progress with our line of fabrics specifically pretreated for digital printing with dyes. We have expanded the number of grounds available and now have paper-backing services to accommodate those printers requiring paper backed substrates. We have the following fabrics pre-treated with soda ash, alginate thickener and urea for digital printing with reactive dyes: #419 PreRe-bleached, mercerized, combed cotton broadcloth, 45”, available with and without paper backing. The paper-backed style is referred to as 419PreRePB. #401PreRe-bleached cotton 10 oz. Bull denim, 60”, not paper backed. #609PreRe-8 mm silk habutae, 45”, with and without paper backing (paper backed reference is #609PreRePB). #601PreRe-16 mm silk crepe de chine, with and without paper backing (paper backed reference is #601PreRePB). We have the following fabrics pre-treated with ammonium sulfate, soda ash and thickener for digital printing with acid dyes: #609PreAcid, 8 mm silk habutae, 45”, with and without paper backing (paper-backed style 609PreAcid PB). #601 PreAcid, 16 mm silk crepe de chine, 45”, with and without paper backing, (paper backed version 609PreAcid PB). #338PreAcid, Filament nylon banner cloth, 45”, not paper backed. Several of our polyester fabrics are suitable for transfer printing with images printed with transfer dyes on paper. We can also pre-treat these substrates with some alginate thickener to insure registration and reduce wicking. We are currently evaluating several new polyester substrates and have sample swatches if you would like to see them, they include: polysuede, ultrasheer, poly-taffeta, heavy satin, poplin, firesafe III, hercules (packcloth), poly-duck and a poly-pongee, poly crepe de chine. Other substrates from our inventory can be pre-treated as well as those supplied by customers. We do this work frequently and will try to accommodate your needs as quickly as possible. We can also source other grounds on special request. For further details, speak to one of our sales representatives. Many of these same pre-treated grounds are also suitable for textile surface design using aqueous dye paints. We hope to be able to offer steaming and washing services in the near future. Currently we can do some washing, if your studio is processing more steamed goods then you can effectively wash, perhaps we can help. We are also in the market for a small volume print steamer if you know of an available unit, please let us know. Teaching Kits for Microchemistry Educators Our international liaison with Dr. Mordechai Livneh of Bar Ilan University in Ramat Israel has developed nicely. Dr. Livneh’s email address is: livnehm@mail.biu.ac.il, should any of you wish to contact him about his course outline as he will make it available to you at no charge. We will be developing a kit of fabric swatches for this experiment that helps to make chemistry a more understandable for high school and college chemistry students. New Lot of ASTM Standard Break Cloths Available We recently produced a new lot of the standard break cloths for ASTM D5034 and 5035. There are some new values that accompany orders. Our thanks to Dr. Patti Annis and her associates at UGA for their time and assistance in providing these new data sheets. New Products for Automotive Testing Testfabrics, Inc. has had a long and valued relationship with the automotive industry and has a recent newsletter directed to them on its web page for your review. There are several products there specific to international automotive testing procedures including the polystyrene chips for the weatherometer, vinyl and vinyl coated fabric for various tests, white leather in whole hides and in pre-cut pieces, Japanese cotton ducks and shirting fabrics etc. If you have an interest in the automotive testing field, please have a look at our web page ‘News’ section or give us a call. Guest Lectures with Textile Surface Design Artisan, Ms. Hilary Gifford Hilary is our consultant for textile surface design and is currently teaching at Syracuse University. If your college or university would like to arrange a guest lecture or demonstration of various techniques with Hilary, please let us know. She has been a faithful client of ours for a number of years and has had her own design boutique on Cape Cod and from her home in Skaneateles, N.Y. in the scenic Finger Lakes district. Guest Lectures with Shawn Meeks, Testfabrics, Inc.’s Lab Manager Shawn is an accomplished dyer and color matcher. If you would like to have him make a presentation to your class or laboratory in dyeing techniques and trouble shooting, please let us know. Testfabrics Inc. values its long relationship with the textile education community worldwide and is always interested to hear from those of you involved in education. Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you and your students. Updated International Agents Listing with Email Addresses Our export business is steadily increasing and an updated listing of our agents follows on the last page of this newsletter and is of course, on the web page. Our newest agent is in Mauritius: Ducray Lenoir. If you are having garments assembled there and your contractors need test materials, please advise them they can contact this group for easy access to genuine Testfabrics, Inc. materials. Testfabrics, Inc.: Your International Interface for Crossover Technologies Over the years, our clientele has continued to grow to include many different groups of consumers and they all have the some of the same basic needs for textiles of a special nature. The ability to access people in different industries and in different countries is one part of what makes us such a valuable and unique resource for our customers. If you have any questions or problems with any aspect of your textile life and aren’t getting good answers from your usual database, give us a call. We will do our best to try and help. You may be pleasantly surprised at the results. Testfabrics, Inc. Isn’t Just Multifiber Fabric and Crockmeter Cloth Anymore! We provide a complete range of textile test materials and products including emery papers, new and used equipment, spare parts for equipment, chemical kits for perspiration testing and oil repellency, AATCC, ISO and ASTM consumables, detergent industry test materials, flammability test materials, Sanforized Shrinkage Test Kits, Martindale Wool fabric, IWS wool shrinkage fabric for wet cleaning etc. Just because you do not see it in the catalog or web page, doesn’t mean we don’t have it or can’t get it easily, just ASK! Help! We Need Your Help! In addition to a used small volume print-steamer, we are looking for some fiber specific dyes that have an affinity for only one fiber. In particular, we would like to find an acid dye that will only dye nylon and not wool and vice versa. We are also looking for a dye (disperse?) that will only dye polyester and not acetate, nylon or wool. If you have knowledge of any appropriate dyes, please let us know. Thank you.