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Testfabrics,
Inc. is pleased to welcome you to San Diego for the 2000
AOCS Annual Conference and Exhibition. It has been (and
still is) an exciting year for us at Testfabrics, Inc. and
we are looking forward to meeting and discussing our projects
and your needs for detergency testing.
We have been acclimating to our new
facility in West Pittston, PA (2.5 hrs west of NYC, 2 hrs.
north of Phila., accessible to Interstates 80, 81, 380 and
476). If you are in the area and would like to visit, please
let us know.
In our booth are Tom Klaas, Technical and Marketing Director
for Testfabrics, Inc. and our new laboratory manager, Mr.
Shawn Meeks. We are also joined by Mr. Gerard Bakker of
ITL, International Test Laboratories of Vlaardingen, NL,
a division of our Dutch associates and sales agent, CFT.
In addition, our associates Dr. Rodrigo Olmedo, of Detertec
SA (Quito, Ecuador) and Mr. George Feighner of Scientific
Services, (Sparrow Bush, NY), are available for consultation
and discussion in our booth during the conference. We also
expect our Korean agent’s (Unical) US representative,
Mr. Scott Sung of Los Angeles to attend.
Mr. Shawn Meeks, New laboratory Manager for Testfabrics,
Inc.
Shawn is a 1993 graduate of North Carolina State University
with a BS in Textile Chemistry. He has had practical experience
in textile laboratory testing and also as a hands-on dyer
and color matcher in a commercial dyehouse. His background
will be of great value to our detergent industry clients
as they become increasingly involved with the interactions
of their formulations with textile materials. Shawn’s
responsibilities include overall quality assurance controls,
soil test cloth manufacturing, in house textile processing,
customer service and many other activities. We look forward
to providing more in depth services for detergency work
with Shawn’s expertise. Please review some of the
following extended service capabilities outlined in this
newsletter. We hope you get the opportunity to meet Shawn
while in San Diego and to discuss your needs for specialty
textile materials.
New
Products and Services
“Dingy 5X” Soil Test Cloths from Testfabrics,
Inc. and Detertec
We are very pleased to be able to have followed through
with our development work with Dr. Rodrigo Olmedo, principal
and Technical Director for Detertec SA in Quito, Ecuador.
We are looking forward to continuing to cooperatively develop
products and services needed by our mutual clientele worldwide.
Tom Klaas of Testfabrics, Inc. was fortunate enough to have
visited Detertec’s research facility last summer and
came away extremely impressed. Dr. Olmedo has assembled
a very competent and dedicated group of chemists and technicians
in a state of the art technical facility in spite of the
multitude of difficulties that come with working in a developing
economy. It was obvious to see the reasons behind their
success in providing unique international market analysis
services as well as high quality test material production
and development in direct response to the needs of their
clients in the detergent and textile industries.
Testfabrics, Inc. is working with Detertec to provide some
pertinent and relevant test materials they have developed.
We are supplying the consistent ground fabrics needed for
producing consistent test materials using Detertec’s
established methods.
The first of these product lines is the ‘Dingy 5X’
test materials. Dingy soiled materials, those textile articles
that continue to gray through redeposition and oxidation
of soil media on repeatedly laundered articles are a well
known problem facing the detergent industry formulators.
Until now, there has been no commercially available soiled
test media that accurately and reproducibly exhibits this
soiling problem. Many firms currently employ the use of
time consuming and expensive consumer family panels using
uncontrolled clothing articles as test specimens. The amount
of time and expense in obtaining test material in this manner
is very high and the reproducibility factor is extremely
low.
Dr. Olmedo and his staff have successfully made a reproducible
and viable ‘Dingy’ soil test cloth and we are
glad to be able to present the industry with these materials.
To overcome the variable of substrate in manufacturing reproducible
soil test cloths, Testfabrics has supplied Detertec with
the following fabrics for its initial commercial production
of Dingy 5X soil test cloths:
Style #460, Bleached 100% Cotton Interlock knit, WITHOUT
optical brighteners
Style #7439-OB, 50/50 Polyester/Cotton Interlock (same construction
as #460) But WITH Optical Brightener
These grounds were chosen for a number of their inherent
characteristics. They are both flat surfaces for easier
instrumental interpretation of data and as interlock knit
stitch fabrics, they do not unravel and curl excessively
with multiple washings. These fabrics are also very commonly
used textile materials in the manufacturing of apparel that
generally allow for home laundering. We have cut these fabrics
into 14”x15” pieces to be processed by Detertec
in 2.5 kg loads using their proprietary five wash cycle
soiling process that employs the use of body oriented soils
and also inorganic soil media to achieve a reproducible
‘Dingy’ fabric. These large pieces are returned
to Testfabrics, Inc. for further cutting and packaging.
We have pre-cut these into the popular 3.5”x 4”
specimen size and have several 10-piece sample packets available
for your evaluations. Included with the soiled test specimens
are ‘control’ pieces of the same ground fabric
washed in the same manner, (5 times) but without the addition
of soil media.
Detertec also provides initial data readings for these test
materials to facilitate their interpretation.
We look forward to hearing your comments and input as well
as the results of your evaluations of the samples available.
Other fabrics including apparel (t-shirts, etc.) can be
processed in this manner, subject to minimum quantities
and feasibility.
Dr. Olmedo will be available during the conference and appointments
can be made at our exhibit booth. We are planning to further
develop some of the other specialized products Detertec
has devised including a mal-odor test material and a collar
dirt soil test cloth. If you have some other particular
problem area that would benefit from customized soiled test
media, please let us know.
Detertec is also an extremely effective technical service
and market evaluation firm, please let us know if you would
care to discuss any of your programs requiring their expertise.
Multifiber
Soil Test Cloths
Testfabrics, Inc. has always been an intersecting point
for various textile technologies. One of our primary product
lines for the textile industry at large are ‘multifiber
fabrics’ for dyestuff illustration and textile colorfastness
testing. In the past few years, there has been a gradual
change in our manufacturing technology for these materials
and we are now producing them on ‘needle looms’
in wide ribbon format, approx. 4” (10 cm) wide. There
are several styles and the ones we feel might have the most
promise are:
Style #42, with six 1.5 cm stripes (in the ‘warp’
direction, or the ‘long’ direction) of the six
most common apparel fibers, acetate, cotton, nylon, polyester,
polyacrylic and wool. Overall width, approx. 4 inches, (10
cm.)
Style #49, with eight 1-cm. warp stripes of the following
fibers: acetate, cotton, nylon, polyester, polyacrylic,
viscose, silk and wool. Overall width, approx. 4 inches,
(10 cm.)
Style 49’B’, same as style #49 but with a 50/50
polyester cotton yarn replacing the silk component. (More
than likely, there will be another version with the 50/50
poly/cotton yarn replacing either the polyacrylic or viscose
component.)
Please note that the individual stripes in these fabrics
are not 100% single fiber stripes, they are the predominant
fiber on the surface (both sides) but all contain a common
‘filling yarn’ (filament polyester) that is
‘buried’ and not seen on the surface.
These pre-soiled multifiber fabrics may serve as good screening
tools for Terg O Tometer programs for various formulations.
Other combinations of yarns stripes are possible, subject
to manufacturing parameters. If you would be interested
in other constructions, please feel free to discuss this
with us.
We have processed these in our laboratory using pig’s
blood, and also a spaghetti sauce/red wine combination.
Samples are available for your review.
We have also cooperated with Scientific Services and they
have applied their ‘dust/sebum’ soil to these
as well as their ‘ground in clay’ soil. We have
a limited number of these available in 2 piece sample packs
along with unstained samples for reference.
We are always open to your input for other soil combinations
etc.
Laboratory
Scale Dyeing Services
Testfabrics, Inc. now can offer laboratory-dyeing services
in addition to custom dyeing of full width fabrics. Many
of the dyed fabrics our detergent industry clients are interested
in testing do not have the volume requirement necessary
for production style dyeing. We have newly installed lab
scale equipment and are open to trying to accommodate your
needs for these necessary
test materials. Please let us know what you would like to
see in specific dyed substrates for your needs.
Custom Cutting, Sewing and Test Specimen
Production and Distribution for Laboratory and Marketing
Applications
We have unique capabilities in providing cutting, sewing
and specimen preparation for your laboratory needs and also
for your marketing surveys and demonstrations. The entire
world of available textiles is at your disposal through
Testfabrics, Inc., no matter how few or how many pieces
you require. Should you have a new formulation that would
benefit from special test materials for consumer trials,
please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate
those needs.
Tencel
Fabrics Available
The new Tencel fabrics are making steady growth in the textile
industry. We have goods in stock that are ‘pfgd’,
prepared for garment dyeing. Generally, the Tencel fiber
fabrics require an enzyme treatment prior to dyeing and
often get a second enzyme treatment after dyeing. We also
have loom state Tencel for enzyme manufacturers to evaluate.
Micro
Fiber Polyester Fabric Samples
We have a limited amount of two polyester micro fiber fabrics
that are ‘prepared for dyeing and printing’-no
dyes or other chemical treatments applied to them. These
fabrics are not available to us in small volume and we need
to commit to a minimum process lot of 1500 yds in order
to have them as stock items. We have no problem in doing
so should our clients be interested in having them available
and willing to use them on a consistent basis. If you would
like some sample swatches and are interested in them for
your evaluation, please let us know.
Wool Fabric SM 12 for Wet Cleaning Technology Shrinkage
Evaluations
Testfabrics, Inc. has stock of this special wool fabric
used in the wet cleaning evaluations, please ask for details.
New
Color Care Dyed Fabrics Available from CFT
Our associates from CFT have made available the entire collection
of detergent color care fabrics described in recent publications
and conferences. Please ask to review the listing.
Terg
O Tometer Sales
Testfabrics, Inc. offers the newest model of Terg O Tometer
for sale as well as spare parts and reconditioned and used
models. We provide equipment for a number of textile laboratory
applications; please let us know what you need.
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