Paraweave
is not like any floor covering
you have ever seen: It feels
soft like carpet,
but it's durable like tile. And
it may be the most
environmentally friendly soft
floor on the market today.
by
James A. Bacon
Bob
Broomfield is fitting out his Play N
Trade video game store, which he
hopes to open in mid July. With a
location in the busy Carytown retail
corridor of Richmond and with events
planned like online tournaments and
a Wii singles bowling night, he's
expecting plenty of walk-in traffic. Among the many details he has
to consider is the quality of floor
covering.
As
luck would have it, someone
recommended a new soft tile product
manufactured by a Richmond-area
start-up company, C&G Flooring.
The soft tile
feels like a carpet under the feet
so customers should like it,
Broomfield says. But it's far more
durable -- he won't have to replace
it in five or six years. And,
because it doesn't have tufts like
carpet, the flooring doesn't hide
dirt and bacteria, and it's a snap
to clean. The cost, including
installation, is slightly less than
carpet. And, as a bonus, the tiles
are recyclable. "I like
that," he says. "It's a
green product that doesn't take the
green out of your pocket!"
What
Broomfield lacks in size as a
customer, he makes up with
enthusiasm. The retailer is recommending
C&G'
soft tile to the Play N Trade
corporation for use
across all of its franchises.
They like the green angle, he
says. "They're from
California."
Pictured
here, Paraweave soft tile flooring
appears in a commercial setting.
The checkerboard effect is created
by turning the tile so it refracts
light from a different
angle.
On
the basis of testimonials such
as Broomfield's, C&G President David Armentrout is
jazzed about his prospects for
his "paradigm
shifting" product to make inroads into the $22
billion-a-year U.S. flooring
marketplace. Even under
normal economic conditions, the flooring
would have wide appeal, he says. But
with energy prices soaring and customers
placing an ever- greater premium on
recyclable, energy-efficient products,
he contends, his Paraweave soft tile is
a slam-dunk.
"The
product will sell itself,"
affirms Davis Lee, a former DuPont
employee and now a carpet
industry consultant who has
worked with C&G for more
than a year. "You want the
market to pull the product. You
want people to be asking for
it."
And
that's exactly what's happening. Word of mouth is
spreading fast.
In just one morning the other
day, Armentrout says, "Four
new orders
came in while I was
sitting in the office." More.
Wrapped
up in Tyvek
Local plant
makes most of
North America
's HomeWrap
By
John Reid Blackwell
It's
a common sight at construction
projects: White sheets of Tyvek
wrapped around building
skeletons.
That
may be the most visible
application for Tyvek, a
material invented by DuPont and
used in construction to keep
water out of buildings while
allowing moisture vapor to
escape from inside.
The
source of almost all Tyvek in
North America
is DuPont's Spruance plant off Jefferson Davis Highway. The Wilmington, Del.-based
company has expanded production
at the plant in recent years as
annual sales of Tyvek surpassed
$1 billion.
Julia
Joyner inspects rolls of Tyvek, used most
visibly to wrap buildings during contruction, at
a plant in Chesterfield
County. Photo By: BRUCE PARKER/ TIMES-DISPATCH
More
investments could come in the
next few years, despite a
housing market downturn that has
hurt sales. DuPont, facing
increasing competition, is
constantly promoting new
applications for the material,
which is used in products from
sterile packaging to protective
garments. Even tags on some
clothing are made of Tyvek.
The
company has latched onto the
push for energy savings as well,
promoting the material as a way
to reduce energy costs.
Since
DuPont introduced Tyvek HomeWrap
in 1979, the product has been
installed in about 5 million
homes, said James
Katsaros, who leads product
development efforts in the
company's building innovations
business.
"You
can wrap the world roughly 20
times over with all the house
wrap we have produced for
buildings," he said. More.
News
Business
DuPont
Introduces Kevlar XP.
DuPont has unveiled a new Kevlar- based technology that provides
superior ballistic and trauma protection
in body armor. "In our experience, we
have never seen a technology that works as
effectively as Kevlar XP at stopping
bullets and reducing body trauma in a
lightweight solution," said Thomas G.
Powell, vice president and general manager
of DuPont Advanced Fiber Systems. (June
16, 2008) More.
Enjoy
the Alligators,
Albemarle. Albemarle Corp., a manufacturer of
specialty chemicals, has announced a
decision to relocate its corporate headquarters
from Richmond to Baton Rouge,
La., where its major operations are located.
The state of Louisiana
offered
$4.2 in relocation incentives. (May 1,
2008)More.
Kevlar
Makes Inroads in Tire Market.
Dunlop and Goodyear both have launched
breakthrough tire models using DuPont
Kevlar to improve sidewall strength and
shock absorbance. "That Dunlop and
Goodyear should both choose DuPont Kevlar
brand fiber to spearhead new tire
development is proof indeed of its real
contribution to 21st century tire
performance," says Bruce T. Pearce,
Global Goodyear/Dunlop account manager
with DuPont Advanced Fiber Systems. (April
22, 2008)More.
Kevlar
Sales in China Going Strong.
DuPont's high-performance fiber is making
inroads as a building material in the
world's largest construction market. The
material is finding new applications in China, where Fiber Reinforced Polymer, of which
Kevlar is a component, is a new
composite system being used in the rapid
reinforcement, protection and retrofit of
bridges, tunnels and subways. (April
14, 2008)More.
Performance
Fibers Cuts Production.
Performance Fibers Holdings, Inc.,announced in April that it would
reduce manufacturing at its Moncure and Salisbury,
N.C., facilities. The company
blamed customers who moved production to
lower-cost regions, increased competition
from suppliers from Asia and other areas,
and higher raw material, energy and other
costs. (April 2, 2008)More.
Performance
Fiber Idles Two Plants.
Performance Fibers Holdings, Inc., a
global supplier of high-tenacity fibers,
announced in March that it would idle all
manufacturing at its two Alabama
plants in response to reduced demand from U.S.
tire customers, global competition and
increased raw material costs. (March
26, 2008)More.
Performance
Fibers Completes INVISTA acquisition.
Performance Fibers has completed its
acquisition of INVISTA’s North America
tire cord and polyester industrial
filament businesses, including four plants
in the U.S. and Mexico
that manufacture industrial polyester,
Nylon-6 and tire cord fabric. The
acquisition boosts the Richmond company's global manufacturing to 12
plants worldwide, sales to an estimated $1
billion, and employees to 4,000. (March
20, 2008)More.
Carpenter
Introduces Bio-Based Foam.
Carpenter Co., the world's largest
manufacturer of foam cushioning products,
has introduced a fully recyclable,
bio-based foam, Renew, using the company's
"natural foam technology."
Carpenter is pitching the bio-based foam
as a material that leaves a smaller
environmental footprint and reduces the
nation's energy reliance on foreign oil. More.
