Narrow Results

Integrating nanoparticles into textiles represents a crucial intersection between nanotechnology and the textile industry, fundamentally transforming the process of designing, producing and utilizing fabrics. Nanoparticles enhance textile materials by introducing novel features such as antibacterial capabilities, UV protection, flame retardancy and enhanced mechanical strength. These improvements result in fabrics that are more intelligent, highly efficient and environmentally sustainable. They also optimize production processes and provide cutting-edge product designs. Nevertheless, the extensive adoption of nanoparticle technology in textiles encounters notable obstacles, such as those related to nanoparticle dispersion, longevity and compatibility with different substrates. Furthermore, the need for sustainable production processes and the creation of environmentally friendly nanoparticle compositions is driven by concerns regarding environmental impact and toxicity. Nanotechnology, if applied to these difficulties, has the capacity to reduce environmental dangers and introduce a new era of textiles that are both highly functional and in line with global sustainability objectives. This review will examine the techniques used to incorporate nanoparticles into textiles, the advantages of doing so, the assessment of their performance and the considerations about their long-term viability.

The decline in world trade volume in 2009 was the worst since the Great Depression. The United States (US) spread the global recession as a major source of external demand. US import and export data are examined to understand the repercussions, particularly for developing economies divided into preferential and non-preferential trading partners. A key finding is that US trade with preferential partners contracted faster than with non-preferential partners. Case studies of autos and textiles provide insights. A new global trade deal may be the way forward as the US will have to expand net exports to restore growth.

The contemporary U.S. textile and apparel industry has faced significant challenges as the volume of imported goods entering the domestic market has continually increased. In attempts to both foster development in select world regions and maintain viability of the domestic industry, the U.S. government has negotiated a variety of trade agreements extending preferential treatment, including duty- and quota-free access to the U.S. market for apparel and other textile products manufactured in developing countries in the Caribbean Basin, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Andean region. In addition, provisions included in the agreement granting China, the world's largest producer of textiles and apparel, admission to the World Trade Organization have allowed this country to become an immediate beneficiary of the MFA quota phase-out. This article examines the current state of the domestic textile and apparel industry and provides an overview of trade agreements enacted during the past decade that are of specific interest within the textile and apparel sector. It offers insight into challenges and opportunities for both the domestic textile and apparel industries in an age of rapid globalization as final elimination of the existing quota system in 2005 approaches.

This article presents the empirical results of an intra-industry trade analysis of the United States fabric industry. The analysis included 92 countries in four Standard Industrialized Trade Classification (SITC) categories that represent the fabric industry. Results indicated that intra-industry trade levels were generally low, and country specific factors such as levels of economic development, levels of market size and trade deficit were negatively associated with intra-industry trade levels, while distance and trade barriers were somewhat positively associated. These results have strong implications for trade analysts, policy makers and fabric manufacturers as this industry is currently undergoing changes.

This paper examines changes in intra-industry specialization indicators over the 1992-2004 period to assess potential for structural adjustment problems that may arise in U.S. textile and apparel products with growth in trade. Separate analyses are conducted for U.S. bilateral trade with China, Mexico, and DR-CAFTA members. Seven of the sixteen three-digit Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) product groups are expected to experience significant structural adjustment problems. With the exception of one group, all fall within the apparel and clothing (SITC 84) category. Results suggest substantial increases in U.S. imports from China are influencing these findings.

Based on the model of steady-state heat and moisture transfer through textiles, we propose inverse problems of single layer textile material design under low temperature, for example the thickness design or type design. Adopting the idea of regularization method, solving the inverse problems can be formulated into function minimization problems. Combining the finite difference method for ordinary differential equations with direct search method of one dimensional minimization problems, we derive some iteration algorithms of regularized solution for the inverse design problems. Numerical simulation is achieved in order to verify the validity of proposed methods.