[pageLogInLogOut]

#Technical Textiles

Trelleborg celebrates grand opening of advanced manufacturing facility in North Carolina

Grand opening in Forest City © 2026 Trelleborg Group
Trelleborg Engineered Coated Fabrics proudly celebrated the grand opening of its new, state-of-the-art extrusion coating manufacturing facility in Forest City, North Carolina, US on May 6, 2026. The event brought together community leaders, customers, partners and Trelleborg leadership to mark a significant milestone in the company’s continued investment in innovation, capacity and sustainable operations. The new facility represents a significant investment and reinforces Trelleborg’s long-term commitment to advancing high-performance engineered coated fabric solutions for critical applications across aerospace, healthcare & medical, safety & protection and industrial markets.

“This is a proud moment for Trelleborg and a clear sign of our commitment to our customers,” said Fredrik Nilsson, Chief Financial Officer of Trelleborg Group. “This facility strengthens our ability to deliver advanced coated materials that meet the highest standards of performance, precision and reliability. It is also supporting our long-term growth and sustainability ambitions.”

The Forest City facility features next-generation polymer extrusion coating technology designed to significantly enhance production efficiency, quality and scalability. The site includes both a pilot production line for Research & Development, and a full-scale, highly automated production line that will enable us to deliver to the highest quality materials with exceptional consistency.

We hope to set a new benchmark for sustainable manufacturing within the coated fabrics industry as the operation is completely solvent-free and powered by renewable electricity resulting in zero emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or carbon dioxide during production.

“Extrusion coating is our most advanced and most sustainable coating process to date,” said Steve Brockman, President of Trelleborg Engineered Coated Fabrics. “We designed this facility to help our customers meet their growth, innovation and sustainability goals while ensuring we remain a responsible and long-term partner to the communities where we operate.”

The project reflects strong collaboration with local and regional partners, including Rutherford County and Isothermal Community College, which supported workforce development and early-stage process training. These partnerships played a critical role in bringing the facility to life and preparing a skilled workforce to support future growth.

“The investment is not only about technology, it’s about people, partnerships and the future,” Brockman added. “Forest City positions us for long-term expansion, with the flexibility to scale our footprint as customer demand continues to grow.”

The new site enhances Trelleborg’s global manufacturing network and expands capacity to meet increasing demand for high-performance materials made in the United States while accelerating innovation across key markets.



More News from Trelleborg Group

More News on Technical Textiles

#Research & Development

TERIS reaches milestone: Fraunhofer consortium develops new standards for tire analysis

In the “TERIS” project, the Fraunhofer institutes ICT, IGD, and IWM—led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF—have reached a decisive milestone. For the first time, the teams aim to generate, analyse, and predict tire wear in the laboratory in a standardized and practical manner. As part of this milestone, results are now available on reference abrasion, particle analysis, tribological models, AI-based surface analysis, a test bench concept, and methods for accelerated aging and VOC detection. The tire industry, testing services, and environmental agencies will in future benefit from reliable, rapid laboratory procedures for emissions assessment.

#Technical Textiles

FILTREX™ India 2026 to bring global filtration leaders together in New Delhi

EDANA, the voice of nonwovens, in partnership with the Business Coordination House (BCH), will welcome filtration professionals from across the world to FILTREX™ India 2026, taking place on 7–8 October 2026 at the Eros Hotel, New Delhi.

#Functional Fabrics

CovationBio introduces two new bio-based innovations at Functional Fabric Fair New York

Covation Biomaterials LLC (“CovationBio®”) is showcasing its two new bio-based innovations, Xatryx® and Sorona® elasterell-p fiber, at this year’s Functional Fabric Fair in New York City, July 7–9, 2026. Attendees can visit CovationBio at Booth #404 to explore this next generation of bio-based performance materials.

#Knitting & Hosiery

STOLL: Agreement signed for the divestiture of selected assets

In early 2025, KARL MAYER announced its strategic decision to focus on its core business areas of WARP KNITTING, WARP PREPARATION, and TECHNICAL TEXTILES. As part of this move, the flat knitting machine business under the STOLL brand was discontinued and the production site in Reutlingen was closed in October 2025.

Latest News

#Textile processing

YKK develops concept EXCELLA® zipper tape using nonwoven fabric partially derived from used clothing

YKK Corporation has developed a concept version of its premium EXCELLA® zipper series made from nonwoven fabric sheets created by fiberizing used clothing and other textile materials. Based on a proposal by fashion designer Yuima Nakazato, this item was created as a result of collaboration between Nakazato, Seiko Epson Corporation and YKK. The concept zipper was incorporated as a material component for pieces in the newest YUIMA NAKAZATO Couture Collection, “INFERNO,” which was unveiled in Paris, France on July 8, 2026.

#Textiles & Apparel / Garment

Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris highlights evolving global sourcing landscape

From 31 August to 2 September 2026, Texworld Apparel Sourcing Paris will bring together more than 1,000 international exhibitors at Paris-Le Bourget Exhibition Centre. This edition reflects the new global balance of textile and apparel sourcing, highlighting a strong diversity of sourcing countries — some unexpected.

#Textile processing

Dedicated car seat model of SHIMA SEIKI’s P-CAM® R Cutting Machine unveiled

Leading Japanese textile solutions provider SHIMA SEIKI MFG., LTD. of Wakayama, Japan, showed a special version of its P-CAM® R multi-ply computerized cutting machine dedicated to the production of car seats for the first time, at a private exhibition held over two days on Thursday, July 2nd and Friday, July 3rd at the Kariya City Industrial Promotion Center in Aichi Prefecture.

#Research & Development

ALADIN paves the way for circular and demand-driven textile production in Europe

Textile production can be organized sustainably by utilizing short supply chains and preventing overproduction. This can already be achieved today by intelligently connecting and efficiently utilizing existing infrastructure. At the same time, production becomes circular when innovative technologies and materials are used that enable high-quality recycling. The ALADIN research project, launched in May 2026 and co-funded with five million euros under the EU Horizon Europe program, is creating the conditions for this.

TOP