Arnold Wilkie, the president and owner of Hills, Inc., received the INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award from INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, during the RISE Conference this week. Wilke has had a distinguished career in advancing yarn, fiber, and nonwoven technologies since 1970 and has over 40 patents and applications covering yarns, bicomponent fibers, ultra-fine fibers, nanofibers, dissolvable filaments, meltblown nonwovens, and polymer processing innovations. He established Hills as a leading innovator in bicomponent fiber nonwovens and in the equipment to produce these materials. During Wilkie’s time leading Hills, their pilot capabilities have become well-known and highly regarded for enabling material innovations. 

Many of Wilke’s patents pertain to the development of equipment solutions that enable the production of complex bi- and multi-component fiber structures. These solutions include the method of forming a continuous filament spun-laid web, the method and apparatus for producing polymer fibers and fabrics including multiple polymer components, the method and apparatus for controlling airflow in a fiber extrusion system, and controlling the dissolution of dissolvable polymer components in plural component fibers.

“I haven’t done it all by myself,” he says. “I have had a lot of helpt at Hills. We have a great organization and we have a great industry here in nonwovens.” 

The INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award recognizes individuals whose technical achievements, over a career of 20 years or more, have meaningfully contributed to the growth of the nonwovens industry.