SDA-ARS-SRRC, together with TJ Beall Company, won the FLC (Federal Labs Consortium) Excellence in  Techonolgy Transfer award for the Southeast region, for their greige cotton nonwoven fabrics for disposable diapers. The Federal Labs Consortium is made up of all Federal Laboratories, including NASA, CDC and the DoD. The tech transfer awards recognize technology that has been transferred from one agency, usually a research organization or university, to another, generally a business, for development into new products.

The USDA-SRRC and TJ Beall, a cotton supplier, have worked together to develop and commercialize greige cotton that can be processed into a nonwoven fabric and then used in diaper applications. This technology is seen as the first large-scale new use for cotton in the past 50 years.

“Without the help of the Cotton Chemistry and Utilization Dept at the SRRC, we likely would not have been able to overcome the numerous technical hurdles on our way to commercialization,” says Lawson Gary, COO of TJ Beall. “Through their technical assistance and expertise, we are able to offer the nonwovens industry safe, economical natural cotton fibers for use in any carded application.”