Four unique new products have been nominated as finalists for the second annual RISE Durable Products Award to be presented at the RISE Conference in late October.
 
The RISE Durable Product Award will be awarded to a durable nonwoven product using nonwoven fabric and/or technology that is commercially sold and utilized in the consumer or industrial marketplace. The four finalists will make presentations at the third annual RISE Conference, which is organized by INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, and will be held October 23-25, 2012 at the Hilton Baltimore in Baltimore, MD. Following the presentations, RISE attendees will vote on the recipient of the 2012 RISE Durable Products Award.
 
The four finalists are:
 
1. ThermoPod: ThermoPod Temperature-Control Packaging is a biodegradable temperature-control mailer. The outer surface consists of a waterproof biodegradable film and the inner surface is a permeable biodegradable film. Sandwiched between the layers is a proprietary, biodegradable pad made from recycled, purified, flocked textiles to which superabsorbent powders and antimicrobial powders have been added during manufacture.
 
2. Cotton Incorporated: EcoCradle is a packaging material that is produced using mycelium, a fungal network of threadlike cells. This mycelium grows around agricultural by-products like buckwheat husks, oat hulls, or cotton burrs to any shape. In five to sevent days, in the dark, with no watering, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium envelops the by-products, binding them into a strong and beautiful packaging part. The way EcoCradle is produced uses significantly less energy than the manufacturing of synthetic foams.
 
3. Freudenberg Spunweb: Lutraflor Automotive Carpet is a new kind of automotive floor carpet material suitable for full floor molded carpets as well as for floor mats, with significant ecological and performance advantages over current tufted and needlepunched carpet materials. The product portfolio is available in any OEM-agreed-upon color and weight.
 
4. SRP Canada: SRP AirOutshield products are triple layer, spunbonded polypropylene membranes that have high levels of water vapor transmission and are resistant to water penetration. They are constructed by thermally bonding a layer of polypropylene to either side of layer of Aptra® UV8 micro-porous film. AirOutshield membranes are installed in Rain Screen Wall Systems and Sloped Roofs and perform the function of underlayment, secondary drainage plane, air barrier and/or slip sheet.
 
Now in its third year, the goal of RISE is to provide information and stimulation for companies looking for strategies to compete in an increasingly challenging 21st century marketplace.
 
For more information on the RISE Conference: www.inda.org/events/rise12/