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Canada's technical textile sector to help fight Covid

17 Apr '20

3 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

Amidst increasing demand for personal protective equipment in the health sector due to Covid 19 pandemic, the technical textile materials and clothing industry in Canada, represented by TechniTextile Québec, CTT Group and Vestechpro, has geared up to supply front-line protective uniforms for doctors, nurses, paramedic and maintenance personnel.

Logistik Unicorp is taking over the coordination of the manufacturing of protective level 1, 2 and 3 gowns in collaboration with Duvaltex, Soleno Textile, Stedfast, Texel Technical Materials, Textiles Monterey, Maxime Knitting and CTT Group.

“In just 16 days, we were able to put in place a secure local supply chain capable of supplying the Québec and Canadian governments with disposable and washable solutions. The success of this initiative, undertaken in cooperation with CTT Group and Vestechpro, leverages the experience and expertise of an advisory committee made up of some ten textile materials and clothing manufacturers as well as research and technology transfer centres,” says Dany Charest, general manager of TechniTextile Québec, the technical textile materials cluster, in charge to coordinate the concerted efforts of the industry until now.

Logistik Unicorp, a world-class integrator of uniforms and security equipment and the main supplier to the Canadian army, aims to launch production of protective gowns as soon as it receives official orders from the governments. “Our teams are in place to meet the demand. Textile manufacturers are already adapting their production to meet demand from the medical sector. Our supply chain is capable of producing up to 200 000 protective gowns every week. We are also currently evaluating the possibility of producing masks,” says Karine Bibeau, vice-president, Sales at Logistik Unicorp.

This initiative relies on the support of leading partners. Logistik Unicorp has mandated Vestechpro, a clothing research and innovation centre, to carry out the qualification of new suppliers and to validate the quality of the garments and the production capacity of the plants. In addition, the management of compliance testing protocols according to the AAMIPB70 standard for protection levels 1, 2 and 3 has been entrusted to the CTT Group. The protocols for level 4 are currently being developed. This technology transfer centre specialises in research, development and analysis of technical textiles, geosynthetics and advanced textile-based materials.

The advice of the advisory committee has proved invaluable in the implementation of this initiative. It includes representatives from the Canadian Textile Industry Association, Duvaltex, FilSpec, CTT Group, Innotex, Logistik Unicorp, Regitex, Soleno Textile, Stedfast, TechniTextile Québec, Texel Technical Materials, Textiles Monterey, Vestechpro and SP Apparel.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)