Ep. 87: Innovation through silver-based tech

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Ep. 87: Innovation through silver-based tech

In this episode of Textile Innovation, we speak with Joel Furey, the founder and chief commercial officer at Noble Biomaterials, based in Scranton, US, about the company’s silver-based innovations.

WTiN
Hello and welcome to textile innovation hosted by WTiN. Now you may have noticed something different about this episode we've got a new name and a new look. But rest assured we'll still be delivering the same unmissable talks with the industry experts. My name is Ruby. I'm the digital news editor at World textile Information Network and your brand new podcast host. Each month, we're going to be joined by a brand new special guest. So join me and my colleagues as we deep dive into what's new, what's interesting and what innovations have hit the market recently, we cover everything on the podcast from sustainability to start ups to the latest research and developments. And we also quiz the experts in the fields about their new products and ideas across the huge spectrum that is the textile industry. So no matter what your interest is WTiN have you covered and we can connect you to everything you need to know from right here and our central hub in the UK. In this episode we talk to Joel Furey Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Noble biomaterials. The company is based out of Scranton, Pennsylvania in the US and they work with intelligent materials. Together, we'll be going over everything noble, the fantastic technology it's developed and what the experts over in Scranton think is coming for the industry over the next few years. So first things first, welcome to the podcast.

Joel Furey
Well, first off Ruby, thanks for having me. So great opportunity.

WTiN
Let's kick things off. By starting with the basics bare bones, I get to know you and the company a little bit better. You've been in the commercial and operations industry for about 25 years. Now, do you want to tell me a bit about yourself and how it came to be that you ended up working with intelligent materials,

Joel Furey
I guess I'd say I've been an explorer and a bit of a builder most of my life. Early in my career, I had the fortune of working for a number of startups. And I kind of fell in love with the startup life and everything that went along with it and knew that at some point, I wanted to create a venture of my own. So I had all these experiences along the way learning how to start a business and run a business. And about 25 years ago, I was presented with the opportunity of starting something myself. That's how noble came to be partner. And I started noble after discovering the silver metallization technology and ultimately the power of silver to solve problems in the world.

WTiN
For those listening at home who might not be familiar with you already, can you explain what the company does in a bit of depth.

Joel Furey
We focus on protecting, saving, healing and improving lives. And we do that through science and our silver based smart technologies. In a practical sense, what we make is fibres, fabrics, and foams. So these are all polymers that have silver incorporated into them in one way or another. Our core technology is the ability to bond pure silver to the surface of polymers. We do that, again through fibres, fabrics and foams that then get used by our customers to make their finished products.

WTiN
The company was founded in 1997, and has grown a substantial amount in that time, so much so that you ever managed to excel during the peak of the pandemic, which not everyone was lucky enough to do. What challenges did you face that? And how did you overcome those?

Joel Furey
We did make it through the pandemic. Not unscathed. But we made it through in good fashion, we had many of the same challenges that others around the globe had with disrupted supply chains. Our labour force was very challenging, both with the virus itself and maintaining safety within the facility, but also the demand for our technologies skyrocketed. Really, it was about the broader population, understanding the power of antimicrobial technologies and the benefit that an antimicrobial can have. Of course, we've been promoting this concept for the better part of 25 years. I think it was a real change to have the world educated on these subjects. So prior to the pandemic, most of our focus from an antimicrobial standpoint was was two things, one, providing odour management solutions to consumer products. So these are shirts and socks and clothing that that you can work out in and they won't smell and then to fighting infection. And this is a part of our business that doesn't get a lot of visibility, but we partner with medical device companies to eliminate the bacteria that cause infection in products like advanced wound care bandages. So we've been in the infection business for decades. And it was really interesting to see how the two parts of our business came together during the pandemic.

WTiN
That brings me quite nicely into the next section of questions, which is taking a closer look at the tech and manufacturing side of things. What is ionic plus? How did it come about? And what is the technology behind that.

Joel Furey
Ionic plus for us is actually three different technologies that we offer under the ionic plus brand umbrella. And it's really about protecting soft surfaces, like clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, luggage from microbes. The reason it's ionic plus is that we take positively charged ions in the form of silver and deliver them through these textile materials. Those positively charged ions attract negatively charged bacteria, and then disrupt the bacterias DNA, RNA and its respiration and eliminate them. Our core technology is metallized yarn, where we bond pure silver to the surface of fibres, fabrics, and foams. We also offer an extruded form of ionic plus where we embed positively charged silver ions into the fibre or filament as it's being extruded. And then lastly, we make a topical form of ionic plus where the positively charged silver ions are added to the fabric at the finishing stage. So with these three technology platforms, we can address virtually any need that our customers have.

WTiN
Amazing. So why would these typically be used? Would it be like medical or?

Joel Furey
These go across basically all categories, clothing would be an obvious one, and roughly half of our business is in performance apparel. But we're also involved in home products like bedding, and furniture, a large part of our business is actually medical devices where we use these technologies to prevent the growth of bacteria that cause infection, burn care patients wound care patients, this would be a standard of care, actually, globally, our technologies are also used in military products throughout the US and Europe and allied countries to help our soldiers stay in the field longer.

WTiN
So you guys are pretty full spectrum that we are these technologies that you've mentioned, do they affect the structure of the fabric at all,

Joel Furey
We really don't impact the structure of the fabric. In the case of our metallized yarns. They're only incorporated at maybe three to 7% of the total content of the fabric. So the the hand feel and the characteristics, the other textile characteristics of the fabric are really determined by the other yarn content. Our materials, though on their own are very soft, they behave and feel just like any other fibre. So one of the things that our customers love about it is that it doesn't change the hand feel doesn't change the way that they need to manage the material over its lifetime.

WTiN
Amazing. So while we're on this kind of topic, how does your technology compare to other similar technologies that are currently on the market right now?

Joel Furey
First and foremost, safety and efficacy are paramount. Our technologies have been clinically tested and proven for 25 years. In the most demanding and critical use applications. We have literally billions of consumer and patient use interactions. And there's really no other technology on the market that can make that statement.

WTiN
So let's move on to talk about another one of your technologies a conductive and lightweight textile engineered for energy management called circular tax. Can you tell me what that is used for and the technology behind that one?

Joel Furey
Absolutely. Circuit tax uses our core technology of silver metallization of polymers. And silver is the most conductive element on the planet. And when we put a universal coating of silver on fibres or fabrics, that material can then move electrical energy from one point to another. So we've just created effectively a a wire out of a fibre or fabric and that's really game changing. Because we can now move electrical energy and therefore data through the soft surface materials. Now without wires so you can build for example electronics directly into fabrics and our circuit tacks. Really we break down into two separate categories one is around conductive energy and creating a an ecosystem or an infrastructure of electronic pathways in soft surfaces. So for example, in a medical application, we could knit or weave circuit Tech's yarns into that into a garment that can act as a sensor and transmitter of biometric data coming from the body that could then be transmitted to a healthcare professional. The second part of our circuit Tech's platform is around conductive shielding, and it's the ability to reflect electromagnetic signals. The second part of our circuit tax platform is what we call conductive shielding material. And it allows us to reflect electromagnetic energy. And the result is we have a highly conductive, very flexible and extremely lightweight material that can reflect electromagnetic energy. So it's used to protect electronic devices. It's used to reflect signals to create, for example, safe rooms. This technology is used today by organisations like NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin in is in wide use throughout US and allied military forces.

WTiN
Where do you see the potential in conducted tech solutions? Do you think it will be largely industrial or defence or medical areas,

Joel Furey
We see both of our platforms growing. So we have we have a healthcare wearables Initiative, where we're introducing this infrastructure, this conductive pathway and sensor infrastructure into what used to be complex structures of wires and leads. And we're building that technology directly into garments. And we see that as as a very significant growth opportunity. And then on the industrial and particularly on the military side, the need for materials to protect and safeguard our soldiers and our equipment and the field is growing rapidly.

WTiN
You showcase techtextil this year, how was the response there?

Joel Furey
We had a great response, Tech Tech steel, it was refreshing to be back in front of people after a long hiatus. This was our first trade show since the pandemic and there was there's quite an energy in the facility. And and I think for us, we presented primarily our conductive shielding materials. And the response was very, very good. And and I think that the need for these materials was underscored by how busy we were at the show. It was it was great to see we have high hopes for this category going forward.

WTiN
So smart wearables, targeting medical applications are facing some challenges or overcoming some quite strict regulatory standards. Has your experience with these regulations in the antimicrobial space assisted in aligning circus acts with medical monitoring and health applications?

Joel Furey
I would say it has. We have a regulatory team on staff. We have great advisors from a regulatory standpoint, and that's on a global basis. And as you say, most of our experience has been in regulatory for antimicrobial applications. However, because we've been involved in medical devices for about 20 years, we have significant experience in math, specifically medical device regulatory. So I think that comes into play, we understand the process that the materials need to go through.

WTiN
So as well as being extruded into fibres and applied as a finish, what other forms are your products available? And is it is this technology adaptive to customer requests?

Joel Furey
We really pride ourselves on the variety of applications we're able to support. So in addition to extruded and topical technology, we have a metallized technology where we put a pure coating of silver we bond silver to the surface of fibres and fabrics. What we do then is we use all of these materials in a customised format, where we can recommend to our customers, how to use them, how much to use, what methodologies to use to apply them and how to combine them with other materials. So in the end, these materials or the finished products are infinitely customizable to the customer's needs.

WTiN
So interest around anti microbial textiles obviously rose around the pandemic with consumers because made more aware of these properties available in clothing and stuff? Has this interest been retained? Or is anti odour still the consumer friendly term for this technology?

Joel Furey
No, I would say that the interest is retained and maybe even increased. And it's it's been a slight change in in repositioning. I think that consumers now understand what antimicrobial can mean for them. I think most people understood what an antimicrobial was, but often associated it with a hand soap or something a little more practical from their daily life. So for years, we've been maybe avoiding the use of antimicrobial as conveying a benefit to the consumer, and tried to make it a little more friendly, a little more experiential for them in in describing it as something that can eliminate odour and extend the life of their products between washings that sort of thing. And now I think everyone's been educated on bacteria and viruses, and therefore on anti microbials. So the the conversation has shifted. And while we still support the use of language, like anti odour technology, or anti stink technology, we don't shy away from the use of anti microbial and, and the broad consumer base views that really as a benefit.

WTiN
So something that our readers are really interested in is sustainability. Which brings me to the next couple of questions. So with your technology, are there any end of life concerns with any of the products?

Joel Furey
There really aren't are our primary concern. And by the way, this is of critical concern to us as well, our primary concern is really the broader impact of textiles on the waste stream. And the way we think about it is in a few ways. One is we want to make sure that our technologies use responsibly sourced materials. So for example, the silver that we buy is predominantly recycled. And it's it's coming from, let's say, electronics that have been recycled and silver has recovered from those materials. So we want to make sure that we're using responsibly sourced materials. Second, we recover and recycle as much as we possibly can within our process within our manufacturing, and also within the supply chain. So we have robust recycling programmes, again, for silver, as well as other materials within our process, as well as within a supply chain. So are downstream. And then lastly, and maybe most impactfully, is what happens to a garment once it's in a consumers hand. And our approach is we want to maximise the life of that garment, we want to support a use case of those products where garments don't need to be washed as often because they don't smell for example, and they are incorporated into products that are very well made with good production quality, a combination of those things will significantly extend the life of that garment. So we of course, support that within our products and then also seek to partner with brands that have the same philosophy. And you can see that starting to show up in the market with reuse and resale programmes and that that aligns perfectly with our ethos and and supporting the extended lifecycle of textiles. And a partnership that we signed with crystal International Group, which is a denim manufacturer and Crystal launched what is called the wash minus collection in the US. And it's designed really to further educate consumers on the power of anti microbials. And the ability that they have to reduce water consumption. And Crystal denim incorporates our ionic Plus technology into its fabrics at the finishing stage. And what that does is promotes water conservation from cradle to grave. And Crystal says that by using a wash minus, you can reduce the number of home wanderings by up to 70% in your denim and still maintain a great product.

WTiN
Amazing stuff. And that is something we're seeing quite a lot in the industry at the moment as people are really deep diving into this act of sustainability because it is so integral now. We completely agree. So moving on to the final portion of the podcast. So we've briefly touched on my trend and insight. What trends are you seeing at the moment in the industry, any buzzwords or technology that keeps cropping up for you?

Joel Furey
Well, of course, given the business that we're in So microbial is is absolutely a trend and a pandemic has really solidified that for the consumer in the consumers mind, I'd say that there's no sign of that slowing down. The second thing that we see is that consumers are placing significant value on high quality materials, and in particular, to support products that will last longer than those that might be used in fast fashion applications. So consumers don't want disposable clothing any longer. And we're seeing that as a very distinct trend.

WTiN
Amazing. So that brings me to my last and final question, which is also my favourite to ask people, What are the plans for noble in the future? What can we expect to see from you soon,

Joel Furey
We're excited about the future, we see lots of opportunity. And I think for us, we're really committed to pushing the barriers of material science with silver based technology, but also perhaps giving a little teaser here, perhaps beyond just silver. So for us, we're going to work hard kind of behind the scenes, or continue to work hard behind the scenes to support the safety and effectiveness of those people that are protecting our freedom, both in the US and in Europe, that's very important to us. And we're very proud to partner with with our military forces around the world. And then from a consumer standpoint, we're excited to continue our journey as the most complete antimicrobial system and give our partners give our customers as much optionality as they want to develop great products. We have an exciting new technology launch that will bring to market later this year. And it'll be a first of its kind, anti microbial system that we're very excited about. We've not made it public yet, but we'll be sure to let you know when we do.

WTiN
Please do that sounds great. Well, that's it. That concludes the podcast. Thank you so much for taking the time out to speak with me. It's been amazing, and I'm very excited to see what's in the future for you guys.

Joel Furey
Awesome. Thank you so much.

WTiN
If you'd like to get in contact with noble yourself, you can find them at Noble biomaterials.com. Or you can drop them a message on Twitter at Noble underscore advantage. You can get in contact with us by following at WTiN_comment on Twitter. And if you fancy sponsoring an episode of the podcast, please email sales@wtin.com. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next month.