Technical Absorbents
Techtextil Frankfurt

Free membership

Receive our weekly Newsletter
and set tailored daily news alerts.

Nonwovens/​Converting

Nonwovens industry professionals honoured

The tenth annual INDA Award for Lifetime Technical Achievement was presented this week to industry veteran Mike Putnam, of PGI, while the coveted Lifetime Service Award was given to Morris T. Collins, Jr., of RKW US, Inc., at the second annual Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics (RISE) Conference, which took place from 3-6 October at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in Raleigh, N.C. Both men were recognized by the

7th October 2011

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Cary, NC

Medical/Hygiene, Industrial, Packaging

Nonwovens industry professionals honoured

The tenth annual INDA Award for Lifetime Technical Achievement was presented this week to industry veteran Mike Putnam, of PGI, while the coveted Lifetime Service Award was given to Morris T. Collins, Jr., of RKW US, Inc., at the second annual Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics (RISE) Conference, which took place from 3-6 October at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in Raleigh, N.C.

Both men were recognized by their peers in the nonwovens industry for their service and technical expertise throughout their long careers.

"Morris Collins has contributed greatly to INDA and to the industry as a whole and has helped both grow throughout his distinguished career," says Rory Holmes, President of INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, organizer of RISE.

"Likewise, Mike Putnam has played an important role in the technical development of the nonwovens industry throughout his impressive career and he richly deserves this recognition from the nonwovens technical community."

Putnam is currently senior R&D Director for PGI, Benson, North Carolina. He holds a BSME from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

A holder of numerous nonwovens and related patents, he was involved with spunlace development with Chicopee for more than 15 years and then transitioned into R&D at PGI when the company purchased Chicopee in 1995. His lead in process development/R&D at PGI was essential in several commercially successful substrates, including Fabric 450, which was Johnson & Johnson's first nonwoven operating room gown and drape product; commercialization of J&J's APEX technology for NuGauze; and Swiffer, a joint development with P&G and PGI to produce an imaged scrim reinforced dry dusting nonwoven substrate.

Putnam has been an INDA member for more than 20 years while with J&J/PGI and has been an active member of its INTC and TAB committees as well as an active member in the NCRC Industry Technical advisor program to the school's graduate students

Collins is currently president of RKW US, Inc., headquartered in Rome, Georgia, a wholly owned subsidiary of RKW SE that services the hygiene, medical, construction and agricultural markets using film and nonwoven technology. The company has annual revenue of $1 billion.

Collins holds a Bachelor of Textile Engineering from Auburn University. He is the company's current corporate representative to INDA and is a member of the association's Board of Directors, in addition to being active in its Technical Advisory Board and RISE conference planning committee.

He is also the current president of Alabama Textile Education Foundation, Department of Polymer and Fiber Engineering, for Auburn University.

 

Latest Reports

Business intelligence for the fibre, textiles and apparel industries: technologies, innovations, markets, investments, trade policy, sourcing, strategy...

Find out more