Nonwovens Training Courses for both Students and Industry
By
John F. Hagewood Ph.D. PE
Associate Director, NCRC

The Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC) offers a series of courses outside of the traditional classroom setting for both students at NC State and people in industry. These courses are offered through three different programs. These programs include on-line courses offered through the Textile Off-Campus Program (TOP), Short Courses and Customized training courses designed for a specific company at its request. In the future it is planned to offer some of these materials to our member companies through down loaded videos from our web site.

At present three courses can be taken for credit if desired through TOP. These courses are the same as offered in the classroom and are:

Materials, Polymers & Fibers used in Nonwovens ----- TT 503
Introduction to Nonwoven Products and Processes ----- TT 504
Bonding Fundamentals in Nonwovens ------------------- TT 506

Short courses are offered through our TexEd program. Most of these courses are similar to the nonwovens courses offered in the classroom; however, there are significant differences in the intensity and compactness of the courses as well as an increased emphasis on industrial application. All of the short courses included tours of the NCRC pilot lines (see photo below) and labs. These courses also have a significant hands-on component utilizing these facilities. Four courses were held in 2006 with a total attendance of approximately 75 students. A seminar on technical textiles with the Italian Trade Commission was also organized under this program and had an attendance of 97.

Textiles Nonwovens Lab

Eight courses have been scheduled for 2007. These include five courses offered in the past and modeled after existing classroom offerings (TT 504, 505, 506, 507 & 508), a course on spunbonding and melt blowing which has also been offered in the past, and two newly developed courses. NCRC’s latest short course is on Composites, Converting and Laminating. This is a new course and its offering along with another new course being developed on Staple Fiber Processing in Nonwovens will complete a series of courses ranging from Introduction to Nonwovens through product development and final product assembly and packaging. All of these courses (see below) have been scheduled for next year and all will be taught in College of Textile rooms to allow us to be close to the pilot lines and labs.

The course schedule planned for 2007 is listed below.

· Introduction to Nonwovens Processes and Products ---------- Feb. 19 – 21
· New Nonwovens Product Development ------------------------ March 19 -23
· Fundamentals of Nonwovens Bonding Techniques ----------- April 9 – 13
· Nonwovens Manufacturing Processing ------------------------- June 25 – 29
· Characterization of Nonwovens Products ---------------------- July 23 – 27
· Fundamentals of Spunbond and Melt Blowing ---------------- August 20 -24
· Fundamentals of Staple Fiber Processing in Nonwovens ---- Oct. 8 -10
· Composites, Converting & Laminating ------------------------- Dec. 3 -5

These are the only courses of this type available worldwide. Attendees are drawn from Europe, North America and Asia. Typically about 25% of each class comes from outside the US. Because of the high growth rate in nonwoven products and nonwovens technologies, there is a major need to provide advanced training in this area in order to sustain the industry. These multidisciplinary courses are structured to help meet this need.

Each attendee in these courses receives a Certificate of Completion and Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) from North Carolina State University through the McKimmon Center. For those enrolled in NCSU, these courses can be applied towards a Graduate Certificate in Nonwoven Science and Technology (GCNST) if certain requirements are meet.

Besides the standard short courses, NCRC personnel also conducted three customized training courses for member companies in 2007. Two of these were held at the College of Textiles and one was held at the customer’s facilities.

College of Textiles
P.O. Box 8301
Raleigh, NC 27695-8301
Telephone: (919) 515-6646
FAX: (919) 515-3733
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Last Site Revision:
February 2, 2006