Officials Say SmartCap Performance Is the Ultimate FR Solution
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Tietex International has announced development of an FR barrier solution that promises mattress manufacturers a superior alternative to FR Sock products that currently are in widespread use.
Company officials call newly patented SmartCap the ultimate FR solution. “We believe our new SmartCap offers a number of performance advancements that will greatly impact the mattress industry,” said CEO Martin Wildeman.
Wildeman said Tietex has been able to conceive and produce the FR barrier product that simultaneously offers end-use benefits as well as manufacturing advantages. “With SmartCap, we have an FR chemical-free fabric — one that also contains no fiberglass and no modacrylic fibers,” he said. “In addition,” he added, “the product design itself assures that mattress manufacturers will experience significant time and labor savings on the factory floor.”
President Wade Wallace suggested that mattress fabric chemicals, fiberglass fibers and other worrisome additives are an increasing cause for safety concern. “The Mattress Industry continuously studies these issues, and we believe producers and consumers are demanding solutions that are free of these harmful components,” he said.
According to Wallace, Tietex R&D explored FR barrier alternatives for years. He said the first breakthrough came last year with the launch of FR Stretch, an omni-directional, comfort stretch fabric designed to enhance the performance of traditional quilt-top mattresses. “What we didn’t realize at the time was that FR Stretch was the model for something we had searched for and almost had given up on,” he said.
The SmartCap inspiration finally came about with something Tietex calls “elasticated FR skirting.” Wallace explained: “Like many ideas,” he said, “SmartCap rests on a disarmingly simple concept. You take a multi-directional stretch top panel, FR directional stretch skirting and elastic power zones; and you have a safe, comfortable FR barrier that is a piece of cake to install. In a strict manufacturing sense, it’s revolutionary.”
Tietex took SmartCap to outside laboratories that performed successful burn tests on 10″, 12″, 14″ and 15′ mattresses. Wildeman said that only three (3) SmartCap sizes are needed for the six (6)primary mattress sizes — twin, twin XL, Full, Queen, King and Cal-King. “This product capability and versatility is a big convenience,” he said
“But,” Wildeman noted, “what will make manufacturers really sit up and take notice is the 7X greater productivity in their factories and the increased profitability that they will achieve in manufacturing benefits.”
Founded in 1974, Tietex is privately owned and vertically integrated, with two factory locations and over 500 employees in North America and Asia.
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