SEAS Alum Ed Thomas receives lifetime achievement award in nonwovens

By Elizabeth Egan 

Leak-proof personal hygiene, house wrap, filters, bicomponent, elastic fabrics and BioBarrier—a product initially developed to prevent the growth of radioactive tumbleweeds—are just a of few of the many products that Ed Thomas has been instrumental in developing over the course of his 32 years in the nonwoven industry.  

To recognize his contributions to the industry, Thomas, who graduated from the University at Buffalo in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, has received the Lifetime Technical Achievement Award from the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA).

“I was just blown away when I was told they were giving me this lifetime achievement award,” said Thomas. “I felt quite pleased and honored, it was a nice crowning touch to a long career in the industry.”

Thomas made the decision to major in mechanical engineering after flying in and working on helicopters while serving in the Vietnam War. While he did not expect to end up in a career such as nonwovens, he noted that his time at UB was rewarding and that his advisors and a professor who gave demonstrations in nylon production gave him great perspective about the career he would end up in.

As Thomas finished his senior year at UB, he landed an interview in South Carolina with materials manufacturer DuPont. After flying out of Buffalo during a blizzard and into the sunny and warm weather of South Carolina, the decision seemed obvious, he said.

After a few years of working at DuPont in research and development and recruitment, where he recruited many students from UB, Thomas started as a process engineering manager in the company’s nonwoven business in Tennessee. Thomas worked in several research and manufacturing roles managing several production plants and eventually became the head of global research and development for Fiberweb.

Thomas holds 10 patents, and over the course of his career his various teams were awarded nearly 300 patents in the nonwoven industry.

He has also contributed to the education of nonwoven technology, partnering with INDA to teach courses through the Nonwovens Institute at North Carolina State University, which he continues in retirement. 

“The definition of a nonwoven is a fiber-based, engineered material that is not made by weaving, knitting or papermaking and uses natural or synthetic fibers of all kinds to make a wide array of products,” said Thomas. “It is a very broad and less understood industry because many of the products are pretty much invisible to the normal consumer.”

Roof shingles, wipes, notebook covers, dryer sheets and surgical masks are just a few of the many applications that Thomas listed. 

Throughout his career, Thomas had many opportunities to build teams that would take products from the initial phase of development to market.

“The exciting part is starting with the concept of a new idea and then being able to follow the development through to the final commercialization and sales,” said Thomas. “I practiced a philosophy of building teams made up of diverse talents. Typically, the person who conceives of a novel idea is not necessarily the person you need to take that to manufacturing and eventually to the market so we would progress the development through multi-functional team members.”

With this approach, Thomas noted that they were able to achieve performance where 35% of sales were based on products that had been in the market for less than three years.

One product Thomas and his team developed was a novel material called BioBarrier, a nonwoven geotextile material inserted into the ground to redirect root tip growth.  Thomas licensed the original technology from Battelle and worked with the Department of Energy to prevent an unexpected ramification of nuclear technology, radioactive tumbleweeds. Plants would grow on contaminated uranium mining sites around the Midwest, causing the roots to pick up trace amounts of radioactive material and then break off into tumbleweeds. BioBarrier prevented the roots from growing far enough to absorb the radioactive material.

Today, BioBarrier is often used to keep tree roots from growing under roads and sidewalks, causing them to become uneven or cracked.

House wrap is another nonwoven that Thomas played a role in developing. The same technology that is used to make soft, breathable outer layers for baby diapers was redeployed to create a robust, breathable and waterproof material for residential and commercial construction. Thomas said that a version of the material was developed for hurricane-prone areas, with the strength to protect against projectile puncture of walls that could lead to water damage.

Facemasks and other personal protective equipment such as surgical gowns are nonwovens that became more commonly used in the last four years.

“During Covid, we realized that much of our personal protective equipment was produced overseas so many companies began onshoring production of the basic nonwoven components, spunbond and meltblown,” said Thomas. “Spunbond, a stronger nonwoven with large fibers, makes up the outer part of the mask, and meltblown, made with significantly smaller fibers, makes up the filter.”

Thomas has consulted with numerous companies considering entry into the nonwovens space, development of novel new materials and N-95 mask development and production.

“The nonwovens industry has enjoyed significant growth largely due to the diversity of raw materials and processes that can be employed to produce engineered materials that meet demanding requirements not possible by conventional textile processes,” said Thomas. “It has been quite a ride in an unexpected lane, and what I learned at UB certainly has made this possible.”