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Fairborn firm hosts  industrial sewing show

Glawe Awning & Tent event draws attendees from all over Midwest and Canada.

Jim Webb (right) of Webb & Sons gives a presentation on stitch technologies during a conference that continues through today. The Glawe Awning & Tent Company is hosting the Industrial Fabrics Association International conference. The Fairborn business is located at 851 Zapata Drive.

Ron Alvey/Staff photographer Jim Webb (right) of Webb & Sons gives a presentation on stitch technologies during a conference that continues through today. The Glawe Awning & Tent Company is hosting the Industrial Fabrics Association International conference. The Fairborn business is located at 851 Zapata Drive.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Photos: International conference in Fairborn

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer Updated 11:15 PM Thursday, December 3, 2009

FAIRBORN — One attendee makes covers for aircraft noses, while another makes them for scissor lifts. A third fashions mall banners and shower curtain liners from material made from recycled soft-drink bottles. Still another manufactures privacy curtains for hospitals.

They were among 40 people from throughout the Midwest and Canada who were in town on Thursday, Dec. 3, to teach and learn the finer points of industrial fabrics and sewing.

“We hope people will find niches to get through” the recession, said Kathy Schaefer, an owner and vice president of Glawe Awning & Tent, the 132-year-old Fairborn company that’s hosting the Canvas Products Association’s regional meeting, which concludes today.

More than 100 people were expected at a trade show featuring 24 exhibitors Thursday evening and today, she said.

Herman Janz and Olaf Beil made the six-hour drive from the Toronto area to learn some basics of industrial sewing.

“Sewing is new to me,” Janz said.

In the past, Janz had only retailed higher-end awnings, but after his supplier of retractable awnings relocated to British Columbia, he decided to make them. He hired Beil, who had worked for the departed supplier.

Besides sitting in on Thursday’s daylong sewing machine workshop, the two men were interested in the fabric “welding” techniques demonstrated by Eric Helmick of Miller Weldmaster Corp. of Navarre, Ohio.

Miller’s machines use heat, speed and pressure to “weld” synthetic fabrics together, and make everything from tents and tarpaulins to inflatable rafts and pool covers.

A polyurethane-based tape is sometimes used to bind certain industrial fabrics together, Helmick said.

Banner Creations of Minneapolis uses materials made from recycled soft drink bottles to make everything from table covers and runners to shower curtains and mall banners.

Banner Creations’ owner, Nora Norby, said when her products wear out, they can be sent back to the company. They’re then sent to a mill to be recycled again in materials like carpet backing.

Glawe Awning & Tent, 851 Zapata Drive, was founded by Charles Glawe in 1877. About 60 percent of its business is in commercial and residential awnings, with the remainder coming primarily from tent rentals.

The company, which supplied the Wright brothers with tents capable of withstanding the winds at Kitty Hawk in 1903, employs about 23 people year-round, plus seasonal workers during the summer.

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