"Using innovation to develop textile is better than sticking to traditional ways," said Sung Cheng-hsu, former chairman of Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) for 20 years.
From a small institute in the 1960's that specialized in testing textile for Taiwan textile businesses, the TTRI has triumphed over difficulties and transformed into a modern and large-scale institute that applies innovation to revolutionize textile into an eclectic product with limitless opportunities.
At TTRI's 50-year anniversary celebration yesterday, former chairmen congregated to accept appreciation awards from the institute and to share their perspective on TTRI's outlook.
Having served as the second chairman of TTRI for two decades since 1966, Sung believes that the institute is moving in the right direction. In the past two decades, the institute not only specialized in textile testing and new technology research, but has also been a mentor to the textile industry, he said.
Its direction has expanded from textile testing to a path that is filled with a myriad of innovative technologies for textile production. When the sixth chairman Huang Yaw-tang led ITTR from 2001 to 2007, he focused on developing advanced products and on integrating R&D and the commercial side of textile industry.
"The textile industry needed new technology, and my foremost responsibility was to incorporate textile R&D with the actual textile business," Huang added. With about 40 years of experiences in textile-related industries, he believes the institute could benefit Taiwan's textile business if the two can work closer for further expansion into the international market.
Understanding the significance of marketing textile as a business product, Huang encourages R&D to think from a business perspective. On the job as the chairman, Huang's mentality was to “think about the potential market of a product before researching and developing it.”
This mentality was efficiently applied during the disastrous 921 earthquake in 1999, when bamboo farmlands were severely damaged by the quake. Huang saw the potential of bamboos as a new textile material with marketing possibilities. By charcoaling the bamboos and grinding the charcoal into a powder to mix into textile fiber, the base for the widely popular bamboo-charcoal products on the shelves nowadays.
"We need to focus R&D on products and technologies that are difficult for others to imitate," Huang explained that even with patent rights, innovation can still be emulated. He added that the institute needs to concentrate on developing unconventional engineering such as mixing specially developed chemicals into fiber.
Over the last 50 years, TTRI introduced many textile novelties. For example, the integration of optical fiber into textile for a fabric that illuminates when supplied with electricity, and the coffee-added fabrics that prevents bugs and covers odors. Or, the unique textile that absorbs body sweat while keeping the body cool simultaneously.
Although the textile industry in Taiwan will have a difficult time competing with China's cheap prices once a cross-strait trading agreement is signed, Huang is optimistic for the local industry if it continues on the current track of creating innovative products.
