The sky is the limit

In the spring of 1962, the company added a new type to the President loom series. Picañol brought a new, reinforced machine on the market: the President CM suffix B (Bache) or SB (Super Bache). These were specially constructed looms for weaving canvas. These President looms allowed the company to penetrate an area of the industry that was yet to be explored up to that time. In this period, more and more use of synthetic yarns was made in the textile industry. A new market opened up for Picañol and one of the most renowned producers of technical fabrics was the Cramer Company in Nienborg - Westphalia, which only used Picañol looms. It manufactured a special Diol fabric, which was used as a cover to protect the parabolic antenna of the observatory in Bochum in western Germany. This fabric was to offer protection against atmospheric disturbances. Moreover, the President series got yet another special version: the 'Tire Cord' - for weaving tire cord for bicycle and car tires in cotton, nylon and even metalized yarn. The Japanese tire maker Bridgestone used these looms to compete with its counterpart Firestone. In the late sixties, the first astronaut and man on the moon even wore a flight suit on the Apollo flight, the fabric of which was produced on a Picañol heavy fabric President machine. The suit, made from tightly woven perlon wire and filled with porcelain powder, was designed to offer protection against the potential impacts of small meteorites during the spacewalk.