20 Greater Manchester Business Week THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014

Company’s pants idea is going to be a 3D revolution

If you haven’t heard of Tamicare, the chances are, you will do soon. Based in a massive industrial unit in Heywood, the company currently employs 10 people.

Within two years, its founders say 300 people from the surrounding area will be working for them.

That’s because Tamar and Ehud Giloh believe they have pretty much re-invented the wheel within the textiles sector.

Headed by the Israeli couple, the firm started out using a 3D printing process to produce specialist underwear. But word has spread about their technology and is could soon be applied to a host of new uses, such as bandages and military uniforms.

Garments are produced using a large machine that sprays polymers and fibres, which creates a material Tamicare has called Cosyflex.

As 60-year-old Tamar explains, Tamicare’s current position is a far cry from 2001, when it was launched as a R&D company.

“This is a revolution. And it’s not just me saying that. We are being told this by companies from many sectors all over the world who we have met or talked with.

“This is something the world hasn’t seen and this is why the companies that produce panties want to use our technology.

“So we have been going out and telling the world after some very hard times getting to where we are. The best thing is that we realised only recently that the technology can work miraculously in numerous industries.”

Tamicare has a 25-metre machine it uses to 3D print garments. Since setting up, it has welcomed on board private investment to the tune of £10m and its founders are confident its backers will soon see significant returns.

The firm’s initial focus was developing extra-absorbant knickers and it is set to launch its maiden product in Tamar and Ehud’s homeland.

As they gear-up to that launch, fresh applications for their technology are flooding in and have the potential to send sales soaring.

“We are developing many products at the moment for the cosmetic, hygiene, medical, sport and automotive sectors,” says Tamar.

“We should soon be able to produce 10m panties a year. Generally, because this is such an innovation, the possibilities are endless. Our panties will be launched this autumn in Israel

after we start our mass production.“Our next target with the panties is to

market them in the UK next year. We are already talking to major retailers here and need tens of millions to start off in the UK but we are confident that we will soon see a good cash stream and are also confident of getting further investment because of what Cosyflex offers.”

She adds: “We want to move faster to build more production lines quickly. It was hard surviving over the years as a R&D company. We had to go through some very hard times but now it is taking off.

“All the largest lingerie producers companies are showing interest to create products using our technology.”

Tamar says a host of organisations have come forward to ask them to develop products.

“We can’t handle the requests we are getting. Ever since we gave a talk about what we do in Denver, Colorado it has gone mad. Lingerie, fashion, sport, shoes, cosmetics, automotive – all these industries want to work with us,” she says.

Tamar adds: “We have been approached by defence institutions to produce shirts for soldiers to protect

Heywood-based Tamicare is on the brink of mass producing its 3D printed knickers. But that’s just the start, according to bosses Tamar and Ehud Giloh, who hope to use the technology to create hundreds of jobs, writes Alex Bell

n The company was founded in Israel 1997 as a R&D company supported by private investors

n It moved to the UK in 2001

n £10m has been invested so far

n It has 45 patents globally granted

TAMICARE FACTFILE

The Cosyflex technology is an Additive Manufacturing process (3D printing).

Tamicare layers textile fibres and liquid polymer on top of moving moulds to produce finished fabric products – first a gel layer is sprayed on top of the moving moulds, then fibres are shot electro-statically to be temporary held by the gel.

Staff then spray a light mist of polymers in a liquid on top of the first layer of textile fibres, creating a network of droplets, and then shoot another layer of fibre, this time on top of the wet polymer.

After curing you end-up with a sandwich of soft and breathable polymer hold in the middle and textile fibres on the exterior.

HOW IT WORKS

Tamar Giloh’s company Tamicare is about to start the mass production of 3D printed ●knickers SiMon pEnDRiGH

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014 Greater Manchester Business Week 21

Company’s pants idea is going to be a 3D revolution

them against chemical attacks. Today, they use very thick material. So when they are in a hot country it is hard. We have suggested that we could do something and are testing out products at the moment.

“We are also producing compression products that will be sold in the medical arena. They are a thin sleeve to be worn anywhere on the body. And they are made by spraying stretchable polymers, using the Cosyflex technology, instead of the usual weaving of stretchable threads.

“On the back of this, we will tap into the sports arena too because sports people can wear our compression sleeves to allow better blood flow from remote areas back to the heart.

It allows quick recovery.” Tamar adds: “Ever since we set up in

this country, we have loved Manchester.

“Now, we want the people of Manchester knowing what is going on in here. Because we believe this is good for the UK and that it will promote the local economy, as it is a genuine industrial innovation.

“In two years time, Tamicare hopes to employ about 300 people in this area. And we want to take on younger people who can grow with the company. No one is catching on to what we are doing. You have to know what to do to do what we do.

“I believe we are here for good because we have changed the story.”

TAMAR and Ehud are both 60 and live in prestwich, but regularly travel to israel.

They have been married for 40 years and have four children, three of whom are involved with Tamicare

Tamar was born in israel. As a specialist in creative mind skills, her professional life has involved working with entrepreneurs, banks and the military with a focus on innovation.

She founded Tamicare UK after moving to England in 2001.

She explains: “We moved to Manchester and worked with a company in Bristol which tried, unsuccessfully, to develop our innovative panty.

“Around a year ago we approached a professor at Leeds University, who is well-known in the non-woven industry. He simply told us we had a destructive technology for the textile industry. And that ‘you must go out and tell the world’.

“Tamicare is a very small and lean company and a very strong family. Everyone is very highly motivated.”

Ehud, the mastermind behind the technology, tells Business Week how he pulled off the unthinkable.

“This project has been very challenging as it involved the integration of many technologies.

“i was always trying to create a combination that hadn’t existed before.

“So, from day one, i, with help of professionals and our team, pushed the boundaries of different technologies to their very limits.

“it has been challenging but interesting. And there have also been a lot of arguments about what was and wasn’t possible. But patience was what

we needed, mainly from investors,“Because raising the money was first of

all the most difficult mission. “it was very difficult for people to

believe that something can prevail before they can see it.

“So, the gap between a dream and bringing it to reality was a very tough gap to bridge.

“But fortunately we had some supporters who i think will gain a lot as a result of investing in us.”

Ehud, who was once a student of architecture and industrial design, worked with various technologies in his working life.

He adds: “i came from a technological background. Maybe it was something i was born with, that i could see that things could work that you might not think would work.

“over time i built self-confidence, and began looking into how things were working and believing that things can work, and that they really can be done.

“Cosyflex and everything that has happened is a combination of that. The machine reflects the coming together of so much.”

Family works together to achieve its success

Ehud and Tamar Giloh, co-founders of ●Tamicare and, below, Ehud with one of their products