How We Work

The mission of the Clothes Care Research Center™ is to help consumers save time and money by using scientific research to determine the best in-home cleaning and maintenance techniques to extend the life and performance of fabric innovations.

CCRC's board of directors, representing its seven members, meets about three times a year. Board members take turns presenting emerging issues and ideas from their industry segments. They also present emerging innovations from their own research and development programs.

The board uses this input to determine CCRC's research priorities. For instance, if a board member identifies a new textile innovation on the horizon, CCRC's board of directors may decide to study the care requirements that will ultimately impact consumer satisfaction.

Once the board sets the objectives for new study, CCRC's technical standing committee takes over. The committee of scientists and engineers from the member companies designs the experiments with assistance from Dr. Elizabeth Easter, professor, and director of the University of Kentucky Textile Testing Laboratory, and Dr. Bruce Ankenman, associate professor of industrial engineering at Northwestern University.

From there, the University of Kentucky's Textile Testing Laboratory conducts the experiments under Easter's supervision.

After the Textile Testing Laboratory completes the experiments, the data is sent to Ankenman at Northwestern for analysis and statistical testing. Ankenman and Easter review their findings with CCRC's technical committee before presenting the results to the board.

The board of directors then determines the best way to share the information with the industry. In addition to this website, CCRC white papers are presented at textiles conferences and published in technical trade journals.


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