CARTERSVILLE - Piana Technology has been named a CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree for E/Smart, a high-loft nonwoven fabric technology that is designed to surpass the qualities of polyurethane foam while reducing its negative impacts.

Piana will debut this technology at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show, its first year in attendance, through their virtual activation experience.

E/Smart is said to offer the integration of digital wellness and product sustainability. Its recyclable and nontoxic fibres are vertically-lapped to provide even pressure point distribution, unprecedented airflow, and antiviral capabilities that outperform those of conventional materials.

Even at its reduced weight, it offers high-level compressional and thermal resistance for extensive applications.

Flexible integrated pressure sensors within E/Smart are said to enable healthy posture and sleep quality through personalization of the products, which are being developed to act as a diagnostic tool in hospital settings. Combined with digitally-printed molecules, it can adapt to wide consumer requests for a user-friendly experience. At its end of life, it can be 100% reclaimed and molded for endless customer possibilities.

According to company CEO Andrea Piana, replacing the 1.3 million metric tons of annually landfilled PU foam with E/Smart would eliminate over four million metric tons of CO2 each year, leading to reduced impact on quality of life, health, productivity and slowed environmental decline. "The modern world is reliant on materials of the past. If we want to maximize our human potential, we must develop new technologies that adapt alongside us," Piana said. "With E/Smart, we've built a tech platform for the circular economy with renewable materials that can be upgraded as technology improves - without waste - for endless applications. Along the way, we can make foam obsolete."

Piana Technology was founded in 1582 in Biella, Italy. In 1995, Andrea Piana became CEO, ushering in an eco-friendly era for the company and opening their first U.S. factory in Cartersville, Georgia before developing SaveDrop Technology and expanding into nonwovens. Today, Piana's innovative technologies are used in B2B settings to power Fortune 500 companies in product categories including sleep, furniture, transportation, lifestyle, medical, and in-flight.