From the Sector

The viscose specialities manufacturer Kelheim Fibres has won the Techtextil Award in the "New Concept" category for their project "Cellulose-based nonwovens for highly absorbent reusable products".
This award is intended to make cutting-edge developments visible, promote unconventional thinking and intensify the dialogue between researchers, manufacturers.

The starting point for the innovation was the search for a washable and thus reusable absorbent pad made of completely bio-based materials for the cloth diaper of the Berlin-based start-up Sumo.
Two main requirements of the application are obvious: A fast and efficient liquid distribution and high absorbency should minimise rewetting and leakage. Both are ensured by speciality viscose fibres from Kelheim, which have been making this essential contribution to absorbent hygiene products such as tampons for many years. The obvious solution was therefore to optimally utilise the synergies between knitted and woven structures with nonwovens.

In doing so, the advantages of nonwovens in combination with speciality viscose fibres in terms of absorbency (through e.g. more open-pored structures) have been perfectly transferred from the field of disposable to the world of reusable products. For reusable products, however, there is another challenge to overcome: they must remain stable during washing and over several cycles of use. To ensure this, an innovative nonwoven construction was developed in close cooperation with the STFI. These nonwovens can be used as a stand-alone solution or integrated into a textile structure.

• BTT’s woven geotextiles can reduce CO2-emissions in infrastructure projects by a factor of 10 compared to more conventional methods
• Product specific Environmental Product Declarations for woven geotextiles transparently communicate their sustainability
• EPDs an essential tool to communicate sustainability performance
• Helps carbon-conscious customers in their purchasing and decision making

Beaulieu Technical Textiles (BTT) has unveiled the next step in its mission to deliver sustainable solutions to customers - product specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), an essential tool for communicating sustainability performance - to fully support green certified construction projects by providing accurate information in readily available formats.

The carbon footprint of BTT’s woven geotextiles is amongst the lowest in the industry, making them one of the most sustainable solutions for civil engineering projects. An EPD shows a manufacturer's commitment to measure and reduce the environmental impact of its products and report these impacts in a very transparent way.

Construction products, like geotextiles, follow the very comprehensive European standard, EN 15804+A2. The third-party verification and approval by the international EPD® System officially demonstrates the low environmental impact of BTT’s geotextile products.

Focus on eccentric screw pumps and pumps for shear-sensitive materials

Improved productivity and increased lifespan and tailored solutions also for the most demanding applications within the chemicals and plastics industries and in PUR applications – these are the convincing arguments with which Oerlikon Barmag is showcasing its precision metering pumps at this year’s ACHEMA between August 22 and 26, 2022 in Frankfurt. The focus is on the new pump for shear-sensitive conveying media and the new eccentric screw pump.

Eccentric screw pumps – robust all-rounders convey any medium
The requirements for pumps are considerable, as the demand for customized solutions for increasingly complex processes is rising. This is particularly true for Oerlikon Barmag’s new eccentric screw pump range. High wear-resistance, increased durability and robust operation – the new pump is tailor-made for conveying highly-filled, high-viscosity and abrasive media, such as filled adhesives, filled silicones and filled casting compounds, for example. The is the multi-stage seal system, which considerably increases the pump’s lifespan. The upstream shaft sealing ring protects the slide ring seal against excessively-fast wear caused by challenging media. In turn, the optimum alignment of the drive shaft – ball bearing-supported and centrally-guided through the shaft sealing ring – prevents any metal debris caused by friction and hence ensures considerably greater durability. Producers benefit from considerably greater productivity, as the pumps’ maintenance intervals and hence machine downtimes are significantly reduced.

New pump for shear-sensitive materials
For increasingly complex customer-specific process solutions, Oerlikon Barmag is now expanding its GA series, developed especially for the challenging conveying of high-viscosity media, to include the GAB51F for shear-sensitive conveying media. The newly-developed pump with its viscosity range of max. 300 Pas is tailored to conveying high-viscosity, shear-sensitive materials such as adhesives and silicones, for example. “The shear forces impacting the medium within the pump are reduced to a minimum as a result of a specially geometry”, explains Thorsten Wagener, Senior Sales Manager within the Pump Construction business unit. The material is conveyed through the pump in an as gentle and low-pulsation manner as possible and metered precisely at the outlet – ensuring it retains its characteristic properties.

High-speed metering pump with sealed product space
The high-speed metering pump has been especially developed for metering poorly-lubricating media. Here, the main benefit is the sealed product space, which extends the pump’s lifespan considerably. The space that comes into contact with the media is limited to the area around the gears. “As a result, the high-speed pump is particularly suited for applications in the chemicals industry, which frequently involve aggressive acids”, comments Thorsten Wagener.

GM series for low-viscosity media
The pumps in the GM and GA series provide precision metering with low-pulsation feeding of the conveying medium. The multi-stage GM pump conveys low-viscosity media (i.e. 250 bar, 100 mPas) even under high pressure and in the most challenging conditions. The square design from the proven GM series is the standard pump for many metering tasks. The development of the multi-stage pump expands the applications range for the GM series considerably. The round 2-stage GM pump has been developed especially for use in high-pressure technology. It masters the particular challenge of conveying small throughputs with low viscosities. The pump is perfect for 0.05 through 20 cm³/rev feed sizes and is excellently suited for use in high-pressure machines for PUR molded parts, foam slab stock, refrigeration unit insulations and sandwich panels, for example.

GA series pumps for high-viscosity media
The Oerlikon Barmag GA range has been especially developed for the challenging conveying of media with higher viscosities. The GA series pumps are available for conveying volumes of between 1.25 and -30 cm³/rev (0.6-144 l/h). They have been designed for pressures of up to 200 bar, for viscosities of up to 1.500 Pas as well as for temperatures of up to max. 225 °C. With this range of pumps, Oerlikon Barmag offers its customers tailor-made solutions for many technical processes in which high-precision and even metering is of paramount importance.

The drum pump – conveying and metering using a single unit
With the drum pump, the Oerlikon Barmag pump specialists have created a pump designed specifically for conveying and metering high-viscosity materials such as adhesives, silicones and other high-viscosity materials from drums and other large containers and for pressures of up to 250 bar. Its special features not only include the fact that it removes high-viscosity materials from the drum, but that it also meters the medium directly without any additional interim stops.

The EREMA Group, which comprises EREMA Group GmbH and its subsidiaries EREMA, PURE LOOP, UMAC, 3S, KEYCYCLE and PLASMAC, closed the 2021/22 financial year with a 17 percent increase in revenue. Consolidated Group revenue amounted to EUR 295 million, and the number of employees increased to over 840. The EREMA Group remains on course for continued growth.

A closer look at the post consumer segment clearly shows a trend towards larger plants, both for PET recycling and for processing polyolefins. For example, the first VACUREMA® Basic 2628 T machine with an annual capacity of up to 40,000 tonnes was recently commissioned at a customer's site in Brazil. This plant features a ten-meter-long special geometry screw with a diameter of 280 millimetres and a weight of 3.5 tonnes. The screw was developed and manufactured by 3S, a subsidiary of EREMA GmbH.

Demand for previously-owned machines at UMAC also remained high during the past financial year. In addition to the general trend towards plastics recycling, the decisive factor here is that customers are more frequently opting for previously-owned systems available at short notice due to the tense situation on the procurement markets. At the same time, businesses that have so far had little contact with recycling are also becoming increasingly interested in this topic. Their need for feasibility studies, consulting and engineering services, project management and turnkey projects are now also very successfully catered for by KEYCYCLE, an EREMA Group company. KEYCYCLE has also acquired from Cadel Deinking the patent, technology and distribution rights for an innovative ink removal technology, which is now being further developed using the know-how of the EREMA Group and shaped into a product that meets industrial standards.

The initiative launched four years ago to modernise and expand existing EREMA Group sites was continued during the past financial year with the expansion and construction of a dedicated machine demonstration centre for PLASMAC in Milan. Equipped with additional production floor space and new and enlarged customer centres, all companies within the group are now well prepared to meet rising demand, and with the new research and development centre under construction in Ansfelden, the framework for further outstanding plastics recycling milestones from EREMA is currently being optimised.

• Sustainable infrastructure solutions, road safety and health protection

At this year’s Techtextil, Oerlikon Polymer Processing Solutions will be presenting the trade audience with new applications, special processes and sustainable solutions focusing on the production of industrial textiles. Among other things, the company will be showcasing new technology for charging nonwovens that sets new standards with regards to quality and efficiency. Between June 21 and 24, the discussions will be concentrating on airbags, seat belts, tire cord, geotextiles, filter nonwovens and their diverse applications.

More polyester for airbags
Airbags have become an integral part of our everyday automotive lives. The yarns used in them are made predominantly from polyamide. As a result of increasingly diverse airbag applications and also the increasing size of the systems used, polyester is today used as well, depending on the application requirements and cost-benefit considerations. Against this background, the Oerlikon Barmag technologies make an invaluable contribution. In addition to high productivity and low energy consumption, they particularly excel in terms of their stable production processes. Furthermore, they comply with every high quality standard for airbags, which – as in the case of virtually all other textile products used in vehicle construction – must provide the highest level of safety for vehicle occupants. And all this without any loss of function in any climate and anywhere in the world for the lifetime of the vehicle.

Buckle up!
Seat belts play a decisive role in protecting vehicle occupants. They have to withstand tensile forces in excess of three tons and simultaneously stretch in a controlled manner in emergencies in order to reduce the load in the event of impact. A seat belt comprises approximately 300 filament yarns, whose individual, high-tenacity yarn threads are spun from around 100 individual filaments.

Invisible, but essential – road reinforcement using geotextiles
But it not just inside vehicles, but also under them, that industrial yarns reveal their strengths. Low stretch, ultra-high tenacity, high rigidity – industrial yarns offer outstanding properties for the demanding tasks carried out by geotextiles; for instance, as geogrids in the base course system under asphalt. Normally, geotextiles have extremely high yarn titers of up to 24,000 denier. Oerlikon Barmag system concepts simultaneously manufacture three filament yarns of 6,000 denier each. Due to the high spinning titers, fewer yarns can be plied together to the required geo-yarn titer in a more cost- and energy-efficient manner.

hycuTEC – technological quantum leap for filter media
In the case of its hycuTEC hydro-charging solution, Oerlikon Neumag offers a new technology for charging nonwovens that increases filter efficiency to more than 99.99%. For meltblown producers, this means material savings of 30% with significantly superior filter performance. For end users, the consequence is noticeably improved comfort resulting from significantly reduced breathing resistance. With its considerably lower water and energy consumption, this new development is also a future-proof, sustainable technology.

New high-tech Staple Fiber Technology Center
Extending to around 2,100 m2, Oerlikon Neumag in Neumünster is home to one of the world’s largest staple fiber technology centers. As of now, these state-of-the-art staple fiber technologies are also available for customer-specific trials.

The focus during the planning and the design of the Technology Center was on optimizing components and processes. Here, special attention was paid to ensuring the process and production parameters in the Technology Center system could be simply and reliably transferred to production systems. Here, the fiber tape processing line is modular in design. All components can be combined with each other as required. And comprehensive set-up options supply detailed findings for the respective process for various fiber products.

The Technology Center is also equipped with two spinning positions for mono- and bi-component processes. The same round spin packs are used for both processes, characterized by excellent fiber quality and properties and meanwhile very successfully deployed in all Oerlikon Neumag production systems. Furthermore, the spinning plant is complemented by automation solutions such as spin pack scraper robots, for example.

The ITA Group, consisting of the Institute for Textile Technology of RWTH Aachen University (ITA) and their research and development service provider ITA Technologietransfer GmbH (ITA GmbH) are proud to announce their new partnership with METYX Composites, Turkey today at JEC World in Paris. METYX is a globally leading manufacturer of high-performance technical textiles for applications in the transportation, wind energy, construction, sports and leisure industries.

Ugur Ustunel, CEO METYX Composites: “The access to ITA´s competences along the entire textile composite value chain and to the impressive machine parks with over 250 machines from lab scale to industrial scale and the exchange with other partners will be very welcome for our future pre-competitive developments.” Dr. Christoph Greb, Scientific Director of ITA: “We are very happy to welcome METYX to our
network and to collaborate in many joint projects and studies on topics like recycling and sustainability, tapes and hybrid yarns or natural fibres just to name a few.”

Dr. Michael Effing, Managing Director of AMAC GmbH: „I am very happy to support ITA in developing and growing their network. ITA is located in the centre of the RWTH Aachen University Campus in close proximity to numerous other institutes for lightweight developments.”

Cobra International, a leading manufacturer of advanced composite products for the watersports, automotive, marine, and industrial sectors, will highlight recent diversification into new composite markets at JEC World 2022, with exhibits ranging from VTOL drones to carbon fibre prosthetics.  Cobra will also demonstrate how it is working alongside automotive and water sports customers to further enhance the sustainability of products in these sectors.

High Volume Production Capacity for the UAV sector
Cobra will display a wing from the Swiftlet UAV. This compact tactical fixed wing UAV platform has a 5.5m wingspan and was developed by the Royal Thai Air Force and National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) for survey, monitoring and search and rescue operations. Cobra manufactured the 32kg Swiftlet composite airframe using a combination of CNC cut carbon sandwich internal structure and PVC foam sandwich skins using both high grade glass fibre and carbon fibre reinforcements.  

Sustainability Options for Automotive and Watersports
Sustainability has a been a key focus for the Cobra Waterports division and CAC, the Cobra automotive business unit. At JEC World 2022, Cobra will showcase the increasing material and process options it has developed with both bio-resin and natural fibre reinforcements variants presented alongside more traditional carbon fibre parts.

Visitors will be able to get up close to a new Bio SUP Wingfoil board featuring a basalt, flax, bamboo and GreenPoxy bio-epoxy construction created for partners NSP, as well as state-of-the-art compression moulded prepreg foils. Cobra’s first fully recyclable surfboard incorporating the Recyclamine® resin technology that Cobra was recognised for in the 2020 JEC Innovation Awards will also be on display alongside a new Audi e-tron foil by Aerofoils – the world’s safest electric hydrofoil board.

The CAC team (Automotive Business Unit of Cobra) will present a set of OEM mirror cap parts that showcase a range of carbon SMC, woven visual carbon, pure woven visual flax, hybrid flax-carbon and painted flax construction options for the same component.  Clear carbon aesthetic and structural parts including CAC made M-carbon components for the BMW S 1000 RR Motorcycle will furthermore underline the high quality and eye-for-detail for which CAC is renowned.

Carbon Prosthetics
An entirely new composite application for the company, Cobra will also show two composite prosthetic devices at JEC which were productionised by the in-house design and development team. Working alongside a leading Thai university and a medical device OEM, Cobra created a rapid and cost effective series production process for a lightweight carbon fibre prosthetic foot. In another example of lightweight composites creating major quality of life improvements, Cobra has also designed and manufactured a carbon and glass fibre prepreg foot support for Elysium Industries.

• Hypetex® to Showcase Coloured Carbon and Flax Fibre Solutions
• Hypetex, London, April 20 2022, Booth R52, Hall 6

Hypetex, the market leaders in colouring carbon and natural fibre materials, will demonstrate both the processing and sustainability benefits of its patented colourisation technology when it exhibits for the first time at JEC World 2022.

Exhibiting as part of the Composites UK stand (Booth R52), Hypetex will display its portfolio of uniquely coloured carbon fibre materials including 3K woven styles, ultra-lightweight spread tow fabrics, UD, and 3D materials. Hypetex will also present details of its latest eco-friendly coloured flax materials  which combine sustainably grown natural flax with sustainable colouring technologies. Hypetex patented colouring technology, available in an extensive palette of standard and bespoke colours and shades, can be applied to traditional woven fabric constructions, non-woven UDs, spread tow and bespoke fabric designs. The technology replaces a traditional coloured painted finish, providing an exceptional depth of colour to any composite part, improving thermal conductivity and reducing heat absorption ,whilst reducing the overall weight and processing time with no compromise to the mechanical performance of the composite structure.

By removing the need for painting, and the associated preparation steps, Hypetex technology provides manufacturers with a repeatable straight out of the mould coloured finish, that is not only easy to integrate into all composite processes, but also takes additional materials, consumables, and process time out of the component cost. As part of its continued commitment to leading the drive for more sustainable composite solutions, and its focus on improvements based on the ESG framework. Hypetex will also display its new range of coloured flax fibre textiles. The advanced colouring technology used protects the natural flax fibres throughout the high temperature processes required for composite production, avoiding burning or any discolouration issues common to natural fibres. In addition, Hypetex colouring solution is an ecofriendly sustainable alternative to traditional dyeing processes which are a significant cause of global water pollution.

The Hypetex team will be on hand throughout the show to provide additional details on Hypetex materials and their integration into the manufacturing process. Visitors to the Hypetex stand will be able see Hypetex carbon and flax products in raw fabric, and how its unique colour palette translates into the most distinctive finished moulded components. Hypetex partners SHD Composites, Textreme, Sigmatex and Angeloni will also have materials and components on display at JEC World 2022, including sporting equipment such as racquets, sticks, and skateboards, which highlight the massive range of processing options and potential applications for this novel technology. One such application, the adidas Kromaskin field hockey stick, with a unique Hypetex coloured Textreme spread tow carbon finish, will also be part of the JEC Innovation Planets feature.

High-performance yarns now offer almost unlimited possibilities for replacing traditional raw materials in a vast range of technical applications. Often tailor-made, these filament yarns go way beyond the conventional idea of ‘textiles’ – finding new uses in sectors such as automotive, aviation, maritime, medical and construction, among many others.

Technical textiles are everywhere in our daily lives today, even if we may not always realize it. Some are in more obviously textile products, from sewing threads to artificial turf. But then, take cars as an example: modern vehicles are stuffed with parts made from sophisticated yarns. It’s common for producers of automotive parts now to send template material and requirement lists to Swiss Textile Machinery members, trusting their expertise and experience. Members operate development and testing centers with latest machine installations, where their experts devise customized solutions, as well as calling on the pure innovative spirit which is part of their DNA.

At the extremes
Technology drives applications beyond our current imagining in the case of Heberlein air splicers. Developed for a wide range of uses with high-strength technical fibers, they have no problems splicing aramid fibers up to 16’100 dtex, carbon up to 30’000 dtex, Dyneema up to 5’500 dtex, and glass up to 4’800 tex. Using compressed air, the splicers produce a tear-resistant, homogeneous splice of material without interfering knots.

Retech has the technology to achieve specifications for filament yarns, drawing and stretching fibers to perfection. Top heated godet rolls – many customized – are developed for high-performance fibers. Temperatures up to 400 °C can be achieved. Combining the right settings and wide speed ranges for each specific process results in unique end-products.

Fabric producers of high-end applications must avoid any quality risk. Yarn producers are well aware of this responsibility, so they use precision package winders for technical yarns, developed by Rieter’s subsidiary SSM. Taking yarns from ring twisting bobbins, its specialist finish winders can produce coarse-count technical yarns up to 50’000 dtex, offering a new level of flexibility and winding quality.

Lifestyle essentials
At first glance, motorists might fail to notice many of the technical yarns ‘hidden’ inside their cars. These products have functions such as providing stability with hardly any weight, or absorbing tensile forces at defined elongation. This kind of controlled elongation behaviour, for example, arises from the choice of textile material and the special construction of the yarns used.

Such specifications make twisting and cabling machines essential for the automotive industry. Saurer offers machines for the production of technical yarns made from a variety of feed materials in a very wide yarn count range. They are needed for vehicle products such as tire carcasses, toothed engine belts, seat belts, airbags and lorry tarpaulins.

Technical yarns also play a surprising role in our mobile devices. Tapping, scrolling and swiping are second nature for billions, with our phones and a plethora of other lifestyle essentials. Yet, how many people would know that the touch-sensitivity we take for granted on these screens is largely made possible by twisted glass fibers. Bräcker, part of Rieter’s components business, offers a selection of vertical sinter metal rings and nylon travelers for glass fiber twisting, so that mills can achieve high levels of productivity and quality.

Future unlimited
Automotive and communication technology are already important industries for Swiss Textile Machinery members, along with well-known technical textiles markets in sectors such as medical, transport and construction. Smart-wear is already noted as a field with significant potential. Naturally, members are constantly investigating other possibilities. Swiss textile machinery is already applied in energy (batteries), and plastics.

The Swiss Textile Machinery Pavilion will be at the Techtextil exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, taking place from 21 to 24 June 2022.

In 2021, nonwovens production in Greater Europe increased in volume by 2.0% to reach 3,120,967 tonnes (and 87.6 billion square metres).

EDANA, the international Association serving the nonwovens and related industries today released its statistics on Nonwovens Production and Deliveries for 2021. Following the impressive growth recorded in 2020, the updated figures for Greater Europe (incl. Western and Eastern Europe countries, Turkey, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine) highlight again the ability of the European industry to innovate and to invest in order to meet the challenges of the pandemic crisis.

In 2021, nonwovens production in Greater Europe increased in volume by 2.0% to reach 3,120,967 tonnes (and 87.6 billion square metres). Since 2019, the European output increased by nearly 9%.

Jacques Prigneaux, EDANA’s Market Analysis and Economic Affairs Director commented “This 2% average growth is in line with European forecasts disclosed in October 2021 in our Global Nonwoven Markets 2020-2025 report. In 2021, significant growth areas for nonwovens were recorded in building construction (+17.4%), agriculture (+11.3%), electronic materials (+10.1%) and air filtration (+9.1%). Countering this, a further decline of -1% was recorded in automotive interior applications. In some market segments, a comparison with the pre-COVID situation is probably more relevant. This is particularly true in hygiene, medical and wipes nonwovens, which were almost flat or slightly decreasing compared to the level reached in 2020, but still much higher than in 2019”.

He added: “Looking at the different production processes of nonwovens, various trends were observed in 2021. The production of fiber-based materials, including Drylaid, Wetlaid, and Airlaid technologies, recorded divergent growth rates (respectively +2.4%, +1.1% and -4.8%), and spunmelt nonwovens recorded a growth rate of +3.1%. In Drylaid, the highest growth in tonnes was observed in needlepunched, with a 6.4% increase. The production of drylaid-hydroentangled, which peaked in 2020, was at the same level a year later”.