From the Sector

In mid-March, CHT Germany GmbH, which specializes in specialty chemicals, took up production and distribution of hand disinfectant. Now the company is expanding its product portfolio by adding important medical supplies that can help fight Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2). Starting immediately, CHT is providing its business customers with surface disinfectant, textile supplies for medical protective wear as well as supplies for test kits and face masks.

Following increased demand for disinfectant in the wake of the new coronavirus, the CHT Group began already a month and a half ago to produce hand disinfectant at its factory in Dußlingen. Since then, more of its factories around the world had joined in. Now the CHT Group is complementing this offering by producing its own surface disinfectant based on ethanol. As with the hand disinfectant, the production of the surface disinfectant received a special approval, based on the expanded general ruling by the German Federal Agency  for Chemicals (BAuA). Both types of disinfectant use publicly available standard formulas for alcohol-based disinfectant from the World Health Organization (WHO). The sale of CHT’s surface disinfectant, which is available in 5-, 10- and 30-liter canisters, is exclusively for use by industry customers.

In addition, the CHT Group is manufacturing a range of textile-relevant products that provide protection from Covid-19. These include functional supplies for face masks for medical protective wear, as well as flocking for test kits. Through these offerings, the CHT Group also wants to support the textile sector, which has been strongly affected by the crisis.

Center of competence for hygiene established in Wiener Neudorf to support Austria and the EU in the Covid-19 crisis for the industrial production of high-quality protective masks with a monthly capacity of 12 million pieces.

Lenzing AG and Palmers Textil AG found “Hygiene Austria LP GmbH”, in which Lenzing AG holds 50.1% and Palmers Textil AG 49.9%. The newly founded company will start producing and selling protective masks for the domestic and European markets from May 2020.

Over the past few weeks, Lenzing AG and Palmers Textil AG have invested several million euros in a modern production infrastructure at the Wiener Neudorf location and secured the corresponding raw materials for protective masks production. In a first step, the company produces so-called mouth-nose protective masks (MNS) and surgical protective masks of class EN14683. Hygiene Austria LP GmbH plans to increase its capacities to over 25 million masks per month over the next few weeks and to expand this business geographically as well.

The demand for high-quality MNS and respiratory masks for medical personnel is increasing rapidly, and there is real competition on the international market for these products. In order to sustainably secure domestic supply now and in the future and to strengthen the business location, the two companies Lenzing AG and Palmers Textil AG have now set a milestone with their own competence center for hygiene based in Austria.

Hygiene Austria LP GmbH thus makes a significant contribution to combating the Covid-19 pandemic and ensures the long-term supply of these critical goods in Austria in high quality.

In the current fight against Covid-19, a number of formulators of textile finishing chemicals have rushed out new antiviral and antimicrobial treatments intended for PPE (personal protective equipment) such as face masks and medical gowns and drapes.

These finishing chemicals have naturally already been thoroughly tested in laboratories and their effectiveness verified at laboratory or pilot scale. However, they are new to many manufacturers of textiles and nonwovens now preparing to use them on an industrial level.

A lot of companies changed, due to the current situation their usual manufacturing programmes to the production of PPE items. “We have experts on hand at our operational Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) here in Germany, to help any of our customers to rapidly transition to new finishing techniques and treatments they may not be familiar with, and to run trials on their behalf, should they require this assistance.”, states the vice president of Monforts, Klaus Heinrichs.

The three lines at the ATC situated at the Monforts HQ in Mönchengladbach, are of a true industrial scale and trialling new products on them goes beyond lab or pilot plant testing to rapidly identify any problems that might occur once full production is underway.

Parkdale Mills Collaborates with FDA, Gates Foundation and Others to Supply Swabs for Coronavirus Tests

Parkdale Mills subsidiary U.S. Cotton has joined in an effort with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Gates Foundation, UnitedHealth Group and Quantigen to ramp up production of spun synthetic swabs to help the country’s frontline health care workers administering tests for the COVID-19 disease.

U.S. Cotton has developed a fully synthetic, polyester-based Q-tip-type swab that can be used in coronavirus diagnostic testing.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just announced that these synthetic swabs – with a design similar to Q-tips – could be used to test patients for the coronavirus.
U.S. Cotton, based in Cleveland, Ohio, plans to leverage its large-scale manufacturing capacity to rapidly increase production of large quantities of the polyester swabs, which are in short supply for testing kits across the country.

The FDA has determined that spun synthetic swabs can be used in COVID-19 testing based on the results from a clinical investigation stemming from its collaboration with UnitedHealth Group, the Gates Foundation and Quantigen.  

This is the second major COVID-19 relief project that Parkdale has helped. Earlier Parkdale constructed a supply chain that includes Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, and many other U.S. companies in the production of PPE masks needed by frontline medical staff treating the virus.

• All motions approved
• Dividend of CHF 4.50 agreed
• COVID-19

In relation to participation in the Annual General Meeting on April 16, 2020, the Board of Directors of Rieter Holding Ltd. arranged exclusively written or electronic voting and the granting of power of attorney to the independent proxy. In taking this approach, the Board of Directors relied on Article 6a, lit. b of Ordinance 2 of the Swiss Federal Council (Measures to Combat the Coronavirus of March 16, 2020). Physical participation by the shareholders was therefore not possible. The Annual General Meeting was held on the premises of Rieter Holding Ltd. at the company’s headquarters in Winterthur.

At the Annual General Meeting of Rieter Holding Ltd. on April 16, 2020, the independent proxy represented a total of 2 025 shareholders who hold 64.3% of the share capital.

A dividend of CHF 4.50 per share was agreed. The shareholders approved the proposed maximum total amounts of the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors and of the Group Executive Committee for fiscal year 2021.

The Chairman of the Board, Bernhard Jucker, and the members of the Board of Directors This E. Schneider, Michael Pieper, Hans-Peter Schwald, Peter Spuhler, Roger Baillod, Carl Illi and Luc Tack were confirmed for an additional one-year term of office.
Furthermore, This E. Schneider, Hans-Peter Schwald and Bernhard Jucker, the members of the Remuneration Committee who were standing for election, were also each re-elected for a one-year term of office.

Shareholders also adopted all other motions proposed by the Board of Directors, namely approval of the annual report, the financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for 2019, and formal approval of the actions of the members of the Board of Directors and those of the Group Executive Committee in the year under review. In addition, the authorized capital was extended for a further two years.

COVID-19
At present, it is not possible to predict how the global COVID-19 pandemic will affect Rieter’s sales and earnings in the first and second half of 2020, and thus also for 2020 as a whole.

Rieter therefore refrains from providing an outlook for financial year 2020 and will issue the relevant information as part of the semi-annual report on July 16, 2020.
The company has taken the necessary measures to protect employees and to meet commitments to customers as far as possible.

Thanks to long-standing customer relationships, a focus on innovation, global positioning and the company’s financial stability, Rieter will successfully overcome the challenges.

Within the context of a globally-networked textile industry, online services have become essential for maintenance, modernization and original parts procurement processes for machines and systems.
Here, the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment optimized the myOerlikon.com service portal for the products and services of its Oerlikon Barmag, Oerlikon Neumag and Oerlikon Nonwoven brands, making it more userfriendly. It allows customers to now access tailored services in nine different languages and around the clock.

Each and every machine park usually has numerous associated documents, ranging from manuals, circuit diagrams and 3D drawing-supported original parts catalogs, all the way through to operating instructions and final documents. myOerlikon.com bundles this information, while also providing users with additional communications on potential machine modernizations and upgrades and on special offers tailored to the respective production system.

Real security during virtual shopping
At the same time, users can access the myOerlikon.com e-commerce platform, which operates in parallel.
Customers can not only place orders here, they can also send online inquiries to Oerlikon, view prices and warehouse stocks and track inquiries,
quotations and orders already made or placed, among many other things. As a result of online access to original parts catalogs for the respective customer machines and systems, erroneous orders can be avoided.
Log-in is secure for users, as are all transactions carried out using the platform. With this, Oerlikon is implementing real security for all virtual purchases. All data exchanged is fundamentally
encrypted and hence protected against unauthorized access.

Beaulieu International Group (B.I.G.)’s Tessutica business is proud to announce a new product line in upholstery. Greencare fabrics are created from pellets that come from marine plastic waste. The fabrics themselves can then be 100% recycled into pellets again.

The new Greencare collection is made with 100% recycled and recyclable upholstery fabrics and is certified with the the Global Recycle Standard (GRS) label. The company used recycled yarns from regular post-consumer PET bottles from the oceans, landfills and upcycled cotton from garments.
For this, Tessutica partnered with the Seaqual project, which brings plastic waste back into the manufacturing chain. Through the recycling process there is no usage of new petroleum which decresases the CO₂  emissions significantly compared to the use of virgin polyester.

With growing demands for sustainability within the business world as well as from end-consumers, Tessutica felt it was the right choice to offer a product line that comes with a full guarantee of environmental consciousness.

POY process now even more energy-efficient

Following several years of development with partner Siemens, Oerlikon Barmag kicked off serial production of its new drive unit for POY systems at the beginning of the year. The new component makes stands out above all with regards to energy efficiency.

The requirements-specific design of the compact inverter unit ensures functional optimization of the winder’s control functions. And the new component is used in conjunction with a performance-optimized chuck motor. This means that energy savings of up to 3% can be achieved for the take-up.

Further customer benefits include a significant reduction in cables and cable trays. The reduced number of switching cabinets also saves space. Following intensive field tests at two well-known customers last year, the compact inverter unit was finally released for serial manufacture at the beginning of 2020.
There are plans to deliver several thousand positions with the new component this year.

Rest of the Mills to Complete Assessments and Comply by 2023

Sateri’s mill in Fujian, China, has been verified to comply with the European Union Best Available Techniques (EU-BAT) standard. Verified by independent consultant Sustainable Textile Solutions (STS), a division of BluWin Limited (UK), the parameters of the standard assessed included resource utility efficiency, wastewater discharge and air emission.

In the assessment report, STS noted that all of Sateri Fujian’s mill parameters assessed were within the range of EU-BAT limits. Notably, its energy intensity, sulphur to air, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were well under EU-BAT norms. With the use of cutting-edge technologies for air emissions control, the total sulphur recovery rate is over 98%. Sateri Fujian accounts for over 20% of Sateri’s annual total production capacity.
The compliance with EU-BAT standard comes on the back of several key manufacturing and product related industry certifications and standards which Sateri has attained. These include OEKO-TEX®’s MADE IN GREEN, STeP, and STANDARD 100. Sateri is one of the world’s first viscose producers to complete the Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM) 3.0 assessment. Sateri is also part of the multi-stakeholder Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) manmade cellulose fibre working group, which is developing guidelines to reduce environmental emissions. As a founding member of the Collaboration for Sustainable Development of Viscose (CV), Sateri is supporting the development of CV’s 2025 Roadmap which considers industry best management practices and global certification standards.

New tissue log saw allows operators to track critical component lifecycles

Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC), part of Barry-Wehmiller, has announced that the Xcut saw, its newest tissue log saw, now has the ability to use predictive maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime.

With this new capability, operators will be able to track the lifecycles of critical components and monitor the performance of others. The saw will provide notifications regarding upcoming maintenance requirements before they become critical issues, allowing operators to have replacement parts ready when the time comes.

The Xcut saw will monitor and collect information from servo motor feedback, vibration sensors and other devices, and alert operators when the machine needs maintenance. For example, if an axis becomes more difficult to turn or experiences abnormal vibrations, the predictive maintenance system will provide an alert that the gearbox may need to be replaced.

This multifaceted approach to predictive maintenance allows operators to tackle multiple maintenance tasks at the same time, which reduces downtime and gets the machine back into production more quickly.