From the Sector

International technology group ANDRITZ has installed a new spunlace pilot line at its center of competence in Montbonnot, France. It allows customers and partners to conduct trials for producing nonwovens from recycled and/or natural fibers such as hemp, flax, and cotton.

The new pilot line features optimized web forming and entanglement for smooth processing of sensitive and irregular fibers. The innovative card set-up is designed to protect and maintain the quality of the fibers while achieving outstanding productivity rates.

Another special feature of this pilot line is the integrated ANDRITZ Metris digitalization system. It allows the operators to collect and analyze all useful data about the line’s capacity and performance. This is a perfect tool for optimizing costs, saving time and predicting maintenance.

With the new line, the ANDRITZ Nonwoven team now operates two spunlace pilot lines at the Montbonnot technical center. The first line has optimized processes, for instance WetlaceTM, for processing various synthetic and man-made fibers. ANDRITZ process experts ensure that advanced technology and know-how are available under one roof at Montbonnot.

Art meets sustainable fashion in the third edition of the project "CirculART", the initiative that sees companies, artists and fashion designers working together with Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, showing how new balanced forms of production, design and sharing can be explored through a careful choice of materials and of sustainable supply chains. Three key concepts underpin the circularity of sustainable fashion and therefore this project: Reduce - reducing the consumption of raw materials, Reuse - reuse of raw materials, Recycling - regeneration.

The project CirculART is conceived and developed in collaboration between Fashion B.E.S.T. and UNIDEE Residency Programs, and led by the Foundation's team of curators.

Fashion B.E.S.T. - Better Ethical Sustainable Think-Tank, Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto’ sustainable fashion office, was created by artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and Franca Sozzani. Since 2009, B.E.S.T. has been working on the development of sustainability in the textile sector, to lead to a contamination between art, which assumes social responsibility, and the world of fashion, which is looking to define a new ethical and sustainable model.

CirculART proposes a new link between fashion and art, engaging both in a conscious and innovative combination of sustainability, sensitivity, beauty and union. The project links territory and production factories, bringing together actors from the different sectors making up the textile supply chain that work on the basis of a circular economy with companies that have chosen to embrace the ideal of sustainability and develop an innovative business model.

The protagonists of this year’s edition are two international artists and two international fashion designers, selected through an open call launched by Cittadellarte: Augustina Bottoni, Lucia Chain, Huge Sillytoe and Rebecca Sforzani, young talents called upon to create a work with fabrics produced by partner companies, focusing on dialogue and on the enhancement of the textile industry production chain.

In early 2023, the programme will give the four selected artists the opportunity to visit and work actively with the partner companies that have joined the initiative.
These are: Achille Pinto S.p.a, manufacturer of textiles and textile accessories for the main international fashion brands; Albini Group, Europe's largest manufacturer of cotton fabrics for shirts; Erica Industria Tessile, a leading company in the creation of textile prints, original and customised designs; Filatura Astro, eco-sustainable regenerated yarns; G2B S.r.l., a chemical and environmental analysis laboratory working with vertical cultivation from which indigo is obtained; Lampo by Ditta Giovanni Lanfranchi S.p.A., leader in the creation and production of zips for fashion; Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti, a Biella-based weaver for haute couture; Lenzing, world leader in the production of fabrics made from fibres derived from renewable wood raw material; Milior, a producer of high quality fabrics; Officina +39 – Chemistry plus creativity, a chemical company with thirty years' experience dedicated to research and chemical application in textiles; Tessuti di Sondrio, a factory inspired by the century-old local textile tradition of processing cotton, linen, hemp and wool; Tintoria Emiliana, garment-dyed production and sustainable practices; Zegna Baruffa Lane Borgosesia, a manufacturer of 100% Made in Italy fine combed and carded yarns.

ANDRITZ will be presenting its innovative solutions for nonwovens production and textile manufacturing at INLEGMASH 2022 in Moscow, Russia, from March 14 to 17.

AIRLAY TECHNOLOGY
Protecting the environment and conserving natural resources require new technologies. In the textile-related industries, the current challenge is to develop industrially and economically viable solutions to use eco-friendly fibers in nonwovens. ANDRITZ focuses on the airlay nonwoven application for hemp fibers (used in mattress production, insulation, ...) and also geotextile end uses.

TEXTILE RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES
ANDRITZ Laroche is a leading supplier of fiber processing technologies such as opening, blending, and dosing, airlay web forming, textile waste recycling, and decortication of bast fibers. One focus of this product range lies on complete recycling lines for post-consumer and industrial textile waste to produce fibers for re-spinning and/or nonwoven end uses. ANDRITZ will present recycling technologies for end-of-life textile products that can be used in multiple applications, such as automotive, insulation, mattresses, and furniture felts.

Customer awareness and regulations are pushing apparel brands to recycle their textile waste and use the recycled textile fibers in their own products. To support ANDRITZ customers, a team with process know-how is available to conduct customized trials in our advanced technical center located at the ANDRITZ Laroche facilities in Cours, France.

BAST FIBERS
For the demanding Russian market for technologies based on bast fibers, ANDRITZ will present innovative products and the valorization of bast fibers, in particular hemp.
ANDRITZ Laroche is a player in the textile waste recycling sector, with airlay nonwoven technologies but also bast fiber decortication and cottonizing lines.

These eco-friendly fibers are used to spin yarn mixed with cotton, saving cotton as raw material, which reduces the consumption of water, pesticides applied in its cultivation and chemicals used during the dyeing and finishing processes.

International technology Group ANDRITZ will be presenting its innovative nonwovens production and textile solutions at ANEX/SINCE 2021 in Shanghai, China, from July 22 to 24, 2021. The product portfolio covers state-of-the-art nonwovens and textile production technologies such as air-through bonding, needlepunch, spunlace, spunbond, wetlaid/Wetlace, converting, textile finishing, airlay, recycling, and bast fiber processing.

Among the largest end-use markets for nonwoven products are materials for durable uses. Interior linings for cars, materials for construction, geotextiles, synthetic leathers for clothing and furniture, carpeting, filtration and many other industries rely on the use of nonwovens produced using the needlepunch method.

ANDRITZ Nonwoven’s processes play a pioneering role in the production of biodegradable materials. For many years, ANDRITZ has offered different processes, like spunlace, Wetlace and Wetlace CP, all with one goal in mind: Elimination of plastic components while maintaining the high quality of the desired product properties. Such processes achieve high performance entirely with plastic-free raw materials. The added benefit of using a blend of fibers, like wood pulp, short-cut cellulosic fibers, viscose, cotton, hemp, bamboo or linen, without chemical additives results in a 100% sustainable fabric, thus meeting customers’ needs exactly as well as supporting the strong tendency to move away from plastics and synthetics.

The latest development in this field is the ANDRITZ neXline wetlace CP line. This process combines the benefits of two forming technologies (inline drylaid and wetlaid web forming process) with bonding by hydroentanglement. Natural fibers, like pulp or viscose, can be processed smoothly and generate a high-performance and cost-efficient wipe that is fully biodegradable and plastic-free.