From the Sector

Mayer & Cie. (MCT) is premiering the OVJA 1.1 EETT at the industry’s leading trade fair, ITMA. A premium jacquard machine, it is part of the focus on sports of the company’s “Stay a winner: With Mayer & Cie.” presentation in Barcelona. The industry leader developed the OVJA 1.1 EETT especially for the manufacture of shoe uppers now that “fabrics” are in demand for sports and leisure footwear. The OVJA 1.1 EETT comes with double electronics and double transfer technology, which is reflected in an extra variety of patterns and, in particular, in innovative hole structures.

“The OVJA 1.1 EETT is yet another machine in our portfolio with which customers can claim to be on the winning side in keeping with our ITMA slogan ‘Stay a winner: With Mayer & Cie.’,” says Marcus Mayer, Managing Director of Mayer & Cie. in charge of technical development. “The OVJA 1.1 EETT is most definitely a premium machine and the right choice for especially exacting requirements such as multi-coloured spacer fabrics with a 3D effect or a wide range of hole structures.”

 

With less than three months remaining until Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles celebrates its 25th anniversary edition, a number of quality suppliers have already confirmed their participation in the 28 - 31 August event. Amongst the 1,000-plus exhibitors from some 25 countries & regions taking part are more finished products suppliers, while solutions for the contract business and whole-home sectors will once again be a highlight of this year's fair.

While Intertextile Shanghai's product offerings cover all sourcing needs - bed & bath, decorative, upholstery & window treatment fabrics, carpet & rugs, wall & interior decorations, editors, whole-home solutions, design studios and digital printing technology - it is finished products that are seeing the most growth this year.

STITCH & TEX EXPO - AFRICA EDITION, renowned as “Africa’s No. 1 Trade Fair for textile industries”, is gathering Over 1,200 exhibitors from more than 40 countries; with almost 90% of the available space already booked. The trade fair will occupy a space of 50,000 m² of exhibition space, and more than 40,000 trade visitors, delegates and buyers from all over the African continent are expected to attend the event.

STITCH & TEX EXPO - AFRICA EDITION will feature the new concept of organizing two consecutive trade fairs; The first trade fair is dedicated to garment processing technologies including Sewing, Embroidery, Fabrics and their Accessories; While the second is dedicated to textile processing technologies including Weaving, Spinning, Knitting, and Dyeing Machinery, Technologies and Spare Parts; The two events are held under the giant brand STITCH & TEX EXPO - AFRICA EDITION; and will be held in the prestigious venue Cairo International Conventions and Exhibitions Center- Egypt during the period 27 February - 1 March 2020 and 5 - 8 March 2020 successively.

For eight days, the brightest minds of the textiles technologies business will meet in Cairo to demonstrate the latest industrial know-hows; discuss up-to-date tendencies and set the perception for the future. STITCH & TEX EXPO - AFRICA EDITION calls attention to its superior ranking not only through its prominence with the global industry but also by addressing the current challenges being the performance scale for the entire value chain of the African textile industries Bustling, energetic and wide-ranging, STITCH & TEX EXPO - AFRICA EDITION is a premium multi-format event with a distinct commercial and business identity; where cutting-edge technologies, products, services and turnkey solutions are provided by global strategic players and technology makers to serve the ever - growing evolving textile markets of Africa.

Lectra has been awarded by a jury of experts the Texprocess Innovation Award 2019 in the New Process category for its latest ground-breaking offer, Fashion On Demand by Lectra.

Fashion On Demand by Lectra automates the entire personalization process, from order reception and product development to the final cutting stages. Resulting from a four-year research-and-development process, the digital solution for on-demand production was developed based on Industry 4.0 principles.

"We are very proud to receive this prestigious award at Texprocess, the biggest international event for all fashion players. Fashion On Demand by Lectra allows companies to produce personalized clothing at the same speed as ready-to-wear and avoid overstocking by producing in precise quantities,” states Holger Max-Lang, President, Northern & Eastern Europe, Middle East, Lectra.

Fashion On Demand by Lectra is available in the form of two packages, one dedicated to made to measure, with pattern adjustments, and the other to customization, with product characteristic alterations. This turnkey solution automates on-demand production right from order reception to production development stages and the cutting room. Companies can define their desired product personalization criteria for each item depending on the package, and launch production processes right from the get-go, without interfering with their standard workflows.

"This innovative cloud-based platform solution ensures efficient made-to-measure and customization production processes and facilitates nearshoring for companies that offer individualized products. This technology is up and running and can be used by the fashion industry on a plug-and-play basis," say the jury experts. “Since 2011, the Texprocess Innovation Award has been honoring remarkable achievements and new developments in the Texprocess product range under two categories: new technology and new process. The winners are selected based on criteria such as degree of innovation, choice of materials and environmental sustainability."

First showing of game-changing technology at a European tradeshow includes the recently launched Kornit Atlas, Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro and Kornit Presto
Kornit Digital (Nasdaq: KRNT), a worldwide market leader in digital textile printing technology, has announced details of its corporate presence at Fespa 2019 which will take place in Munich, Germany, May 14-17.

Kornit’s exhibit will focus on the game-changing technology that was unveiled in the beginning of the year and will now be on display for the first time in a tradeshow in Europe: the Kornit Atlas and the Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro. The presence will be complemented by a Kornit Storm HD6, a direct-to-fabric sample area featuring prints from Kornit’s upcoming Presto system and an installation of Colorgate’s Textile Production Server for Kornit.

The Kornit Atlas is a heavy-duty system created for super-industrial garment decoration businesses. It is designed to deliver a typical annual production capacity of up to 350,000 impressions, optimizing production efficiency and cost of ownership. The Kornit Atlas is aimed at highly productive garment decorators, mid to large size screen printers and innovative businesses looking to combine state-of-the art technology with lowest cost of ownership, making it easier than ever to address the requirements of leading and mid-sized brands, as well as new generation digital brands. The Kornit Atlas uses water-based Kornit NeoPigmentTM Eco-Rapid Inks which are eco-friendly, GOTS approved and OEKOTX certified, and serve as the main driver of the retail quality prints.

imogo is a new Swedish company formed by a team with long experience in textile processing technology. It is now boldly aiming to change the face of the textile manufacturing industry with its new Dye-Max spray dyeing technology, to be introduced to the market at ITMA 2019 in Barcelona.

While still at the prototype stage, and with a first full-scale line currently under construction and due to be demonstrated this Autumn before delivery, the DyeMax nevertheless promises to slash the use of fresh water, waste water, energy and chemicals by as much as 90% compared to conventional jet dyeing systems.

Spray cassettes
Its application unit consists of a closed chamber containing a series of spray cassettes with precision nozzles for accurate and consistent coverage, in combination with the patented imogo pro speed valve that controls the volume to be applied. The chamber is equipped with an exhaust system and droplet separator to ensure that the environment around the unit is free from particles.

“The spray cassettes are a key part in the Dye-Max line,” explains Imogo’s founding partner Per Stenflo. “There is one set of spray cassettes for each of the three separate dye dispersion feed lines and they can be easily exchanged without the need for tools in less than a minute. This allows for extremely fast changeovers between different colours without the need for cleaning. And because the spray cassettes are removable, all maintenance can be performed off line. 
After applying the dye dispersion the fabric is rolled onto a shaft and moved to the autoclave for deep dye fixation via heat and pressure.”

The savings in treatment water the Dye-Max achieves are due to the extremely low liquor ratio of 0.5 litres per kilo of fabric Stenflo adds. 

“At the same time, the low liquor ratio and the spray process require considerably less auxiliary chemistry to start with, and all of it is used in the process, which also greatly reduces the production of waste water, with only 20 litres being required for wash at changeovers. The low liquid content in the fabric meanwhile minimises the energy needed for fixation.”

The Dye-Max has a working speed of up to 50m/min with the practical speed determined by the fabric weight and application volume. 
 

A focus on customer service, aligned with the drive to constantly innovate, has long ensured that the member companies of TMAS – the Swedish texile machinery manufacturers’ association – stay well ahead of the curve.

“All of the Swedish textile machinery companies are doing really well in major markets such as Europe, China, India and the USA,” says TMAS Secretary General Therese Premler-Andersson. “They are now gathering forces to prepare for the most important show – ITMA 2019 in Barcelona in June. I expect to see new players and partnerships as we enter the industry 4.0 era for real. We are ready to display an even higher degree of the real time monitoring of processes, automation, flexible customisation, and the incorporation of robots into production lines.  Our customers expect a lot of in terms of knowledge and our ability to customise and offer turnkey solutions.”

The forward-looking attitude of the Swedish companies is perhaps best summed up by Reimar Westerlind, the owner, since 1961, of ACG Gruppen.
At the age of 90, Reimar still travels to his office every day to oversee the operations of the diverse companies operating under the ACG umbrella.
“Everything now is about automation and digitisation,” he says. “We have to be on that track or we will be lost – innovate or die.”

Robotics
One ACG Gruppen company moving rapidly forward with new innovations in this area is ACG Kinna, which at ITMA 2019 will be providing dramatic live demonstrations of its new robotic pillow filling system.
This has the ability to fill and finish some 3,840 pillows per eight-hour shift, which is a considerable improvement on what is currently possible with existing systems, resulting in significant savings in both labour and energy for busy home textile businesses.

At ITMA 2019, Eton will be demonstrating a complete material handling solution with advanced software providing real-time information covering every aspect of the process.
“Our systems are a natural fit with the major Industry 4.0 networked manufacturing plants that are now being constructed worldwide for sectors such as the garment and home textiles manufacturing and automotive industries,” says Eton’s Sales and Commercial Director Roger Ryrlén.

Sensors
Advanced senor developments are playing a large part in moving many areas of the textile industry forward too.
Eltex of Sweden, for example, is achieving considerable success with its yarn fault detection and tension monitoring systems across a range of sectors, including the tufting of carpets, the creeling of woven materials and even the production of woven reinforcements for the composites industry.

At successive ITMA shows, IRO AB has also consistently introduced new milestones in the field of yarn feeding technology for weaving machines, and ITMA 2019 will be no exception.
“Following significant investment in our R&D capabilities, we have been making great progress in further boosting the efficiency and performance of our expanding X3 range,” says IRO AB Managing Director and Chairman of TMAS Mikael Äremann. “I can’t remember a time since the 1980s when we had so many new innovations to unveil at an ITMA, and I’m greatly looking forward to the positive response to them we are anticipating in Barcelona this June.”

Resource savings
ITMA 2019 will meanwhile see the launch of TexCoat G4 – the next generation of Baldwin Technology’s non-contact precision application system for fabric finishing. The TexCoat G4 enables a continuously high-quality and productive textile finishing process with zero chemistry waste and minimised water and energy consumption.
The non-contact spray technology brings a range of advantages including single or double-sided application,  the elimination of Foulard bath contamination, low wet pick-up levels leading to the elimination of drying steps, zero chemistry waste in changeovers of chemistry, colour or fabric, and the possibility of batch reporting, visibility of pad loading, chemical usage etc.

Other TMAS companies exhibiting in Barcelona include Texo AB, whose wide-width weaving looms make the belts for machines on which half of the world’s paper is made, ES-Automatex, which specialises in bespoke automation concepts and Svegea, a company leading the field in a number colarette machines and cutting and slitting equipment.

“At the last ITMA in 2015 in Milan, there was much talk about Industry 4.0 technologies but certainly from the perspective of TMAS, ITMA 2019 will be the place for concrete solutions as to how data and the new tools we have available can be exploited to the full,” says Therese Premler-Andersson. “There is already much more networking between the companies, with software very much the enabler and common interfaces bringing ideas closer together. We are greatly looking forward to further exchanges of ideas when meeting with customers old and new in Barcelona.”

At home, at work, on the street, in the sky, on the water, even in space, technical textiles and nonwovens are swinging towards ever higher performances in amazing applications. Versatile and light, but sometimes stronger than metal, these materials of the future gain their superpowers from the interaction of precisely coordinated textile systems. At Techtextil in Frankfurt am Main from May 14 to 17, 2019 in Hall 3, B06, Oerlikon will be showing chemical fiber applications made of polyester, polypropylene and Co. and what they can do in these fields. However, these exhibits are only a communicative means to an end, as Oerlikon is primarily interested in placing the associated machinery and plant solutions at the centre of discussions with trade fair visitors.

More than two thirds of all technical innovations are directly or indirectly based on new materials, says the German Research Ministry. One could add: The key to a more advanced world, for technological products with amazing functions, breathtaking performance and greater environmental benefits, is also to improve the properties and processing of materials. This applies first and foremost to textiles. Probably no other fabric is so strong as a "team player" who draws its strength from its cohesion. A single polyester thread, for example, looks inconspicuous. Processed into a thigh-thick special weave, however, high-strength High Modulus/High Tenacity fibers anchor floating oil platforms in the deepest waters. These kilometer-long "Mooring Ropes" withstand a breaking load of well over 1,000 tons and perform their task better than steel. For decades, Oerlikon Barmag has been offering special solutions for the production of so-called industrial yarns (IDY) that are tailored to customers worldwide. "We will once again be presenting numerous innovations at this trade fair to inspire our customers," explains Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Chem. Roy Dolmans, Technology Manager IDY and R&D Filament Processing.

FONG’S EUROPE, based in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its flagship THEN brand for advanced dyeing technology with a special reception for customers and agents at ITMA 2019 in Barcelona.

The company, which has been a member of the CHTC FONG’S group since 2004, has its origins in the German city of Chemnitz, where back in 1919 Rudolf Then founded a barrel-making business which soon branched out into piece dyeing machines.

The company’s reputation for innovation began early, with the introduction of ceramic linings for dye baths, which were then made of wood, in order to avoid staining and allow easy cleaning. At the end of the 1920s, Rudolf Then was also quick to recognise the acid-resistant advantages of stainless steel for dyeing vessels.

Relocating to West Germany after World War 2, Rudolf Then ran a number of businesses in Schwäbisch Hall, eventually founding THEN in 1955 with partner Karl Kurz, who later took over the business specialising in dye vats and other textile equipment.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the company continued to further improve its technologies, but it was the introduction of the first THEN AIRFLOW system at ITMA 1983 in Milan which significantly boosted the company’s fortunes, representing a milestone in the development of dyeing machines.

Prior to this, the dyeing of just one kilo of fabric required around 150 litres of water and THEN’s AIRFLOW system, invented by engineer Wilhelm Christ and colleagues, drastically reduced the requirement to between just 35-40 litres. Instead of the traditional dye liquor used for hydraulic fabric transport it efficiently distributed much smaller amounts of dye liquor via aerosol. This technology has subsequently been further developed in successive machine models and has made an enormous impact on sustainable dyeing operations.

Now, as FONG’S EUROPE, the company continues to innovate, and at ITMA 2019 is showcasing the THEN SMARTFLOW TSF hydraulic high temperature dyeing machine, designed to achieve the lowest possible energy and water consumption rates available on the market for jet dyeing.

The company has a number of patents pending on the innovative new features of this machine, including the SMARTFLOW’s fabric transport design. This is based on a smart, winchless fabric transport system which eliminates the need for a loading rope, and a circular plaiter with programmable rotation speeds which provides full filling of the drop zone.

Its newly-developed nozzles and reel-less transport, in combination with smart controlled circular plaiting and variable chamber adjustment, provide even fabric treatment without entanglements and the highest loading capacity with the lowest kier volume

“Further developments, including the new THEN AIRFLOW PLUS system with a round design are in the development pipeline and will once again result in further reductions in power consumption without sacrificing performance,” says FONG’s Europe Sales Director Richard Fander. “Similar innovations are being made to our hydraulic long shape machine, the THEN SUPRATEC LTM. The ability to transport fabrics with reduced tension and without the need for a transport winch which is being introduced on all of our recent machines will allow new fabrics to be created and further increase the efficiency of textile finishing.

Fong’s Europe will be at stand D101 in Hall 2 at ITMA 2019.

• Hexcel’s Composite Innovations For Aerospace, Automotive, Energy And Marine Applications At JEC World 2019 Hall 5 - Stand J41

STAMFORD, Conn. – At this year’s JEC World taking place in Paris on March 12-14, Hexcel will promote a wide range of composite innovations for customer applications in aerospace, automotive, energy and marine markets.

Aerospace Innovations

Hexcel’s HiTape® and HiMax™ dry carbon reinforcements were developed to complement a new generation of HiFlow™ resin systems, producing high quality aerospace structures using the resin infusion process. HiTape® was developed for the automated lay-up of preforms and HiMax™ is a range of optimized non-crimp fabrics (NCF). Both products incorporate a toughening veil to enhance mechanical properties, meeting the structural requirements for aerospace parts.

Visitors to JEC will see an Integrated Wing Panel demonstrator and an I-beam, both made with HiTape® reinforcements, and an Opticoms rib made with HiMax™ NCF. The Opticoms rib and I Beam were both manufactured using C-RTM (Compression Resin Transfer Molding). They were injected with Hexcel’s RTM6 resin in a process taking less than 5 minutes. The total manufacturing cycle for both parts was just 4.5 hours.

Also among the Aerospace exhibits, Hexcel will display a composite petal for a satellite antenna, manufactured by Thales Alenia Space Italia. The petal is part of a set of 24 deployable structural elements that form the large area reflector assembly used on board Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observation satellites. Thales Alenia Space Italia selected Hexcel’s HexPly® M18 prepreg for this application, acknowledging the superior mechanical and outgassing properties provided.

Another Hexcel prepreg application on show is a “zero” frame, manufactured by Aerofonctions for the engine area of Daher’s TBM 910/930 single-engine turboprop aircraft. Hexcel’s HexPly® M56 prepreg was selected by Daher for the “zero” frame – a product developed for Out of Autoclave applications that provides the same high quality and performance as autoclave-cured prepregs, from a simple vacuum bag cure in an oven.

With 50 years of experience behind its comprehensive range of high-strength, high-strain PAN-based carbon fibers, Hexcel continues to innovate, and is introducing two new fibers to its portfolio. HexTow® HM50 combines high modulus and high tensile strength, making it ideal for commercial and defense aircraft and engines. HexTow® 85 was developed specifically to replace rayon-based carbon fiber for ablative applications.

HexTow® carbon fiber holds the most qualified carbon fiber positions on aerospace programs in the industry and is the best unsized fiber available on the market. It provides excellent bonding interfacial properties with thermoplastic matrices and is the best-performing fiber for 3D printing applications.

Additive manufacturing is another area of expertise for Hexcel, using PEKK ultra-high performance polymers and HexAM™ technology to manufacture carbon-reinforced 3D printed parts. This
innovative process provides a weight-saving solution for intricate parts in highly demanding aerospace, satellite and defense applications. HexPEKK™ structures offer significant weight, cost and time-to-market reductions, replacing traditional cast or machined metallic parts with a new technology.

Hexcel is well known for its range of weight-saving, stiffness-enhancing honeycombs and the company adds value by providing a range of engineered core solutions to customers from facilities in the USA, Belgium and the newly opened Casablanca plant in Morocco. Hexcel’s engineered core capabilities enable highly contoured parts with precision profiling to be produced to exacting customer specifications. An example of such a part will be on display at JEC. Made from Aluminum FlexCore®, the part is CNC machined on both sides, and formed and stabilized with both peel ply and flyaway layers of stabilization. Aircraft engines benefit from a number of Hexcel core technologies including HexShield™ honeycomb that provides high temperature resistance in aircraft engine nacelles. By inserting a thermally resistant material into honeycomb cells, Hexcel provides a core product with unique heat-shielding capabilities that allows for the potential re-use of material after a fire event.

Hexcel’s Acousti-Cap® broadband noise-reducing honeycomb significantly improves acoustic absorption in aircraft engine nacelles. The acoustic treatment may be positioned at a consistent depth and resistance within the core, or can be placed in a pattern of varying depths and/or resistances (Multi-Degrees of Freedom and 3 Degrees Of Freedom), offering an acoustic liner that is precisely tuned to the engine operating conditions. These technologies have been tested at NASA on a full engine test rig and meet all 16 design conditions without trade-offs.

HexBond™ – the new name in Adhesives

Hexcel’s range of high performance adhesives has expanded considerably following the company’s acquisition of Structil. The company has now decided to unite the range by marketing all of its adhesive products using HexBond™ branding. The comprehensive range of HexBond™ structural film adhesives, foaming adhesive films, paste adhesives, liquid shims, epoxy fillets and Chromium free liquid primers is suitable for a wide range of applications in combination with Hexcel’s prepreg and honeycomb products.

Automotive Innovations

Hexcel’s carbon prepreg patch technology provides an innovative way of locally stiffening and reinforcing metal parts, providing noise and vibration management functionality. HexPly® prepreg patches consist of unidirectional carbon fiber impregnated with a fast curing epoxy matrix that has self-adhesive properties, enabling it to bond to metal in a highly efficient one-step process. These key technology properties are demonstrated in an 18.5kg aluminum subframe (that is 50% lighter than steel equivalents), which was reinforced with 500 grams of HexPly® prepreg and tested by Saint Jean Industries. The part demonstrates a significant reduction in noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). Other benefits include lower production costs, energy savings, increased driver comfort, production flexibility and part count reduction. With this technology Hexcel is a finalist in the JEC Innovation Awards 2019 in the Automotive Applications category.

HexPly® prepreg patch technology was also applied to a hybrid side sill demonstrator developed with Volkswagen and Dresden University to address future crash test requirements, specifically for electric cars. Combining fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) with metal, the hybrid construction allows for optimum performance including weight savings, enhanced safety, increased energy absorption, battery protection in a crash situation and production flexibility.

Hexcel will also display a lightweight CFRP transmission crossmember produced from Hexcel’s high performance HexMC®-i 2000 molding compound. The transmission crossmember was developed in partnership with the Institute of Polymer Product Engineering (at Linz University), Engel and Alpex. As the part connects the chassis together and supports transmission it has to be stiff and strong, resisting fatigue and corrosion. Hexcel’s HexMC®-i 2000 was selected as the best-performing molding compound on the market, curing in as little as two minutes to produce lightweight, strong and stiff parts.
To produce the transmission crossmember HexMC®-i 2000 preforms are laid up in Alpex molds and compression-molded in a v-duo press that was tailored for the application by Engel. Ribs, aluminum inserts and other functions can be molded into the part using the single-stage process, reducing component-count. Any offcuts from the preforms can be interleaved between the plies of material to provide additional reinforcement in key areas - meaning that the process generates no waste.

Other Automotive promotions on Hexcel’s stand at JEC World include a composite leaf spring manufactured by ZF using HexPly® M901 prepreg. In contrast to steel leaf springs, composite versions offer many advantages including weight savings of up to 70%, high corrosion resistance, optimized system integration and superior performance. HexPly® M901 prepreg reduces the cure cycle to below 15 minutes and provides 15% higher mechanical performance, with enhanced fatigue properties. It also operates at high temperatures, providing a Tg of up to 200°C following a post cure.

Marine Innovations

Hexcel has a comprehensive range of products aimed at racing yacht and luxury boat builders that include America’s Cup, IMOCA class and DNV GL-approved prepregs, woven reinforcements and multiaxial fabrics for hull and deck structures, masts and appendages.

At JEC World Hexcel will display an IMOCA yacht mast manufactured by Lorima using HexPly® high modulus and high strength carbon fiber prepreg from Hexcel Vert-Le-Petit. Lorima is the exclusive official supplier of masts for IMOCA 60 class racing boats.

Hexcel’s HexTow® IM8 carbon fiber has been selected as the highest performing industrial carbon fiber on the market and will be used by spar and rigging manufacturer Future Fibres to manufacture their AEROrazr solid carbon rigging for all the teams in the 36th America’s Cup.

Hexcel’s HiMax™ DPA (Dot Pattern Adhesive) reinforcements are non-crimp fabrics supplied pre-tacked, allowing multiple fabrics to be laid-up more easily in preparation for resin infusion. Providing an optimal, consistent level of adhesion, they allow a faster and more consistent resin flow, as well as eliminating the use of spray adhesive for a healthier working environment and lower risk of contamination. Simply unrolled and applied to the mold or core layer before the introduction of resin, HiMax™ DPA fabrics are widely used in boat building, where lay-up times can be reduced by up to 50%.

Wind Energy Innovations

Hexcel has developed a range of HexPly® surface finishing prepregs and semi-pregs for wind turbine blades and marine applications. Providing a tough, durable and ready-to-paint surface without using in-mold coats, these products shorten the manufacturing cycle and reduce material costs. HexPly® XF2(P) prepreg is optimized for wind blades and has a ready-to-paint surface, straight from the mold, saving at least 2 hours of takt time.

Polyspeed® pultruded carbon laminates were developed for load-carrying elements in a blade structure and are manufactured with a polyurethane matrix that provides outstanding mechanical performance in terms of stiffness and durability. The blade manufacturing process is optimized, with increased throughput. The pultruded laminates are supplied in coils as continuous cross section profiles.
HiMax™ non-crimp fabrics using E-glass, high modulus glass and carbon fibers are also available in a wide range of unidirectional, biaxial and triaxial constructions. HiMax™ fabrics have applications throughout the turbine, from the stitched carbon fiber UDs used in the main structural elements, to glass fabrics and hybrids for blade shells and nacelles. There are also specialist applications such as lightweight fabrics for heated leading edge de-icing zones.