From the Sector

In January 2022, international technology group ANDRITZ successfully started up its latest-generation tearing line for spinning grade fibers delivered to Sasia at its Ribeirão premises, Portugal.

The scope of supply includes a seven-cylinder Jumbo tearing machine dedicated to spinning grade fibers. As the first of its kind in Portugal, the machine contains the latest ANDRITZ Laroche innovation for fiber opening, featuring a new-generation pinning configuration.

ANDRITZ has worked closely with Sasia for more than half a century, offering both cutting-edge solutions for recycling as well as every possible fine-tuning customization to support Sasia’s goals. Sasia’s plant now has four state-of-the-art ANDRITZ Laroche tearing lines.

A pioneer in the textile recycling industry since its foundation in 1952, Sasia is engaged in the circular economy with the aim of reducing textile waste by turning it into usable raw material again, increasing ability to compete as well as promoting innovation and sustainability.

This order not only underlines ANDRITZ’s position as the leading supplier worldwide of textile recycling lines, but also highlights its ability to bring continuous improvement with sustainable solutions and versatility to its customers.

Turkish powerhouse in home textiles and furnishing fabrics Altun Tekstil has just commissioned the first Montex®Coat coating system in Turkey.

The advanced machine has been installed at the ever-expanding family-owned company’s industrial complex in Bursa and is being employed to provide an anti-slip and textured backing to upholstery fabrics with a stable and uniform foam, via knife-over-roller coating.  

Founded in 1993, Altun exports its fabrics to more than 60 countries, with its major export markets being Russia and Ukraine, as well as many Middle Eastern and European countries.
Its integrated operations include the production of texturized yarns, weaving and raschel knitting, in addition to dyeing and finishing. With a major focus on tulle curtains and upholstery, the company’s fabric range also extends to a wide variety of apparel styles.

Altun has installed eight stenters in various widths at its two plants since 2016 – coincidentally the year Monforts Turkish representative Neotek was founded. All of the stenters are engineered for specific product lines and the Montex®Coat unit is integrated into the latest of these lines, which has a maximum working width of 2.2 metres and eight chambers.

US Vice President Kamala Harris announced significant multimillion-dollar investments by Parkdale Mills and six other companies today, as part of the Administration’s Call to Action to the private sector to promote economic opportunity in the region, as her office works to address the root causes of migration.

Vice President Harris, who is overseeing diplomatic efforts with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, announced several private sector commitments to strengthen economic opportunities in the Northern Triangle and made remarks at a White House roundtable, which included Anderson Warlick, Chairman and CEO of Parkdale Mills. The textile and apparel co-production chain is one of the most essential supply chains for employment and economic development in both the United States and the Northern Triangle region, currently supporting over 1 million jobs in the United States and the Central American region. The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and its strong rules of origin are the primary reasons this co-production chain exists, which is seeing significant growth this year.

North Carolina-headquartered Parkdale Mills, one of the largest manufacturers of spun yarn and cotton consumer products in the world, will make a multimillion-dollar investment in a new yarn spinning facility in Honduras and make an additional substantial investment to support existing operations in Hillsville, Virginia. This investment will help customers shift 1 million pounds of yarn per week away from supply chains in Asia and China and enhance U.S. and CAFTA-DR co-production resilience and increase regional product offerings. Parkdale’s announced investment will create hundreds of jobs in Honduras and further support hundreds of employees in Parkdale’s Hillsville operations.  

Recently, administration officials from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and the Vice President’s office met with the U.S. textile industry to reaffirm the importance of rules of origin in nearshoring production chains, helping address labor and environmental challenges and mitigating supply chain risk.

“I would like to sincerely thank Vice President Harris for making this announcement and leading the effort with private industry to create more economic opportunities in northern Central America and the United States,” said Anderson Warlick, Chairman and CEO of Parkdale Mills. “Parkdale’s investments will support good paying jobs in the United States and in the Central American region and significantly increase our extensive product offering and capacity, including the production of sustainable specialty yarns.

Parkdale sees an enormous opportunity for brands and retailers to re-shore and nearshore production supply chains and double the size of U.S.-CAFTA-DR trade, because of the rules of origin in our trade agreement and a shift in sourcing by brands and retailers mitigating their supply chain sourcing risks.  We are excited about what this opportunity means for jobs in the U.S. and the region for this critical production chain and couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of this effort.  We look forward to working with the Vice President and her team on strengthening the textile and apparel production chains in the U.S. and region.”

National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas, said, “This is an exciting and important announcement by Parkdale and Vice President Harris. Our industry has invested billions of dollars in the U.S. and in the region as a result of the investment-based rules of origin in the CAFTA-DR agreement, which ensures the job benefits of the agreement are reserved for the parties to the agreement.  Additional substantial announcements on further investment in textile and apparel production are expected soon.

As brands and retailers are seeking more environmentally sustainable, vertically integrated, transparent, and quick turnaround supply chains, our collective industries stand ready to work with companies that are seeking to mitigate sourcing strategies as Asian supply chains have faced enormous production constraints.  Further verticalization in the industry, like Parkdale’s announcement today, allows broader product diversification and grows jobs across the textile and apparel production chain.

We are thrilled with today’s announcement because it is a win-win for American and Central American workers and our environment and a huge opportunity to further recalibrate supply chains out of China and Asia. This valuable co-production chain between the U.S. and the CAFTA-DR region accounts for $12 billion in two-way trade and billions of dollars of investment. Significant growth is occurring in our sector and is expected to continue as supply chains continue to recalibrate.  We are delighted about this today’s announcement and appreciate the Administration’s strong support.”

Fibre Extrusion Technology of Leeds, UK has delivered nine meltspinning systems to clients in the biomedical sector since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a similar number currently on order for 2021/22. This way FET could confirm the position as an acknowledged world leader in meltspinning equipment for the production of precursor materials used in medical devices and as a default supplier for absorbable suture production systems, with orders virtually doubling year on year.

Recent installations include a multi-functional system that can produce both multifilament and monofilament pre-cursor fibres, but nonwoven systems have been particularly prominent, driven by the burgeoning demand for FFP3 masks, gowns and other medical products required during the pandemic. These have been sold to medical device manufacturing companies across the globe, including the Far East, USA and Europe. Research organisations have also invested in FET systems for biomedical applications, the most recent being the University of Leeds in a laboratory scale Spunbond system.

The FET in-house Process Development Laboratory and ongoing collaboration with biomaterial polymer suppliers has helped to optimise the biomedical melt spinning technology. The Laboratory is at the disposal of customers for all aspects of confidential testing and evaluation. To further increase this competitive edge, FET will be opening a new Process Development Laboratory and Visitor Centre in early 2022.

The pandemic shows the importance of single-use nonwovens for disinfectant and other wipe application. Therefore Truetzschler focuses on both high-performance solutions for an efficient production of disinfectant and biodegradable wipe materials.

It’s the classic combination of polyester and viscose fibers which combines exceptional good wipe characteristics with affordable raw material costs. For such high-speed carding/spunlacing processes Truetzschler Nonwovens offers production line configurations with three roller cards. Such an extended carding section not only enhances web quality but also fully utilizes AquaJet’s spunlacing power to deliver up to 4 tons of nonwovens per hour.

Line concepts for eco-friendly baby and body wipes are another focus at booth 1J20. The latest hot topic: Truetzschler‘s proven CP (carded/pulp) nonwoven line concepts with built-in flexibility. The machinery is able to process various pulp types for the wet-laid layer and various fiber types for the carded layer.

Topics at SINCE also are technologies for pulp-based WLS (wet-laid/spunlaced) nonwovens, cotton nonwovens and nonwovens made from 100% viscose or lyocell fibers. Truetzschler Card Clothing introduces a new generation of condenser wires.

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.