From the Sector

The winners of the 2025 IDEA® Achievement Awards and FiltXPO™ Innovation Awards were announced during special ceremonies held April 29 and 30 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida. Presented at the co-located IDEA®25 and FiltXPO™ 2025 events, the awards celebrate outstanding innovations driving progress in nonwovens and filtration. INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, collaborated with International Filtration News for the FiltXPO™ Awards and Nonwovens Industry magazine for the IDEA® Achievement Awards.

IDEA® Equipment Achievement Award
Dilo Systems GmbH – MicroPunch
The rising energy costs and water shortages have led to a re-evaluation of production methods, with a stronger focus on environmental impact. With MicroPunch, it is possible to reduce energy consumption by approximately 75 percent compared with other consolidation techniques that produce lightweight nonwovens. This technology enhances efficiency and reduces the manufacturing costs and the environmental footprint.

IDEA® Nonwoven Products Achievement Award
Innovatec Microfibre Technology GmbH & Co. KG – InnovaWipe® Water-Soluble Nonwoven
This water-soluble nonwoven is completely biodegradable under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. It offers excellent resistance to oils, greases and chemicals. It does not leave any microplastics behind, breaking down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass. It also has no ecotoxic effects, is safe for the marine environment and does not cause fatbergs or blockages in wastewater systems – flushable and home compostable.

IDEA® Raw Materials Achievement Award
Woolchemy NZ Ltd. – neweFibre
Woolchemy’s neweFibre is the world’s first hygiene-grade wool, engineered for high-performance, sustainable hygiene products. This fully traceable, renewable fiber enhances moisture management, thermal comfort, and odor control. Seamlessly integrating into production, neweFibre powers innovations like neweFlex ADL for exceptional fluid distribution and skin dryness.

IDEA® Short-life Achievement Award
Egal Pads, Inc. – Egal™ Pads on a Roll
At Egal, we believe pads should be as common as toilet paper.  Our vision is that “pads on a roll” will be put in every toilet stall – where they are needed most – to ensure privacy and dignity to all who menstruate.  Egal pads are manufactured in roll form, 40 individually wrapped on each roll, so they can be mounted on existing toilet paper dispensers or in Egal’s custom-designed dispensers.

IDEA® Long-life Achievement Award
Magnera – Sontara® EcoRE Bag
EcoRE bags are produced entirely from cellulosic fibers, presenting a sustainable alternative to traditional synthetic materials. Made with Sontara fabric certified by OK compost HOME, these bags maintain their durability and strength without the need for added binders, addressing a common concern with compostable goods. With plastic bag bans now in place in many states, Sontara offers a timely and eco-friendly solution for the retail and shopping market.

IDEA® Sustainability Advancement Award
KINDCLOTH™ – PURA HEALTH Insect Repellent – Water Dissolvable Wipes
This wet wipe combines water-dissolvable Hydropol™ technology with a natural formula featuring lemongrass and citronella. Designed for eco-conscious consumers, this innovative wipe provides effective insect protection while leaving no waste behind. Certified biodegradable, flushable, and designed not to create harmful microplastics, it safeguards fragile ecosystems and supports sustainability goals.

IDEA® Entrepreneur Award
Dude Products, Inc.
In less than a decade, the Dude Wipes brand has grown from an entrepreneurial concept conceived in a bachelor’s post-college apartment to a more than $200 million global brand. These flushable wipes have flourished in flushable wipes industry, successfully going head to head against multinational consumer product companies Kimberly-Clark, S.C. Johnson, and Procter & Gamble.

FiltXPO Air/Gas Filtration Award
Greentech Environmental LLC – Greentech Filters with ODOGard®
ODOGard® technology deeply integrates odor-neutralizing polymers into nonwoven and nanofiber filters, offering an innovative, non-toxic approach to indoor air quality. ODOGard® significantly enhances filtration durability and performance.

FiltXPO Water/Liquid Filtration Award
Ahlstrom – BioProtect™
Ahlstrom’s sustainable BioProtect™ material offers superior dye-catching performance for laundry applications. Manufactured from 100 percent naturally derived fibers and OC-Biobinder®, BioProtect™ is both biobased and home compostable, combining premium performance with environmental responsibility.

FiltXPO Filtration Equipment Award
Filtration Advice Inc. – FA-TCO Software
This cutting-edge software provides comprehensive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis and predictive modeling for air filtration systems. FA-TCO enables data-driven decisions, extending filter lifespans, reducing operational costs, and enhancing overall sustainability in filtration management.

Trützschler Nonwovens will participate in the ANEX 2024 exhibition (May 22 to 24, 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan). Attendees will be able to explore sustainable nonwoven solutions tailored for flushable wipes with the pulp-based CP and WLS lines, as well as other cutting-edge offerings such as the needle-punched line T-SUPREMA for technical nonwovens.

Many end-users now expect recycled materials to be in textile products they purchase – and this is driving innovation throughout the industry. However, there are still many technical and economic issues facing yarn and fabric producers using recycled resources. Members of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association offer some effective solutions to these challenges.

Synthetic recycled materials such as PET can usually be treated similarly to new yarn, but there are additional complexities where natural fibres like wool and cotton are involved. Today, there’s a trend towards mechanically recycled wool and cotton fibres.

Spinning recycled cotton
The use of mechanically recycled fibres in spinning brings specific quality considerations: they have higher levels of short fibres and neps – and may often be colored, particularly if post-consumer material is used. It’s also true that recycled yarns have limitations in terms of fineness. The Uster Statistics 2023 edition features an extended range of fibre data, supporting sustainability goals, including benchmarks for blends of virgin and recycled cotton.
In general, short fibres such as those in recycled material can easily be handled by rotor spinning machines. For ring spinning, the shorter the fibres, the more difficult it is to guide them through the drafting zone to integrate them into the yarn body. Still, for wider yarn counts and higher yarn quality, the focus is now shifting to ring spinning. The presence of short fibres is a challenge, but Rieter offers solutions to address this issue.

Knitting recycled wool
For recycling, wool fibres undergo mechanical procedures such as shredding, cutting, and re-spinning, influencing the quality and characteristics of the resulting yarn. These operations remove the natural scales and variations in fibre length of the wool, causing a decrease in the overall strength and durability of the recycled yarn. This makes the yarn more prone to breakage, especially under the tension exerted during knitting.

Adapting to process recycled materials often requires adjustments to existing machinery. Knitting machines must be equipped with positive yarn suppliers to control fibre tension. Steiger engages in continuous testing of new yarns on the market, to check their suitability for processing on knitting machines. For satisfactory quality, the challenges intensify, with natural yarns requiring careful consideration and adaptation in the knitting processes.

From fibres to nonwovens
Nonwovens technology was born partly from the idea of recycling to reduce manufacturing costs and to process textile waste and previously unusable materials into fabric structures. Nonwovens production lines, where fibre webs are bonded mechanically, thermally or chemically, can easily process almost all mechanically and chemically recycled fibres.

Autefa Solutions offers nonwovens lines from a single source, enabling products such as liners, wipes, wadding and insulation to be produced in a true closed loop. Fibres are often used up to four times for one product.

Recycling: total strategy
Great services, technology and machines from members of Swiss Textile Machinery support the efforts of the circular economy to process recycled fibres. The machines incorporate the know-how of several decades, with the innovative power and quality standards in production and materials.
Stäubli’s global ESG (environmental, social & governance) strategy defines KPIs in the context of energy consumption, machine longevity and the recycling capacity in production units worldwide, as well in terms of machinery recyclability. The machine recyclability of automatic drawing in machines, weaving systems and jacquard machines ranges from 96 to 99%.

Absorbent hygiene products such as diapers, sanitary pads, and incontinence products are an integral part of our daily lives. However, most of these products contain synthetic components and contribute to the global plastic waste problem. The search for alternatives is becoming increasingly urgent. The catch is that only innovations that offer the same performance and reliability as conventional products can be successful in the market. After all, no one wants to compromise in such a sensitive area as personal hygiene.

Kelheim Fibres is currently working on various development projects to design fully biobased AHP (absorbent hygiene product) concepts that do not compromise on performance. In this area, the company continues to focus on its wood-based specialty fibres, which the tampon industry has trusted for decades. However, the requirements for AHP products differ, as each layer must fulfil a specific function.

To meet these requirements, Kelheim Fibres has developed a range of functionalized specialty fibres, including hydrophobic Olea, trilobal Galaxy®, and the hollow fibre Bramante. These specialty fibres ensure optimal results in every layer of the AHP product.

All of Kelheim's fibres are manufactured from 100% wood pulp derived from certified and sustainably managed forests. They are fully biodegradable - microorganisms in soil and seawater ensure that no residues remain.

A current example of such a partner project is the development of a completely bio-based panty liner with the nonwovens manufacturer Sandler and the hygiene products manufacturer pelzGROUP, which is due to be launched on the market shortly.

In addition to new projects in the field of biobased disposable and reusable solutions, Kelheim will also present its tried and tested fibres at INDEX™23, for example for tampons or flushable wipes.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) and technology specialist Polymateria Limited have signed an exclusive 10-year partnership to help household brands bring biodegradable nonwoven hygiene products to the market through biotransformation technology.

This collaboration provides a new solution for dealing with essential items like facemasks and wipes once they have been used, ensuring they can return safely to nature without leaving behind any microplastics or toxic residue. It is specifically designed to tackle plastic leaking into the environment as unmanaged waste, meaning it is neither collected for landfill nor recycled. Given that most of the plastic in our oceans originates as unmanaged waste on land, addressing the unmanaged waste challenge is key.

IVL’s right to use Polymateria’s unique biotransformation technology for nonwovens supports application in non-virgin resin recycling while providing a solution for ‘fugitive’ used articles, especially those items that end up in the natural environment. This biotransformation process involves the plastic transforming into a bioavailable wax in the open terrestrial environment, whereupon the wax is fully consumed by bacteria, microbes and fungi, leaving just carbon dioxide, water, and biomass. The pulp component is inherently biodegradable under similar conditions.

Nonwovens made by IVL using Polymateria’s technology have been independently tested against, and meet the criteria in, the BSI PAS 9017 standard for the biodegradation of polyolefins in an open-air terrestrial environment published by the British Standards Institution in October 2020. This standard and/or its criteria – the first in the world to ensure plastic can biotransform in the open terrestrial environment without creating any microplastics – is being adopted around the world including in India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Hungary.

• Innovations in Recycling and Sustainability: Sustainable Diaper Components, Natural Fibers, and Kitty Litter from Recycled Nappies

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, announced the three finalists that will present their innovative material science solutions as they compete for the prestigious RISE® Innovation Award during the 12th edition of the Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics Conference (RISE®) to be held in person September 27-28, 2022 at North Carolina State University.  The award recognizes novel innovations within and on the periphery of the nonwovens industry that creatively use next-level science and engineering principles to solve material challenges and expand the usage of nonwovens and engineered fabrics.

Finalists for the 2022 RISE® Innovation Award:
Cat Litter Made from Recycled Nappies – DiaperRecycle
DiaperRecycle has developed technology to recycle used diapers into cat litter. The aim of the company is to make an environmental impact and decrease the climate changing emissions of diaper waste. They’re diverting used diapers (used in households and businesses such as elder care) from landfill, separating the plastic and fiber and making cat litter. The plastic is prepared for recycling by plastics recyclers. The cat litter product is made by DiaperRecycle from the super absorbent fiber of diapers; it’s highly absorbent and flushable.

Biodegradable Diaper Components – Gottlieb Binder GmbH & Co. KG
Together, Avgol and Binder take on the challenge of disposable absorbent articles for the good of future generations and came up with sustainable diaper components. The technologies used are based on biotransformation technology, which makes it possible to achieve more sustainable products by supporting recycling and providing an alternative route for non-recyclable/fugitive waste management.

sero® hemp fibers – Bast Fibre Technologies, Inc.
Bast Fibre Technologies’ sero® hemp fibers offer the nonwoven industry an all-natural substitute for plastic fibers. From dedicated European- and US-based production facilities, BFT transforms raw bast fibers into premium natural fibers for applications ranging from single-use and durable wipes to industrial applications. Suitable for minority or majority blends, sero® hemp combines easily with standard nonwoven fibers to produce fabrics that meet the industry requirements for strength, uniformity, and processing efficiency.

RISE® conference attendees, technology scouts and product developers in the nonwoven/engineered fabrics industry seeking new developments to advance their businesses, will electronically vote for the recipient of the 2022 RISE® Innovation Award. The winner will be announced Wed., Sept. 28^th.

Technical experts on INDA’s Technical Advisory Board selected three finalists from among 12 nominations.  The 22-member board of technical professionals is represented by companies such as Absorbent Hygiene Insights LLC, Attindas Hygiene Partners, Berry Global, Cotton Incorporated, Crown Abbey, LLC, The DAK Group, Fi-Tech, Inc. Freudenberg Performance Materials, Glatfelter Sontara Old Hickory, Inc., Lenzing Fibers, Inc., Natureworks LLC, Nice-Pak Products, Inc./PDI, Nonwovens by Design, Norafin (Americas) Inc., The Nonwovens Institute at North Carolina State University, Poccia Consulting, LLC, The Procter & Gamble Company, RKW North America, Inc., Rockline Industries, Smith, Johnson & Associates, Suominen Corporation, and Texas Tech University.

“The RISE Conference recognizes and promotes innovation across the nonwoven and engineered material industry. Technology leaders will share invaluable information on innovative new approaches and concepts to resolve material science challenges. For any technical leader, technology scout or new product innovator, RISE is an event not to be missed,” said Tony Fragnito, INDA’s President.

The conference program will cover relevant and timely topics including: Creating a Circular Industry, Advancements in Sustainable Inputs in PLA, Developments in Natural Fibers I and II, Sustainable Inputs in Fibers and Biofibers, Sustainable Inputs from Waste Products, and Economic Insights and Market Intelligence.

International technology group ANDRITZ has established a new inline Wetlace™ CP pilot line with an original design at its center of competence in Montbonnot, France. The line combines both spunlace and wetlaid technologies.

From now on, partners will be able to conduct trials and test all options available for wipes production – from carded staple fibers to pulp and various combinations thereof. The combination of both spunlace and wetlaid technologies offers to move forward to more sustainable options while maintaining a high level of product quality, in particular by achieving high CD strength and good linting properties.

Over the past few decades, ANDRITZ has continued to innovate with various nonwoven processes, like spunlace, WetlaceTM and Wetlace™ CP, with the aim of optimizing the use of raw materials and focusing on sustainability by reducing the synthetic fiber content. Facing the growing demand for bio-wipes in parallel with enforcement of the EU’s single-use plastics directive last year, ANDRITZ has decided to support its customers making their investment decisions.

The Montbonnot pilot line has been rebuilt to integrate the new headbox inside the spunlace line. Pulp can be fed in directly and entangled with carded staple fibers to produce unique nonwoven fabrics designed for end uses as bio-wipes.

Zhoukou Xuwang Co., Ltd. has successfully started up two new ANDRITZ neXline spunlace lines at its facilities based in Henan province, China. Combining equipment from the aXcess and eXcelle ranges, both lines are dedicated to the production of spunlace fabrics of 30 to 120 gsm made out of viscose and polyester fibers. The ANDRITZ design will allow Zhoukou Xuwang to serve the premium product market, especially for premium hygiene and technical wipes, in China.

The ANDRITZ scope of supply for the two lines included:

• aXcess opening and blending systems
• high-performance eXcelle card and crosslapper
• robust aXcess CA25 carding machine
• efficient Jetlace Avantage hydroentanglement unit

This configuration will enable Zhoukou Xuwang to manufacture high-quality products while reducing raw materials consumption. These goals are further enabled by the installation of an ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau crosslapper PRO35-140, generating a uniform profile over the entire web width.

In spite of the difficult circumstances and supply chain disruptions related to the Covid crisis, both spunlace lines were installed smoothly and on time. They quickly went into commercial production, with a line speed of up to 100 m/min and high-performance MD/CD ratio.

Sustainable products that solve problems are the themes for this year’s finalists for the World of Wipes Innovation Award® that will be presented at the 16th annual World of Wipes® International Conference, June 27-30, at the Marriott Marquis in Chicago, Illinois.    

The three products vying for the award are an all-natural substitute for plastic fibers from Bast Fibre Technologies, a dual-textured 3D cleaning wipe from Fitesa and an environmentally safe flushable wipe from Nice-Pak.

INDA’s Technical Advisory Board selected the finalists from nearly 20 submissions based on their creativity, novelty, uniqueness, technical sophistication within the entire nonwovens wipes value chain and expansion of nonwovens use.

Kimberly-Clark Scott® 24-Hour Sanitizing Wipes was the recipient of the 2021 World of Wipes Innovation Award®.

This year’s in-person WOW International Conference is expected to draw 400-plus senior-level wipes professionals from all wipes segments, repeating last year’s strong live event that welcomed 475 wipes professionals from 14 countries to Atlanta, GA.

Finalists Announced
The three companies vying for the award (in alphabetical order) are:

• Bast Fibre Technologies – Sero® Hemp Fibers
• Fitesa – Dual Textured 3D Wipe
• Nice ’N CLEAN® SecureFLUSHTM Technology Flushable Wipes by Nice-Pak

WOW 2022 Conference Highlights
This year’s WOW conference sessions focus on: Circular & Sustainable Wipes, Supply Chain Challenges in Wipes, Nonwoven Substrates for More Sustainable Wipes, Trends in the Wipes Market and Among Consumers, Disinfection Concerns and New Technologies, Sustainable Wipe Packaging Trends, and Developments in Flushability Issues.

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”.