From the Sector

adidas unveils its new campaign to celebrate the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™. The campaign is dedicated to next gen icons Alessia Russo, Lena Oberdorf and Mary Fowler and looks to drive more global attention for the game and inspire other young women and girls to follow in their footsteps.

Marking adidas’ most impactful Women’s World Cup campaign to date, the brand unites its global family of football legends and advocates of the women’s game. Headlined by a series of fast-paced films, the campaign welcomes a star-studded line up of David Beckham, Leon Goretzka and Ian Wright, actor and football fan, Jenna Ortega, as well as Argentina’s World Cup hero, Lionel Messi. They come together to celebrate the skills that Russo, Oberdorf and Fowler are renowned for, from vision and interception to power, creativity and accuracy.

The films are part of a new creative proposition from adidas for the upcoming tournament. ‘Play Until They Can’t Look Away’ aims to platform and showcase some of the world’s greatest football players on the biggest stage – whose skills and passion for the game demand global attention and support.

Set against the soundtrack of SL2’s iconic song, On a Ragga Tip, fans see World Cup winner, Lionel Messi, alongside Mary Fowler, guiding both viewers and Jenna Ortega across the world to Fowler’s home country of Australia , with preparations for the biggest women's sporting moment underway.

Meanwhile, David Beckham and Ian Wright, alongside his granddaughter, Women’s Arsenal FC player, Raphaella Wright-Phillips, are unable to look away in a supermarket as Russo spectacularly weaves her way through the narrow aisles, in her own creative fashion. Finally, Goretzka is expertly interrupted while bowling as Oberdorf whizzes around an arcade, powerfully intercepting balls in each scene to achieve a high score of her own.

Paying respect to those who have gone before, the films are also filled with subtle references to memorable moments that football super fans will revel in, including shirt numbers, iconic tournament balls, plus much more.

BTMA member Tatham has just delivered an advanced industrial hemp processing line to a major customer in Turkey and had many fruitful discussions about its machinery for the processing of natural staple fibres at the recent ITMA 2023 held in Milan from June 8-14.

The Bradford, UK-based company continues to equip mills around the world with staple fibre spinning and nonwoven technologies for manufacturing a wide range of products, while its TS system for drives and controls is suitable for retrofitting to all OEM textile machines, to provide user-friendly control systems with complete synchronisation and significant energy savings.

“We are currently fielding a lot of enquiries for technologies for the decortication, fibre opening and fabric forming of hemp,” said Tatham director Tim Porritt. “This is being driven by the sustainability of the fibre and concerns over climate change as brands seek solutions to meet their sustainability goals. As a result, there has been an explosion in the interest in hemp production, from farmers through to fibre production, and a wide range of new potential end-uses are being explored.”

Tatham offers a complete ‘Field to Fibre’ service for industrial hemp fibre production and its decortication and cleaning process has a gentle opening action to maintain the fibre length, to make it suitable for subsequent processing.

MAS Holdings, a global apparel & textile manufacturing and tech conglomerate, headquartered in Sri Lanka, secures a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ™ as part of its Plan for Change initiative to support the development of next-generation cellulosic filament fibers to replace polyester and nylon.

HeiQ from Switzerland and MAS Holdings entered a partnership for MAS to secure a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ GmbH, a subsidiary of HeiQ Group that will produce HeiQ AeoniQ™, a climate-positive cellulosic yarn.

With this investment, MAS Holdings becomes the first manufacturer to partner with HeiQ AeoniQ™ in their efforts to provide a sustainable alternative to polyester and nylon. The investment to be made by MAS Holdings is part of the group’s strategy to drive a positive environmental impact. The MAS Plan for Change aims to generate 50% of the company’s revenue through sustainable products by 2025, revolutionizing the textile industry with a focus on innovation, sustainable sourcing, and pioneering circularity at scale.

With the closing of this deal, HeiQ and MAS agreed to a 5-year Offtake Agreement for 3,000 tons of HeiQ AeoniQ™ yarn in 2025 and 5,000 tons per year from 2026 to 2029, valued by HeiQ in the aggregate to US$ 100 million. MAS will finalize this commitment within a stipulated time period after achieving milestone 1, and a mutual plan for commercialization. HeiQ and MAS firmly believe that rapid scaling is key to facilitating the fast adoption of sustainable, circular technologies such as HeiQ AeoniQ™.

The HeiQ AeoniQ™ pilot plant in Austria is manufacturing this revolutionary continuous cellulosic filament yarn since Q3 2022, with up to a 100 tons capacity to be upscaled up to 300 tons by the end of 2023.

The HeiQ AeoniQ™ production scale-up is planned to have its definitive boost by early 2026 with the construction of an entirely new gigafactory capable of a 30,000-ton output per year, in a 250M USD estimated investment.

Polyester and nylon, two oil-based fibers, virtually non-recyclable, account for about 70% of all the global textile production, they take between 350 to 1000 years to degrade in nature, are currently close loop recycled at less than 1%, and are at the origin of 35% of the microplastics that can be found in today's oceans. HeiQ AeoniQ™ was innovated and is being hyper-scaled up to change this course of action.

With total sales of EUR 1,543 million, generated by over 30 production and sales units in Europe, Asia, and America, Radici Group closed its 2022 financial year with slight growth over 2021. EBITDA reached EUR 157 million in 2022, and net income for the year was EUR 80 million.

“We are moderately pleased with the 2022 figures,” Angelo Radici, president of RadiciGroup, commented. “Despite an unpredictable and challenging year, we were able to achieve positive results. Although the rise in energy costs began to be felt in January, we managed to maintain our position in the first three months of the year due to a significant increase in demand. From the second quarter onwards, the European market experienced a significant slowdown due to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which exacerbated the already soaring costs of energy and raw materials. The situation was completely out of hand and made worse by the fact that some raw materials were not available. This created significant challenges for us, especially in the chemical sector. We even had to stop operations at our Novara plant in the latter part of the year. Products similar to ours in the nylon supply chain from China and the US were being sold at a price lower than our variable cost.”

The president continues: “At Group level, our internationalisation strategy helped us mitigate geopolitical risks in various countries. As a result, we were able to offset the challenges in the European chemicals and textile markets by leveraging our global presence in High Performance Polymers, where our numbers have held strong. As we began 2023, we regained our footing. However, the global economic and industrial scenario for the rest of the year remains highly uncertain, and forecasts are notably cautious.”

Even in these difficult times, the Group has continued to invest. In 2022, the High Performance Polymers Business Area completed the acquisition in India of the engineering plastics branch of Ester Industries Ltd, a listed company. Additionally, it began installing two new production lines in Mexico and Brazil, and confirmed plans to install a new extrusion line at the Villa d’Ogna production site in the province of Bergamo. These choices align with the Group’s goal of enhancing its worldwide presence and boosting competitiveness in high-potential growth markets. In a year where energy and raw material costs were certainly problematic, operating in geographically diverse markets and with varied applications proved to be an important tool in addressing the challenges. In this vein, a new production site spanning over 36,000 square metres has recently been inaugurated in China. The move is aimed at doubling the production capacity in line with the market’s growth expectations.

Extending the time horizon to 2018-2022, the Group has invested over EUR 277 million to enhance the competitiveness of its companies, implement Best Available Techniques, improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and conduct research and development activities aimed at introducing sustainable processes and solutions. These efforts include the research and development activities of Radici InNova, which are heavily focused on the circular economy.

Perlon® - The Filament Company - headquartered in Munderkingen, Germany, which specializes in the manufacture of synthetic filaments for the Paper- Technical Textile - Brush- Personal- and Dental industry, buys Shaun Filaments in Goa, India.

Shaun Filaments is a leading Indian producer of different types of filaments mainly for the Asian market. Perlon® herewith expands its Asian presence and market leadership in the following business segments: Paper Machine Clothing, Advanced Technical Textiles, Technical Brush Filaments and Personal Care.

“With the acquisition of Shaun Filaments, we are expanding our presence in the Asian market and creating a company that is geared towards the global filament industry of the future and we are expanding our market leadership in all segments. Shaun Filaments is a perfect fit for the Perlon® Group with its long-term experience, strong reputation and knowledge in the production of filaments for the Asian market.” states Florian Kisling, CEO of Perlon®.

The Perlon® Group will take over Shaun Filaments with all employees and production lines located in the Shaun Filaments factory in Goa, India.

Just in time for ITMA 2023 in Milan, the flat knitting machine manufacturer STOLL has launched its new collection COLOR IN KNITTING. It holds a range of knitting techniques that were ideated for novel super fine machine gauges such as the E20.

In addition, STOLL reveals its internal design workflow, showcasing how digital software tools can speed up the design process. The core of this is k.innovation CREATE DESIGN. Through the utilization of STOLL’s jointly developed design software solution, k.innovation CREATE DESIGN, in collaboration with @KM.ON, the shape and structures of a garment, can be digitally created, allowing for its simulation before it is even knitted. The interfaces to various external 3D software tools, allow for a realistic representation of the garment facilitating faster design decisions. Once the virtual knits, made in the CREATE DESIGN software are ready for manufacturing, it will be send to a knitting technician for further processing in k.innovation CREATE PLUS, This significantly speeds up product development while reducing communication issues between designers and technicians.

Sustainability and responsible handling of precious natural resources were key factors driving the development of the latest trend collection, COLOR IN KNITTING. STOLL-knit and wear®, a technique that stands for seamless knitted garments, can play a significant role in reducing waste. In addition, fewer process steps are required in the production chain - with advantages for production efficiency.
For another highlight of COLOR IN KNITTING, the STOLL creatives have worked on imitating different yarn effects with knitting technology such as slub yarn optics or the simulation of fabrics like crepe de chine/crepe georgette

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of STOLL, COLOR IN KNITTING features a selection of vintage pattern replicates. These patterns can be found in STOLL’s extensive sample archives in Reutlingen. It is impressive to learn that all these former fabric constructions can still be replicated today and also reinvented with todays machine features. This approach showcases the steep progression of technical advancements over the past 150 years.

STOLL´s latest trend collection culminates in the creation of an invaluable resource: the book “Color in Knitting: By Designers, for Designers”. This publication aims to cater to a diverse audience by presenting a comprehensive guide to designing with colors using various flat knitting technologies and will be presented in the chapter "Book release".

An openly accessible online energy savings calculator for all users of powder coatings has been launched by AkzoNobel.

All powder coatings customers can instantly calculate the energy and carbon reduction they could achieve with the company’s Interpon products and related services.

It's the latest example of how the company is continuing to work towards its ambition of reducing carbon emissions across the full value chain by 50% by 2030. “Sustainability is critical for all of us and helping customers to reduce energy is one of the many ways we can work with – and for – them in order to meet our shared ambitions,” says Jeff Jirak, Director of AkzoNobel’s Powder Coatings business.

To make using the tool as easy as possible, the calculator – currently only available in Europe – is supported by a detailed guide, which helps customers better understand how even making small changes in the powder coating process can have a big impact in terms of becoming more energy efficient. These include checking for leakages in compressed air systems, improving insulation and ensuring all process equipment is regularly serviced and maintained. Customers also receive expert support from Interpon’s technical service team.

Nylon 6, nylon 6,6, polypropylene, PET and calcium carbonate are available through the company’s proprietary carpet recycling process

Circular Polymers by Ascend, a market-leading recycler of post-consumer carpet, today the launch of Cerene™, a line of recycled polymers and materials made from the company’s proprietary carpet reclaiming technology. Cerene is available as polyamide 6 and 66, PET, polypropylene and calcium carbonate as a consistent,
sustainable feedstock for many applications, including molding and compounding.
Recycling experts from Circular Polymers will be showcasing Cerene at Compounding World Expo on June 14-15 at the Messe Essen in Germany.

Ascend Performance Materials, a fully integrated producer of durable high-performance materials and the majority owner of Circular Polymers by Ascend, is known for its innovations in nylon 6,6. Cerene will continue that legacy with offerings in nylon 6,6 while also bringing to market recycled polymers such as nylon 6, PET and PP.

“Customers around the globe are seeking consistent and reliable post-consumer recycled materials,” said Maria Field, business director of Circular Polymers by Ascend. “Cerene is mechanically recycled using a process that minimizes our carbon footprint and environmental impact.”

Circular Polymers by Ascend converts post-consumer carpet into fiber and pellets. The company uses a proprietary process in its California-based facilities to achieve high efficiency in recycling, successfully providing a new life for virtually every component of the carpet and backing. The company has redirected 85 million pounds of carpet from landfills into new goods since 2018.

On June 1, EREMA hosted the EREMA Discovery Day focusing on the post consumer segment from a European perspective. Live demonstrations showcased the latest machine innovations for PET and polyolefin recycling.

The invitation was accepted by around 400 customers and partners, mainly from Europe, to find out about the wide range of recycling technologies for PO and PET plastic waste. The technology that was presented and explained by EREMA experts and guest speakers during lectures in the morning, could then be seen live in-action in the afternoon when the recycling machines were demonstrated in operation. A total of six innovative recycling technologies were on display: INTAREMA® TVEplus® DuaFil® Compact, INTAREMA® TVEplus® RegrindPro® + ReFresher, the COREMA® cascade extrusion system, a VACUREMA® Inline Sheet line equipped with new EcoGentle technology, the new INTAREMA® FibrePro:IV machine, and the PCU-
TwinScrew. These allowed visitors to witness their performance and the high quality of recycled pellets that they produce.

"This wide range of technologies is necessary because the recycling process each of our customers choose depends on the type of plastic, the level of contamination of the input material, and which product will be made using the recycled pellets. Following the expansion of our Ansfelden site and with the new site nearby in St. Marien, we can now demonstrate all these processes, carry out test runs with customers' material and focus on development work independently of our Customer Centre," says EREMA's Managing Director Markus Huber-Lindinger.

EREMA is driving forward research and development work in the company's new R&D Centre. Two halls with a total area of 1,550 square metres and a new office building offering space for 50 workplaces has been built. Here, the company bundles cross-departmental test machines and laboratory facilities for post consumer and inhouse recycling applications. R&D is decentralised at EREMA. Employees from different departments handle process engineering challenges, innovations in mechanical engineering and automation technology - all with the aim of meeting customer requirements and achieving the highest possible quality of recycled pellets.  

On the evening before Discovery Day, EREMA celebrated its 40th anniversary together with customers and partners. A review covered the company's history - from the first workshop in a garage in 1983, to its position today as a innovation pioneer and one of the market leaders.

Following their entry into the fibres and textiles sector, as announced at K 2022, recycling machine manufacturer EREMA launches the INTAREMA® FibrePro:IV - which has been specially developed for PET fibre-to-fibre recycling - at ITMA in Milan from June 8 to 14. Thanks to its especially gentle material preparation and efficient removal of spinning oils, the rPET produced can be reused in proportions of up to 100 percent for the production of very fine fibres.

PET is regarded as a key material for the production of synthetic fibres. Around two thirds of the total volume of PET goes into the production of PET fibres for the textile industry. This highlights the importance of high-quality recycling solutions for the circular economy. By combining proven INTAREMA® technology with a new IV optimiser, EREMA succeeds in processing shredded PET fibre materials heavily contaminated by spinning oils in such a way that the finest fibres can be produced again from the recycled pellets. The system, which now joins EREMA's machine portfolio as the INTAREMA® FibrePro:IV, is characterised by a longer residence time of the PET melt. This is an essential factor for achieving high quality recycled pellets, as it allows the spinning oils and other additives used to improve the handling of the fibres during manufacturing to be removed more efficiently than in conventional PET recycling processes. Following extrusion, by polycondensation the intrinsic viscosity (IV) of the PET melt is increased in the new IV optimiser and under high vacuum to the precise level that is needed for fibre production. "Including filtration the output quality that we achieve with this recycling process is so high that ultra-fine fibres of up to 2 dtex can be produced using these rPET pellets, with an rPET content of 100 percent," says Markus Huber-Lindinger, Managing Director at EREMA. Waste PET fibre from production processes can therefore be further processed into rPET filament fibre, carpet yarn and staple fibre.

While the focus of the fibre and textiles application is currently still on PET fibre recycling, EREMA is committed to driving forward the recycling of mixed fibre materials from classic textile recycling collection in a next project phase. In order to accelerate development work, the EREMA Group opened its own fibre test centre, where a cross-company team is working on recycling solutions for fibre-to-fibre applications. The centre also operates a fully equipped and variable industrial-scale recycling plant. It includes the peripheral technology required and is available to customers for trials.