From the Sector

The 2021 C.L.A.S.S. Icon Award Portuguese brand Duarte is ready to presents its Fall/Winter 2022/23 collection developed in collaboration with C.L.A.S.S. Eco Hub during Milan Fashion Week. With the support of WHITE, Duarte’s creations will be featured as a special project at WSM (WHITE Sustainable Milano) platform space inside “Unveiling the fashion Backstage”, a docu-event focusing on an immersive journey into the amazing world of premium and smart supply chains that make innovative and responsible fashion wardrobes a reality.

For its second collection Duarte still counts on C.L.A.S.S. support in sourcing materials and communication activities as part of the Icon Award yearly program. The streetwear designer Ana Duarte, with the help of the Milanese hub, is back with a renewed collection that counts 40 pieces continuing the concept and the story behind the previous World Keeper: the irresistible superhero Tadao - Ana Duarte’s dog – fighting against the environmental issues created by mankind and personified as Smog Man (air pollution), Fire Man (climate change), Deforestation Man (forests destruction) and Wave Man (water overconsumption).

This time the inspiration is also Street Dance drawn directly from the city streets, with majorly unisex pieces (apart from some small specific details linked to sizes or ergonomics) and materials that both respect the planet and keep you warm. The prints drawn from ripped posters giving birth to a sort of new style named “Eco-Street Dance”.

The collection presents a selection of urban pieces for everyday superheroes, fighting against environmental issues - with a holistic approach to sustainability values thanks to the synergy with C.L.A.S.S. and its Back in the Loop area: a section dedicated to alternative and sustainable sourcing against the massive amount of materials and textiles produced that are not used and discarded by the fashion system. This is mostly powered by MAEBA International - and its ReLiveTex® fabrics - leader in selecting and repurposing premium Italian fabrics with exceptional 60 years of expertise in collecting high-quality materials from leading brands and textile manufacturers, and one of the first companies at an international level to be accredited for the UNI EN ISO 14021 certification which grants the traceability of the collected materials.

The linings complete the full sustainable picture, thanks to Bemberg™ by Asahi Kasei fabrics by Gianni Crespi Foderami. Bemberg™ is a new generation material made from the smart-tech transformation of cotton linter pre-consumer material, converted through a traceable and transparent closed loop process.

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. has received two European Digital Press (EDP) Awards from the European graphics arts trade press, a prestigious technical awards programme that recognises innovative advancements in digital print production. The EFI™ VUTEk® Q5r roll-to-roll UV LED printer beat competition in the large/wide- format printing systems category for printers above 350-centimetres wide. EDP judges honoured EFI Fiery® software integration with finishers as the top solution in the awards programme’s category for software automation tools.

Automation, quality and value with award-winning roll-to-roll technology
The EFI VUTEk Q5r printer is a roll-to-roll display graphics printer, capable of running at speeds of up to 672 square metres per hour. The 5.2-metre-wide printer delivers a full system solution from file submission to a finished print with options such as in-line quality inspection, in-line slitting and cutting, roll and tape collection, auto-calibration, automated backlit printing, automated blockout printing and much more.
 
EFI VUTEk Q series printers, which include both the Q5r and a 3.5-metre wide VUTEk Q3r model, are available with up to nine colours including white and clear, and feature EFI UltraDrop™ Technology with native 7-picolitre printheads and multi-drop addressability for high-definition quality. Benefits include smoothness in shadows, gradients, and transitions, as well as precise and sharp 3-point size text with a true resolution of up to 1,200 dots per inch.

Fast, flawless finishing
EFI Fiery software integration with finishers, the winner in the EDP Awards category for best software automation tool, offers advanced integration with in-line or offline slitter/cutter/creasers. Operators can define cut, crease, and perforation locations on the job content in the Fiery software solution, which then communicates the configuration to finishing equipment, eliminating operator touchpoints and errors from incompatible layouts.

EFI Fiery software integration with finishers is offered in two different EFI Fiery software products: Fiery Impose and Fiery Finishing Designer.

• New partnership will recycle over 1.6 billion PET beverage bottles in the Czech Republic by 2025

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), the world’s largest producer of recycled PET for beverage bottles, completed a deal for an 85% equity stake in Czech Republic-based PET plastic recycler, UCY Polymers CZ s.r.o. (UCY), boosting the country and Europe’s plastic collection and recycling ambitions.

As a result of the investment, IVL will recycle about 1.12 billion additional post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles in the Czech Republic every year by 2025, increasing the total bottles recycled by UCY across the Czech Republic, Germany and Central Europe to 1.6 billion bottles per year. IVL, a global sustainable chemicals company, is investing USD1.5 billion globally to expand recycling facilities and sustainable production, including boosting its recycling capacity to 750,000 tons per year by 2025.

UCY is a strategic fit for IVL as a backward integration into the company’s expanding recycled PET (rPET) footprint in Europe and across the world to secure feedstock for rPET products. UCY can produce 40,000 tonnes of recycled PET flake per year. IVL will develop UCY to serve the increasing demand for recycled PET in Europe.

UCY will work with IVL’s existing PET flake production facilities in the region. These provide the washed and shredded post-consumer bottles as PET flake feedstock to produce recycled PET resin that is suitable for food contact use. PET is fully recyclable and the most collected and recycled plastic packaging in Europe.

For more than 70 years BRÜCKNER has been in the construction of drying and finishing lines for the textile and nonwovens industry. In the nonwovens sector, the company supplies worldwide thermofusion ovens, dryers, coating and heat-setting lines. On the IDEA 2022 trade fair in Miami, USA, BRÜCKNER presents together with its American representation FI-TECH new machine concepts and solutions for different applications in the mentioned fields.

The production of nonwovens always requires a bonding process after the nonwovens formation, where the loosely laid fibers are bonded to a resilient fiber composite. For this purpose, depending on the process, different ovens and dryers are used. BRÜCKNER supplies the necessary lines for all applications. The production program is completed by different impregnation and coating units as well as slitting and winding equipment. BRÜCKNER's customers produce geo nonwovens, filter media, hygiene and medical textiles or different fabrics for the automotive and transport industry

For the production of highloft nonwovens the double-belt thermofusion oven SUPRA-FLOW BX is used. This oven system operates according to the air-through principle and can be perfectly adapted to the product requirements in terms of flow speed, flow direction and temperature on a field-by-field basis.  
The SUPRA-FLOW BX can produce nonwovens up to a thickness of 280 mm and a basis weight of max. 8 kg/m². The available working widths vary between 2400 and 5200 mm at production speeds of up to 100 m/min.  
For geotextile projects, the POWER-FRAME stenter is usually used, which impresses with its uniformity in terms of temperature distribution as well as productivity. In addition, the fabric can be stretched in a targeted manner by transporting it in the stenter chain. This has a controlled influence on fabric width, fiber orientation and fabric shrinkage. Working widths of up to over 7 meters are not uncommon with geotextile finishing systems.

Morocco has created an optimal basis for companies with the introduction of the duty-free zone. RINCO ULTRASONICS will take advantage of this opportunity and strengthen its own position in the Moroccan market by establishing RINCO Morocco. RINCO Morocco will act as a center for the African continent. The automotive industry as well as the textile industry are particularly well represented locally.

RINCO ULTRASONICS AG, headquartered in Romanshorn, Switzerland, has specialized in the development and manufacture of ultrasonic welding machines and ultrasonic cutting systems since its founding in 1976. RINCO products are used for reliable welding of plastic parts as well as for cutting food and synthetic textiles.

Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC) announces its partnership with Fox Valley Flexo Services to provide educational opportunities, demonstrations and training through PCMC’s Packaging Innovation Center.

“As we met with the team at Fox Valley Flexo Services to discuss possible synergies, it was apparent that the company’s combined 60-plus years of industry and education experience in flexographic printing would help us provide high-level training to the print industry,” said Rodney Pennings, PCMC’s Director of Sales–Printing, Coating and Laminating. “Our goal is to provide world-class, hands-on training and innovation through partnerships with industry leaders, and Fox Valley Flexo Services will immediately be able to help us do that.”

PCMC’s Packaging Innovation Center, located at its headquarters in Green Bay, serves the printing industry as a resource for training, demonstrations and industry trials, along with research and development opportunities. It features industry-leading equipment with capabilities in central impression and inline flexographic printing, digital printing, lamination, and bag and pouch converting.

“Attendees to our educational seminars will have the opportunity to operate and train on state-of-the-art equipment, and because we are an in-house training center, they will also have unique access to design and manufacturing expertise that is not typically found at other training centers,” shared Pennings. “They will not only see the what and how of printing equipment, but also be able to learn the why by understanding the design and engineering that goes into the equipment.

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.

For over 80 years Riri Group has established itself as a leading point of reference for the creation of details of style providing high-end fashion brands with top quality accessories – which now include zippers, buttons, metal components and fashion jewels.

All things style and sustainability: This year Première Vision Paris (08 – 10 February) will be once more the stage to show off the results. The new Spring/Summer 2023 line is inspired by three distinct eras and paths, but at the same time it conveys a total synergy and integration between the various divisions of the Group, coordinated and harmonised as well as united by their common interest in nature and sustainability.

SOUL COMFORT
Off-the-grid essentials between relaxation and style
Sparked from the contemporary need to balance happiness and security, while enriched by an aesthetic and provocative approach, this line embodies all the value and potential of a sustainabilityoriented communication for each and every product, as pieces feature the relevant information on the zip tape and on the button application support. This line presents softer colours that encompass a wide range of styles, including floral, summer satin and semi-transparency, accompanied by innovative yarns and sustainable materials, such as hemp, linen, silk, certified organic cotton, recycled nylon and bio-based polyester. The line also features stainless steel products, including mono-material buttons and zipper chains or the use of aluminium chains that stand out for their particular lightness.

OUTDOOR EXPRESSION
To always stand out
Inspired by nature and outdoor activities, in this section the focus is on attire codes that become the means through which everyone can express and enhance their look in every context, even when immersed in the surrounding environment. Coloured stripes and rubberized soft touch materials are the two essential concepts, combined with bright and flashy colours. The Storm Evo zip, reversed coated nylon zips (among which the one with the reflector catches the eye), and the recycled nylon buttons are back.

WISE EXCLUSIVITY
Smart and sustainable luxury
Each creation in this line is studied down to the smallest detail, to achieve luxury products that increase their value over time thanks to their sustainable process and long life cycle, achieved through multiple possibilities for use in different ways and areas. We find here the use of diamond, recreated in the laboratory with more sustainable techniques, but also zips with elegant and refined lines, the use of stainless steel and PVD and finally, the use of precious galvanic finishes on buttons, but also on chains and pullers. This path shows the important role collaboration plays between the divisions of the Riri Group, making it possible to create something unique and valuable.

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.

For the second time in a row, the speciality viscose fibre manufacturer Kelheim Fibres was awarded a place on the podium at the Cellulose Fibre of the Year Awards. The concept for sustainable menstrual underwear made from Kelheim’s functionalised speciality fibres achieved third place. Kelheim Fibres thus emerges from the competition as the most innovative fibre manufacturer.

Project manager New Business Development Natalie Wunder presented the promising concept from Kelheim at the International Conference on Cellulose Fibres: "We have been able to use our experience as a long-established supplier for the tampon industry to develop further sustainable solutions in the feminine hygiene sector, in this case reusable menstrual underwear. As an innovation pioneer, we are thus helping to break the taboos that surround the topic of menstruation. We offer women the choice between different environmentally friendly products which also offer high levels of performance - depending on what fits their lifestyle."

For the next step, the commercialisation of the concept, Dr Marina Crnoja-Cosic, Director New Business Development at Kelheim Fibres, puts her trust in the proven open innovation approach: "We want to bring partners from the entire value chain together. By bringing in our joint expertise, we can significantly accelerate the path from idea to finished product in the market. At the same time, through open dialogue, we ensure that the concept works seamlessly from fibre through processing to the final product.