From the Sector

Archroma will introduce its new Super Systems+ concept and highlight product innovations at Techtextil 2024, being held in Frankfurt, Germany from April 23 to 26.

A highlight of Archroma’s participation in Techtextil, Super Systems+ are powerful end-to-end systems that combine fiber-specific processing solutions and intelligent effects. The Super Systems+ suite encompasses wet processing solutions that deliver measurable environmental impact from sizing to finishing; durable colors and functional effects that add value and longevity to the end product; and cleaner chemistries that eliminate harmful or regulated substances.

For textile partners to the automotive industry, Archroma is introducing DOROSPERS® KHF, a new range of high-lightfast disperse dyes that provide optimum build up on polyester microfiber, including artificial suede for car interiors.

For nonwoven applications in fields such as healthcare, hygiene and filtration, Archroma recommends APPRETAN® FFX6750, a new addition to its range of high-performance zero-formaldehyde acrylic copolymers, and APPRETAN® FFX1540.

APPRETAN® FFX1540 is a new APEO free and formaldehyde free self-crosslinking polymer, medium soft with very low tackiness, and strongly hydrophobic, developed for the chemical bonding of nonwovens and for the coating of technical textiles, where low water absorption and high-water tightness are required, combined with high durability in severe environment.

For workwear and uniforms that protect people under adverse conditions, Archroma solutions include HELIZARIN® ULTRA-FAST, for printing with pigment dispersions and metallic pigments, and the new ALBAFIX® ECO Plus wet fastness improver. Archroma’s PFC-free PHOBOTEX® R-ACE durable water repellent delivers excellent water repellence while preserving fabric quality and ensuring sustainability. Archroma has also expanded the revolutionary AVITERA® SE GENERATION NEXT range of resource-saving dyes with new colors.

Further solutions for active wear and workwear include the newly launched bio-based PHOBOTEX® NTR-50 durable water repellent product, which is PFAS free, formaldehyde free and crosslinker free, as well NYLOFIXAN® HFS, a new fixing agent for polyamide and blends that is fully compliant with the latest restrictions on bisphenol compounds.

Archroma is also launching ARKOPHOB® NTR-40 at Techtextil 2024. The company’s first crosslinker with an improved sustainability profile, its monomers are partially derived from renewably sourced, plant-based raw materials. Another new innovation is biocide-free OX20, an odor-neutralizing technology launched by Archroma in partnership with SANITIZED AG.

For home textiles, mills and brands can select ARKOFIX® NZW formaldehyde-free* resin for high whiteness and extraordinary product stability, with no yellowing during storage at elevated temperatures, even over a prolonged period of time. For a super-soft handle, the SILIGEN® EH1 is a vegan silicone macro-emulsion softener with 35% plant-based active content.

At the upcoming Techtextil show for technical textiles, which will take place in Frankfurt from April 23-25, Monforts will launch its new coaTTex coating unit dedicated to air knife and knife-over-roller coating.

For single-sided application with paste or foam, the versatile coaTTex is suitable for both incorporation into existing finishing ranges as well as installation with new Monforts lines, notably the Montex stenter systems.

A wide range of coatings can be applied to fabrics for providing functions such as waterproofing, liquid and gas protection and breathability, in addition to foam lamination and coating, including black-out coating.

The considerable technical textile end-use applications envisaged for the coaTTex range from window blinds to abrasive cloths and from airbags to sails.

With an operational speed of up to 40 metres per minute, coaTTex units are available in nominal widths of between 1800mm to 3600mm and their robust construction is characterised by a rotating beam for the fixation of up to three different knife executions.

Central adjustment of both the horizontal and vertical position of the beam, and also of the knife angle, enables easy adaptation to new projects and automatic tension control guarantees high quality production. In addition, the cleaning blade for the coating roller is pneumatically controlled, as is the lifting of the beam at seams and clamping during fabric standstill.

Baldwin Technology Co. will join Elmatex GmbH at Techtexil (April 23-26 in Frankfurt, Germany) to demonstrate its TexCoat™ G4 precision spray finishing system.

With Baldwin’s system, the chemistry is precisely distributed across the textile surface and is applied only where it is required, on one or both sides of the fabric. The non-contact technology eliminates chemistry dilution in wet-on-wet processes, allowing full control of maintaining consistent chemistry coverage rates. Plus, pad bath contamination is eliminated, and changeovers are only required when there is a change of finish chemistry.
 
Furthermore, the system offers automated speed tracking, fabric-width compensation, and real-time monitoring to track system uptime, performance and chemistry usage, as well as active care alerts.
 
In addition, the TexCoat™ G4 system can process a wide range of low-viscosity water-based chemicals, such as durable water repellents, softeners, antimicrobials, flame retardants and more. Baldwin’s technology utilizes the same chemicals used in the traditional pad bath, and no special auxiliaries are required. The recipe is adjusted by increasing the concentration and reducing the pickup by a corresponding amount, so that the same level of solids is applied.
 
Some applications, such as durable water repellents, are only applied on the face of the fabric, instead of the traditional method of saturation through dipping and squeezing. Drier fabric entering the stenter means lower drying temperatures and faster process speeds. Single-side applications also open up the opportunity to process back-coated or laminated fabrics in a single pass of the stenter, instead of two passes.

Kelheim Fibres and SUMO are presenting their high-performance absorbent pads for the reusable Sumo diaper at this year's Cellulose Fibres Conference. The Sumo diaper is a sustainable and washable cloth diaper made entirely from biobased materials, offering high performance and innovative design.

The Sumo diaper offers a reusable alternative, consisting of a waterproof shell and absorbent pads. To enhance the performance of the pads, Sumo collaborated with Kelheim Fibres, a leading viscose specialty fibre manufacturer with decades of experience in the hygiene sector.

Together with the Saxon Textile Research Institute STFI, Sumo and Kelheim Fibres have developed a high-performance absorbent pad that is free of fossil-based materials and has already been awarded the Techtextil Innovation Award. The basis for the innovative construction are Kelheim's functionalized specialty viscose fibres with modified cross-sections, which ensure particularly high absorbency and extremely low rewet values.

To ensure the washability of the product, needle-punched/thermally bonded nonwovens were chosen, consisting of a mixture of specialty viscose and PLA bicomponent fibres. By combining nonwovens, typically used in single-use applications, with reusable products, the partners have chosen a new approach.

Natalie Wunder, project manager at Kelheim Fibres, and Luisa Kahlfeldt, founder and designer of SUMO, explain in their joint presentation at the Cellulose Fibre Conference how open innovation has led to successful development collaboration, how this response to current consumer needs has emerged, and what steps are planned for the future.

The company’s principle theme at Techtextil was Sustainability, since FET extrusion systems are ideally suited for both process and end-product development of sustainable materials. These systems are designed to be material efficient, can be bespoke designed and offer both flexibility and a high level of processing capability. They are supplied as self-contained units for ease of installation in a laboratory or small scale process evaluation environment.

FET’s enhanced Fibre Development Centre enables clients to develop and trial their own sustainable fibres and FET has now successfully processed almost 30 different polymer types in multifilament, monofilament and nonwoven formats

The innovative stand at Techtextil was specifically designed to highlight FET’s total commitment to all aspects of sustainability. It utilised as many sustainable components as possible and met with much comment and approval from visitors.

Fibre Extrusion Technology Limited (FET) of Leeds, England enjoyed another successful Techtextil in Frankfurt, with high quality enquiries from technical companies and organisations worldwide, but in particular from customers based in Europe.

The recent Techtextil show in Frankfurt emphasised the diversity of applications for nonwovens and technical textiles, according to finishing technology specialist Monforts.

“We fielded enquiries at top management level from an extremely wide range of companies, all with very different ideas for new product applications during the show,” said Alexander Fitz, who joined the company a year ago as engineer for textile technologies and co-ordinator of the Monforts Advanced Technology Centre (ATC). Fitz brings a background in both technical textile technology and processes to the role, having previously worked for a nonwovens machinery builder and a roll-goods manufacturer.

Trials
“We are now looking forward to interesting new trials and pilot production runs, as well as the commissioning of new orders for machines resulting from the extremely busy exhibition,” he says. “Obviously, everyone at the moment is looking to make energy savings, and we have developed a range of options for helping companies increase their resource efficiency, both on new lines and as retrofitted systems, but this is not stifling innovation at the new material level.

“There was a lot of interest in what is possible with the Montex®Coat coating system and the range of different techniques it enables, and at our ATC in Mönchengladbach, a Montex®Coat unit is integrated into the full technical textiles pilot line, on which it is possible to run new fabrics in widths of up to 1.8 metres.”

Explosion proof
The technical textiles line at the ATC incorporates a Montex four-chamber stenter and is fitted with an explosion-proof coating application chamber in order to allow treatment to be carried out with organic solvents and other volatile materials.

Every single component within the chamber has to meet the standards of the European Union’s ATEX directives for working in a potentially explosive atmosphere. A range of sensors linked to alarms operate at various levels within the chamber to ensure the specified lower explosion limit (LOL) is never exceeded and the ventilation adapts accordingly.

Advanced functions
Special features on the finishing line relate to further advanced functions such as the ability to treat materials not only at temperatures of up to 320°C, but also to be able to treat the top and bottom faces of certain materials at different temperatures within a single pass through the machine.

To achieve this, the first two chambers of the stenter are fitted with special, heavy duty TwinAir ventilation motors and separate burners for individual top/bottom temperature. A temperature differential of up to 60°C can be achieved between the upper and lower nozzles within the chamber, depending on the treatment paramenters.

Another key feature of the technical textiles line at the ATC is the special stretching device which is capable of pulling ten tons in length and ten tons in width – a huge amount per square metre of fabric and necessary in the production of materials such as woven or 3D knits for high temperature filter media.

Auf rund 25 Quadratmetern präsentierte die Textildruckerei Mayer auf der Techtextil 2022 Interieur-Lösungen für Automobile und beleuchtetes Leder. Für den Lösungsschwerpunkt PSA, die persönliche Schutzausrüstung, stand ein Handschuh mit Stich- und Schnittschutz und gleichzeitig hoher Taktilität im Mittelpunkt. Den Klassiker, beschichtete Sitzmöbel für verschiedene Industriebereiche, stellte das Familienunternehmen, dessen Wurzeln im Textildruck liegen, in attraktiven Farben vor. Erst in den vergangenen zehn Jahren hat sich der Familienbetrieb zum Lösungsanbieter für technische Textilien gewandelt.

„Nach der Corona-bedingten Pause war es enorm wichtig, wieder eine direkte Rückmeldung des Marktes zu bekommen“, sagt Michael Steidle über seine Messepräsenz. „Ob man mit einer Entwicklung richtig liegt, wie die eigene Arbeit im Kontext der anderen Marktteilnehmer zu sehen ist, ob die Entwicklung marktfähig ist – die Antworten auf diese Fragen kann nur ein solches Branchenevent geben.“

„Oft baten unserer Techtextil-Besucher um eine Einschätzung, ob dies oder jenes machbar sei. Der nächste Schritt ist dann kundenseitig die Anwendung. Die Entwicklung wird meist bei uns als Lösungspartner gesehen. Das zeigt, dass die Nachfrage nach regionaler Entwicklungsexpertise definitiv gestiegen ist.“

Einen Grund hierfür sieht das Unternehmen im Wunsch nach kürzeren Wegen. Wer nur eine oder zwei Autostunden entfernt sei, könne eine andere Termin- und Liefertreue bieten als ein Lieferant in Übersee. „Die Entwicklung wird wieder regionaler“, so die Einschätzung von Michael Steidle. „Das ist eine Chance für uns Textilunternehmer in Deutschland.“

• New product initiatives and a system solution.

In the year of its 100th birthday RUDOLF will be at TECHTEXTIL to present its latest innovations and process solutions. Since 1922, RUDOLF offers a wide portfolio of specialty chemicals aiming to increase innovation and sustainability along the entire value chain, from fiber to finish.

At TECHTEXTIL, RUDOLF will present four new product initiatives and one system solution. The Company will hold “Conscious Performance” short seminars at its booth to present them.

New product initiatives
BIO-LOGIC® - Performance products with bio-carbon at core. Textile functionality is ensured through natural, renewable raw materials that are neither chemically nor genetically modified and that are not competing as food, feed or fuel.

CYCLE-LOGIC® - A new path: the upcycling of post-consumer, disposable and non-returnable plastics into valuable textile chemistry. Recycled PET bottles are now raw material for the manufacturing of some of our textile auxiliaries without attacking new, virgin resources.

PRISTINE® - Hygiene and freshness from continuous R&D advances. RUDOLF’s new ingredient brand that groups all high-performing technologies for textile hygiene, protection and freshness.

BIONIC FINISH® ECO - An idea borrowed from Mother Nature. Based on proprietary dendrimer technology, RUDOLF presents an extended family of unique fluorine-free DWR formulations suited for different materials and designed for different applications and needs.

New system solution
ECO-LOGIC® - Two-steps process designed and managed by RUDOLF’s specialists in textile process chemistry. It simulates, analyses and measures the environmental impact of a given industrial textile process to then provide insights into the optimization of resources, costs and CO₂ emissions..

• Bio circular Fibre - Shaping Sustainable Living

The European staple fibre producer Beaulieu Fibres International turns the spotlight on future-focused solutions for nonwovens & engineered fabrics at Techtextil 22. A key priority is innovation in polyolefin fibres and bicomponent polyester/polyolefin fibres, to advance sustainable design, end-of-life recyclability, and resource and carbon footprint reduction for industrial and hygiene applications.

The new sustainability roadmap - Route 2030 outlines how the company is targeting the reduction of our environmental footprint to zero, taking care of people and doing business in a transparent, ethical way. Sustainability is key to Beaulieu Fibre International’s long-term strategy, and the company is heavily focused on defining its green portfolio to support evolution in diverse market applications and to work towards a circular economy with the whole supply chain.

Beaulieu Fibres International will offer ISCC Plus (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification Plus) certified bio circular MONO-PP and BICO PP/PE fibres in 1,3-8,9 dtex, available with all the main available finish classes. These drop-in solutions, with no loss in quality, will support customers reduce reliance on virgin fossil carbon in their nonwoven and engineered fibre applications, contributing to the transition towards a circular economy.

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, and Baldwin, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of precision spray systems and technology for sustainable textile manufacturing, announce a new collaboration to optimize performance and resource saving in the finishing department.

The two companies aim to support textile manufacturers in their development projects, targeting to improve their product safety, performance and functionality, while at the same time maximizing the productivity and resource utilization of the finishing application process.

Archroma and Baldwin are collaborating in multiple projects that combine Archroma’s most sustainable product innovations with Baldwin’s Texcoat G4.

TexCoat G4 is a non-contact spray technology for textile finishing and remoistening, designed to allow a controlled and optimal coverage of the exact amount of finish chemistry for reaching specific characteristics of the fabric. The system can be used to reduce water consumption by as much as 50% compared to traditional padding application processes.

Archroma and Baldwin are currently testing Archroma’s finishing products and systems, such as the soon-to-be-launched PFC-free* Smartrepel® Hydro SR for water-based soil repellence, as well as metal and inorganic particle-free antimicrobial technologies like Sanitized T 20-19 and TH 15-14, which will be launched at the upcoming Techtextil 2022.

The first test results will be available for discussions with both partners at Techtextil at their respective booths.