|
|
| Issue date:01/06/2008 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Jun 2008 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
| by Adrian Wilson |
|
| Asia is on the rise in the nonwovens industry, as was demonstrated at the recent INDEX show held in Geneva, Switzerland |
INDEX08, held from April 15 to 18 in Geneva, Switzerland, showed that despite the increasing cost of raw materials and energy that were exerting pressure on prices, the nonwovens industry continued to be buoyant.
This was reflected in the high number of expansion announcements and the wide range of new products on show in Geneva.
The INDEX exhibition is held every three years in rotation with other dedicated events in the USA and Asia, and this year broke all records in terms of exhibitors, registered visitors and floor space.
However, the production of nonwovens in Asia has overtaken that of both Europe and the USA in the last two years and there were more exhibitors than ever before at this show from Asia, with China having the third biggest representation of companies behind Germany and Italy.
A week before the show, Reicofil officially opened its new spunmelt pilot plant in Troisdorf, Germany, representing a significant investment of around 16 million euros. This accommodates a flexible production line specifically designed for technical nonwovens, as well as a six-beam line for hygienic and medical products.
The very first Reifenhäuser Reicofil spunbonding line was installed in China in 1986, for manufacturing polypropylene thermally bonded nonwovens.
The development of this technology was not rapid, as the German company spent more than a decade in developing it, according to technical director Hans Georg Geus, after patents from its original inventors DuPont, Freudenberg and ICI lapsed.
But today, the latest Reicofil 4 technology is easily capable of running at 800 meters a minute for the production of lightweight materials for hygiene applications, representing an increase by roughly a factor of 20.
It has an estimated share of as much as 87% of commercial machines serving the hygiene market, and in the past 20 years has sold around 180 lines of varying sizes and outputs.
Reicofil offers diversified solutions
"The high-speed lines installed in our new technology centre will enable customers to develop new products and processes which they could test in the past only on their own lines at high cost in terms of time and money," said Reicofil CEO, Dr Bernd Kunze. "We are offering our customers the possibility to diversify and enlarge their product ranges with this investment."
The six-beam, 55-ton hygiene line is comprised of three beams for spunbond and three for meltblown, one of which can be moved out for stand-alone testing when three meltblown beams are not necessary.
The technical line is equipped with two bicomponent beams and features twin screw extrusion for accommodating a variety of polymers.
During the INDEX exhibition, Reicofil announced that along with Oerlikon Neumag (Italy), it would erect and commission a second hydroentangling production unit for Barcelona Nonwovens (BCN) at its Sant Quinti plant in Spain.
This is expected to be on stream by mid 2009 and produce high strength wipes.
From left: BCN sales manager, Jordi Casabon; Reicofil project manager, Harald Markes; BCN technical manager, Cassimir Verdaguer; and managing director, Cristina Ambrosini; Reicofil managing director, Bernd Kunze; and sales manager, Markus Müller; and BCN R&D manager, Carlos Vinas. |
Brazil's Fitesa also said it would invest US$120 million to install two new Reicofil lines in North America targeting the hygiene, medical and industrial markets.
The new lines will produce high quality, fine denier, lightweight fabrics and are expected to come on-stream in late 2009, although an actual location is yet to be determined.
Fitesa already produces 40,000 tons of spunmelt nonwovens per year in Brazil.
Reicofil also announced a new co-operation with a view to turnkey systems specifically for meltblown Lyocell with US engineering company, Biax Fiberfilm.
The companies intend to establish a pilot line, which shows the capabilities of this new process, although whether it will be located in Europe or the USA is undecided.
More entrants in spunmelt machinery sector
Reicofil currently dominates the spunmelt machinery market, and Oerlikon Neumag is a challenger to the crown.
Italy's Albis started up its latest seven-meter-wide Oerlikon Neumag line at subsidiary, Ascania, in Germany during March this year, and at INDEX displayed the first spunbond roll produced from it.
This is the latest in a series of expansion plans over the past twenty years by Albis, seeing its turnover on course to reach 130 million euros this year.
"Our co-operation with Neumag goes back to 1987 when the company supplied our first line for fiber production," said Albis Group's founder, Gianni Boscolo. "Because Neumag had such a long history in the development of leading technology for spinning, including bicomponents, we were sure they would be the company to develop a new generation of nonwovens machinery not only allowing the production of different materials, but also very specific materials with specific technologies. Everything is now in place to prove we were right in this."
Two other rising manufacturers of spunmelt machinery are Galileo and Fare.
Galileo, which has its head office in Bahrain, announced the sale of a Giotto spunbonding line to Italian manufacturer of technical nonwovens, Aurora Nonwovens.
Aurora Nonwovens managing director, Giuseppina Patuano (center) with Galileo engineering director, Rosario Maggio (left) and managing director Ron L. Smorada. |
"We are specializing in lower investment, high quality and proprietary technology which we believe fills a gap in the market," according to managing director,Ron L. Smorada.
This new deal follows earlier success with the supply of a line to Bahrain Nonwovens.
Fare announced the sale of a new spunbond line to Kurt Nonwoven of Turkey.
Film expansion by Turkish producers
Other Turkish firms were also prominent at the show, including Hassan, which has just become the first manufacturer of breathable films in Turkey with the establishment of a new company called Pelsan.
Pelsan is now manufacturing both breathable and non-breathable films under the Breatech brand, primarily for hygiene customers, at a new 5,000-square-meter facility in Istanbul.
Traditional Alpine horns drew attention to Turkey's Hassan Group at the INDEX show. |
Pelsan is using the latest technology for its PE film production and both breathable and non-breathable PE films can be produced with or without surface embossing and corona treatment.
In addition to its standard Motex polypropylene and Mopet polyester spunbond, meltblown and SMS products, Gaziantep-based Mogul introduced meltblown fabrics with pulp.
"We have recently invested in two new meltblown lines, giving us the flexibility to run PET and PBT type polymers, and more interestingly to blend pulp into meltblown, which will allow us to develop new products and applications, especially in wipes," said Commercial Director, Sergan Gogus. "We have also installed a welding machine to join spunbond fabrics together to form crop covers of up to 16 meters, which will strengthen our position in the agriculture market."
While Turkey has long been established as Europe's main supplier of quality conventional textiles, with a strong position in advanced yarn spinning as well as woven and knitted fabric production, it has only comparatively recently built up significant nonwovens capacity.
Turkish specialist, Mogul, introduced new meltblown products with pulp. |
EDANA figures show that European exports of nonwoven fabrics to Turkey climbed from 11,395 tonnes in 2001 to 19,733 tonnes in 2003. This led the nation's always alert entrepreneurs into viewing the nonwovens sector as a prime target for local investment.
EDANA reports that between 2003 and 2005 there was very significant investment in nonwovens capacity in Turkey and for the past two years an annual 75,000 tonnes of spunbond and meltblown capacity has been in place in the country.
This represents something of an overcapacity situation, but undaunted, the leading Turkish manufacturers have looked to new options in processing and product ranges.
Fleissner seeks for spunlace advances
In spunlace bonding equipment, Fleissner introduced the MiniJet as the latest addition to it Aquajet range.
This machine, explained sales and marketing director Rüdiger Weinhardt, can serve as both a laboratory line or a machine for beginners in the market with minimum shipping and installation demands at the customer's site.
Another new introduction was a high-speed foam padder for the production of resin-bonded nonwovens.
"Usually such lines operate at around 60-70 meters a minute," said Mr Weinhardt, "but through the integration of a small hydroentanglement step, the process can now be three times as fast."
Rieter Perfojet, meanwhile, announced the sale of a new spunlace machine to Taiwanese nonwovens producer, Nan Liu Enterprise.
This new investment was claimed to be the widest hydroentanglement line ever installed in all Asia.
"At a width of 4.4 meters, this new machine will be the largest spunlace installation in Asia," said Arnaud Laroche, Rieter Perfojet's sales manager for China and Taiwan. "We are pleased with the confidence Nan Liu has placed in our company."
The JETlace 3000, will be installed at Nan Liu's plant in Pinghu, China, and will produce state-of-the-art spunlace fabrics dedicated to the wipes and surgical markets. The official inauguration of the line is scheduled to take place on August 8 this year.
In the next few years, Nan-Liu plans to invest over 100 million euros at Pinghu in a total of five new lines.
India picking up in nonwovens
Having only started up its Rieter Perfojet spunlaced nonwovens line in March 2007, India's Ginni Filaments reported that the line was already now running at full capacity.
From left: Ginni regional sales manager, Rahul Bansal; deputy general manager, Alok Uphadhyaya; assistant general manager, Ajaya Gupta; and president, RR Maheshwasi. |
With an annual capacity of 12,000 tonnes, the company's products are being supplied to a strong customer base of wet wipe converters in more than 25 countries.
Even prior to installing this machine, the company adopted the innovative strategy of attempting to kick-start the Indian market for wipes with its own ranges. These include Clea make-up wet wipes, Cuddles baby wipes, Vigo wet wipes, Cosset face masks, Magicia dry cloths and Swipe household cleaning materials.
The strategy has been successful – disposable wipes have quickly become a US$4.5 million market, and this is growing at 20% per annum.
Ginni also supplies Jet Airways with a range of disposable nonwoven products, including headrest covers, napkins and linen.
|
| We are collecting readers' comment for improving our website. If you are willing to help, please CLICK HERE to complete a survey. Your comments matter. |
|
|
|
|
| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
|
| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
|
|
|
Close
|
|
|
Write a mail to the editor : 
