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| Issue date:01/08/2008 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Aug 2008 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
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| The output of technical textiles is expected to increase to 23.8 million tonnes by 2010, with a value of US$127 billion, and Asian countries like China and India are the primary drivers, writes Sanjay Gupta |
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| Polystron geotextile fabric |
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In many industrialized countries, value-added technical textiles accounts for more than 40% of total textile manufacturing activity. A David Rigby Associates study estimated that the world market for technical textiles in 2005 was at 19.68 million tonnes in volume with a value of US$107 billion. With an estimated annual growth of about 4%, the market might increase to 23.8 million tonnes with a value of US$127 billion by 2010. The primary drivers for future growth of this industry are expected to be Asian countries like China and India.
Of the 12 categories of technical textiles, geotextiles is among those showing the faster growth rates.
Geotextiles are structurally permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain.
In the past four decades, geotextiles have evolved from being new engineering materials with limited technical references to state-of-the-practice materials with numerous design and technical tools. The total global demand of geotextiles, including man-made and natural varieties, is of the order of 1,400 million square meters today and it is projected to grow at the rate of at least 10% per annum reaching 2,400 million square meters in the next four to five years.
Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, but also from natural fibers like jute and coir, geotextile fabrics can be made woven, knitted, needle punched or heat bonded.
Woven geotextiles are made from slit film polypropylene (PP) yarns, mono-filament or continuous multi-filament yarns. They find uses in coastal works, waterways and embankments. On the other hand, knitted geotextiles are used for protection of dam's riverbank.
Warp knitted fabric of Kevlar yarns have found use in automobile and marine applications, while nonwoven fabrics for geotextile use are made from either staple fibers or from continuous filaments in the form of spunbonded fabrics that are subsequently needle-punched and/or heat bonded.
The needle-punching process enables fabrics to be made with controlled porosities. High-porosity fabrics reduce the potential for clogging, making these fabrics useful for subsurface drainage and erosion control. Heatbonding of nonwovens provides thinner and stiffer fabrics of lower porosity. The higher strength of heatbonded fabrics makes them useful for road stabilization applications.
Geobags |
Over the years as the use of geotextile fabrics has expanded, newer materials, composites and products have been developed which are referred collectively to as geosynthetics and each configuration, such as geonets, geogrids and geopipes, yields specific benefits in geotechnical and environmental engineering design.
These products have a wide range of applications and are currently used to advantage in many civil engineering applications including roads, airfields, railroads, embankments, retaining structures, reservoirs, canals, dams, bank protection and coastal engineering.
There is no one type of geotextile or geosynthetic that fulfills all needs; therefore, the search for specialty materials and their applications continues to grow. Further, in geotextile applications the product and its application are known prior to the production process being considered. Both the product and its manufacturing process are tailor-made.
The acceptance of geotextiles for products in civil engineering applications has been low, largely because of the conservative nature of civil engineers and others in the construction industry. Moreover, products in civil engineering applications are sold on a specification basis, and the terminology and testing methods used by the fiber and textile industries are vastly different from those used by civil engineers and the construction industry.
An important step has been the establishment in 1984 of Committee D35 on Geosynthetics by ASTM International. Over 100 geosynthetic standards contained in the ASTM International Book of Standards are today promoting the use and acceptance of geosynthetics.
Geotextiles vary from producers
The extent of variability in properties of geotextiles differs from manufacturer to manufacturer and depends primarily on the type and manufacturing technology utilized.
Production process parameters are set to ensure that target property values are achieved for every roll in a production lot. The resulting property values, or product specifications, are published along with a qualifier, minimum average roll value (MARV), implying that it would meet the claimed value 97.5% of time.
In terms of machinery, specific requirements of woven geotextiles have led to the weaving machinery manufacturer modifying the standard loom to adapt in terms of wider fabrics; varying density and tension control for strength and air permeability, and, handling of special materials. While in terms of weave, almost all the fabrics are plain, the shedding motion must be chosen according to the user's needs. The crank shedding motion is chosen for speeds, and the cam shedding motion is chosen for high density. Sultex propose their projectile machine for heavy-duty geotextile applications for dense, multi-layer, pick-insertion fabrics with a large woven width.
Projectile weaving machines can weave up to 6.5 meters wide. Smit's long tradition in the development of weaving machines for technical fabrics permits them to offer key features like weft insertion grippers and relevant control system, shed geometry, reed beat-up and warp control. Alpha PGA is the most recommended loom in Promatech's Somet line of rapier machines, and the Silver HS machine from the Vamatex line.
Nonwoven technology has grown around the needlepunching technology to represent geotextile applications in a big way. Some of the major equipment suppliers in the area are Dilo, NSC Nonwoven, Rieter Perfojet S.A., Fleissner, Groz-Beckert and Trüzschler.
In conventional lines with carding, cross-lapping and needling, the problem faced is that of unevenness in the weight profile particularly in the cross direction with thicker edges and thinner middle parts. A large amount of fiber material gets wasted too. Dilo's Profi-Line CV1 technology achieves improved evenness of cross-laid batts.
Dilo also offers Hyperpunch needle looms with a new kinematic drive for the needle beam which now moves on an elliptical path giving considerably better product evenness and quality in terms of greatly reduced dimensional changes and increased throughput speeds. Since the needles move with the material in the running direction during the penetration phase, the fleece is not drafted lengthwise any more and therefore shrinks much less widthwise.
NSC has made two innovative additions to their ProDyn system - Iso-ProDyn and the BattCruise crosslaid system, which consistently orient the fibers at all points to maintain constant thickness and tensile properties from center to edge of the fabric so that buckling and/or shear-dominated failures are controlled and minimized or eliminated.
Additionally, Groz-Beckert has unveiled a system designed for more efficient, reliable needle board handling. The system comprises of three components: Needle Master, GebeScoot and GebeStore. Needle Master is a semi-automatic device for the insertion and removal of needles in needle boards for the needle-punching industry.
Compared to the current manual methods of replacing needles, this partially automated process helps to minimize the time required for fixing damaged needles in needle boards or when switching to a new set of needles. The precision and quality of the needle replacement process are in full compliance with stringent board and needle precision requirements. The GebeScoot is a high-lift truck featuring a special board fixture for the safe, simple transport and handling of needle boards from the storage location to the Needle Master, to the needle loom and back to storage.
Indian market look optimistic
Indian technical textiles market is among the fastest growing markets in the world, according to a recent FICCI-Technopak study. Registering a growth of 11.25% and standing at US$8.3 billion, it is projected to grow four fold to become a US$37 billion industry by 2020.
Geotextiles is among the four areas of major interest identified by the study that would drive the growth of the sector in India in view of the growing infrastructure development in terms of highways, runways and rural roads. Government of India itself is a big consumer.
Raw material availability is, however, an issue as about 85%-90% of fiber composition in technical textiles is synthetic or specialty, which will have to be imported.
Geotextiles on roads |
Additionally, India-based Neo Corp International recently acquired UK's Euro Plast, a technical textile marketing company with extensive businesses in UK, France and Germany, has an annual turnover of about US$10-15 million.
The company said that the Indian technical textile market was worth US$3 billion, growing at an annual rate of 26%.
Neo Corp, currently manufactures products including container liners, geo textiles, ground covers, shade nets and wind breakers, expected to earn a revenue of more than US$58 million during the current financial year. It reported to be investing about US$7.5 million to expand its manufacturing facilities in India.
Overall, India has enormous potential in jute and coir-fiber geotextiles, and both of which are native to India and capable of producing highly diversified range of products of use especially in the road sector and for soil conservation, reclamation of degraded and waste lands. Biotechnical solutions are also being increasingly preferred worldwide to solve engineering problems.
Dr Sanjay Gupta is a Professor of Textile Design & Development at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, India
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| 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. |
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