05.18.11
Sandler AG has completed work on its fourth plant in Schwarzenbach/Saale, Germany. "Two years ago—at the height of the financial crisis—the Sandler AG Management Board decided to invest €40 million in a new plant and a state-of-the-art spunlace production facility," recalled Christian Heinrich Sandler. "The new construction of plant 4 was a challenge for all company employees, who were highly motivated and enthusiastic in their commitment towards the project during all phases of civil engineering, plant assembly, and the start-up of the system."
The new building is 150 meters long, 70 meters wide and 20 meters high; each of the two floors measures 10,500 square meters, which is the equivalent area of four soccer fields. The top floor is used as a warehouse. The lower floor houses the centrepiece of the investment—a new nonwoven production line. This spunlace line—Sandler’s third—will be used to produce a new generation of materials for care and cleaning wipes as well as technical nonwovens.
"The nonwovens line 52 is a production plant with high potential for innovation. True to our concept 'less is best to nature,' we have the opportunity to further reduce the basis weight of wet wipe substrates while maintaining the same level of performance. In terms of sustainability, we are not only able to produce nonwovens made from biodegradable and lactic acid-based polylactate fibers. As part of a development project with a major supplier, we have designed a bio-wipe with a substrate of 100% biodegradable viscose, which in turn consists of raw materials acquired from PEFC-certified European forests," explained Dr. Sandler.