Tim Wright, editor10.03.14
Converting companies are an integral part of the nonwovens supply chain. For all of the advantages the industry’s products provide, a lot has to happen prior to their end use. Nonwovens need to be cut into a variety of shapes and sizes, scaled down to become a single-use product, as well as printed, packaged and more. Sometimes the process is simple, and sometimes more complex, with converting companies using the latest technology to add value to products, and making them easier to use. The following is a compilation of capabilities and services of some the nonwovens industry’s leading converters.
Albaad
Albaad USA Inc. is a contract manufacturer for the top 10 branded cosmetics, toiletries and homecare companies globally and within the U.S. Contract manufacturing represents a significant share of the Reidsville, NC-based company’s turnover and it has been defined as a strategic priority by its top management.
“Albaad is a pioneer in the U.S. contract manufacturing market says Stephan Kruczyk, head of the contract manufacturing division at Albaad. “When we opened our U.S. operation back in 2004, we were one of the rare suppliers to offer contract manufacturing and private label services at the same site. Now, several of our branded consumers are asking us to deliver full-buy service including Albaad’s fabric and formulation but customized to their needs.”
Apart from the full-buy model, Albaad is working with branded companies on the traditional converting cost/tolling cost model. Albaad’s effective operation and global knowledge makes it attractive for those companies wishing to contract manufacture their products at competitive converting costs.
“In addition, the fact that we are vertically integrated—producing in-house our spunlace material—allows us to meet our customers demands for tailor made fabrics. This is a significant advantage for those brands that want to have a unique advantage on the market,” says Mike Fitzgerald, vice president of new product development at Albaad USA.
Contract manufacturing customers expect from Albaad the basics: Service, price and quality. However, the company offers more than this. Albaad is a technology driven company.
“Innovation is part of the company’s DNA,” says Fitzgerald. “Every year we organize innovation presentations to our major customers. We understand their consumers’ needs and come up with ideas and NPDs accordingly. It is a win-win situation. Branded companies need us for our wipe expertise—how to convert effectively their products and how to apply their formulations on a substrate—we need them to reach the market with our innovation.”
In short, Kruczyk says Albaad has what is needed to serve brands and make them unique.
www.albaad.com
Albarrie
Albarrie is committed to innovation in the field of needlepunch nonwovens. Its manufacturing operations and technical support staff are wholly dedicated to providing solutions and unparalleled service for its global customer base. Taking advantage of its vertical integration Albarrie is fully capable of converting roll goods for prefabrication requirements by OEM’s or producing finished goods for use within industrial processes. Capabilities include slitting, rewinding, die cutting, lamination, impregnation, extrusion coating, sewing, welding, CNC machining and assembly.
www.albarrie.com
American Custom Converting
American Custom Converting, located in Green Bay, WI, converts nonwovens materials, from airlaid to spunlaced and other fabrics, including difficult, soft, stretchy material. Beginning with wide web slitting and rewinding, their core business, the company does initial steps for other converters, as well as laminating, folding and packaging finished products.
Nonwovens, ranging in size from six inches up to fifteen feet, can be folded in a variety of fold types. Fan-folded and rolled materials such as drop cloths and large drapes are among their converting capabilities. Large web folding also includes the capability of seaming. Adhesive laminations combine nonwovens with other substrates including poly that allows the finished product to have a moisture or other barrier, depending on the application.
Specializing in dry nonwovens wipes, towels and similar products, American Custom Converting (ACC), working in partnership with contract partners is known for problem solving and modifying equipment to achieve an end product requirement. With fifteen years in business, ACC’s mission is to operate with integrity to provide value added converted products and services to the marketplace with a continual commitment to deliver the highest possible level of quality, on time, every time, in a way that allows the maximum amount of customer flexibility.
www.acconverting.com
Beckmann Converting
Beckmann Converting continues to up grade its high tech, ultrasonic laminating equipment, both in bonding ability and in web handling, to create full web, multi-layer and multi-function composites.
Upgrades have allowed the company to process more efficiently, and to process more types of raw materials. Beckmann operates as contract or toll laminators, and are able to create, from 2-layer composites to 6-layers composites. It can create them as wide as 120”, or slit them, in line, to any width that the customer or his next step converter needs. These composites can be a combination of nonwovens, films, knits, wovens, or meshes.
Ultrasonic laminating has a unique place in the creation of multi-layer composites, because nothing other than the original materials gets into the process. This makes it a very “green” process. As long as there is sufficient thermoplastic content in the layers to be laminated, the ultrasonic process works without introducing any foreign substance, such as adhesive, since ultrasonic bonding is a “point bonding” process. All of the properties of the raw material layers, in between the bond points, are the same as before lamination and include properties strength, loft, breathability, filtration and hand.
Beckmann has successfully produced multi-layer composites for applications such as - filtration, environmental, protective apparel, protective covers, medical devices, clean room wipes, and many more.
www.beckmannconverting.com
Berk Wiper
Berk Wiper International, LLC is one of the fastest growing wipe converters in the U.S. Started in 1999 by Larry and Jeff Berk, the company has grown every year since its inception. The Berk family has been in the wipe converting business since 1975 and has established a reputation of producing quality products at reasonable prices.
With one of the broadest lines of wipes in the industry the company is able to compete with the largest manufacturers in the world. Not only does it offer a large selection of in-stock items but it also offers private labeling, custom packaging and drop shipping. Its own branded products including CutnDry, Mighty Wipe, Eden Soft and Chefs Select are well known names in the industry.
Berk Wiper runs 16 production lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In a 275,000 square foot manufacturing facility Berk Wiper is capable of producing 1/4, 1/6 and 1/8 fold wipes as well as flat sheeting, interfolding, perforating roll towels, laminating and slitting. If customers do not see what they want in its stock products, the company will source whatever type of wiper that is needed. In addition, the companies in house designers can help with custom box configurations as well as any artwork necessary for printed boxes.
Berk Wipers state-of-the-art equipment allows it to produce millions of wipes a year for the Jan/San, Food Service, Automotive, Industrial and Healthcare markets.
www.berkwiper.com
Cascades Tissue Group - IFC Disposables Inc.
Cascades Tissue Group – IFC Disposables, Inc., Brownsville, TN, is an active and dynamic North American nonwovens converter that understands the evolution of the market conditions affecting the end-uses of wiping cloth products. The company’s broad range of wiping cloth products are developed to provide the distribution markets with a one source supplier of “Wiping Solutions” for its customers’ needs.
Diversified in the manufacturing and packaging of variable sizes/folds of nonwoven substrates, IFC Disposables’ converting capabilities include multiple size pop-up, interfold, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8 folds, jumbo perforated rolls, flat sheeting, wet wipes, slitting and micrexing of all major substrate offerings in the industry. The company is also vertically integrated with tissue/paper-based substrates from parent company, Cascades, that are manufactured with recycled paper and chlorine-free bleaching. Markets serviced by IFC include but are not limited to industrial, foodservice, jan/san, hospitality, institutional, healthcare and automotive.
Cascades-IFC Disposables strongly believes in building solid customer/supplier partnerships by providing full marketing and sales support along with private label converting and design assistance. The company’s operational flexibility, on time delivery rates and ability to manufacture a broad range of wiping cloth products for the customer’s requirements is the keystone of their business. Continual investment planning enables IFC to broaden and enhance “Wiping Solutions” for existing and new distribution and market channels.
www.afh.cascades.com
Converted Products, Incorporated
In 1993, Converted Products, Incorporated (CPI) opened for business with the simple idea of providing quality contract converting services in slitting and die cutting. Twenty years later, CPI has kept that same simple premise but has expanded its contract services to include wider width, high speed slitting, hot melt laminating, traverse (spool) winding, rotary and flat bed die cutting, warehousing /logistics and product/process development. Operating in an ISO9001 process, Converted Products’ 140,000 square foot facility is located on the northwest side of Milwaukee, WI.
CPI’s slitting capabilities include score, shear, razor, single knife and rotary, widths ranging from 1/8” to 136” and experience with a wide variety of flexible materials. In 2014, CPI upgraded its equipment by installing two new slitter/rewinders. President and founder of CPI, Chris Gorenc says, “We had the opportunity to keep our equipment on the leading edge by installing a high speed turret winder for our long running jobs and also installing a duplex winder that can handle nearly every type of material while improving our efficiencies and quality from our existing equipment.”
Also expanding in 2014 is CPI’s hot melt laminating capacity. While partnering with ITW Dynatec once again, CPI’s hot melt spray laminating capabilities include 2 or 3 ply, add-on levels from ½ gsm to 25 gsm, widths up to 112”, inline slitting and particulate dispensing. Gorenc says, “With the success we were seeing from the Filtration and Industrial market places for lower add-on applications, we realized the need to expand our hot melt laminating capacity and update our technology.”
Brought online in September 2013 was another slitter/spooler with a valuable slitting feature. The slitting station was designed to allow for bringing in wide parent rolls (up to 52”) and slitting/ spooling accordingly. This feature allows the operator to pass back through any off cuts due to spool demand. This process saves time and money on pre slitting from the mill or at CPI.
“We saw this as a great opportunity to save our customers time and money,” says Gorenc. “That’s really why we are in business, to serve our customers by providing quality service, at a competitive price with innovative converting capabilities.”
www.convertedproducts.com
Independent Machine Co.
Independent Machine Co. (IMC) of Fairfield, NJ, U.S., specializing in converting machinery for almost 50 years, manufactures spooling systems ranging from single position offline traverse winders to inline integrated slitting and multi-position traverse winding systems. ICE, the contract converting arm of IMC offers the advantages of computerized spooling without the required capital investment. All ICE converting is done onsite utilizing Independent Machine Co. slitting and computerized traverse winding systems, which are the most highly regarded in the world offering the most accurate positioning and tension control available.
As nonwoven manufacturing processes are able to run faster the converted material that feeds those processes must run continuously with a minimum of splices and downtime. Traverse wound spools provide this capability and can accommodate miles of material in a single package allowing for longer production runs and less operator handling. In addition, the spools are easier to handle during shipping than conventional narrow, large diameter pads or pancakes.
For most narrow width webs the standard method of traverse winding is to move the material back and forth across the face of the core. However, if the nonwoven web is wider than 1.5” moving the spool under the fixed input of the material is preferable. The IMC Smartwinder-XL lateral movement eliminates skewing of the material, will ensure that the wide width web will lay flat and not distort in spool form. The Smartwinder-XL has a computerized microprocessor-based electronic traverse for pitch, stroke length, end dwell and winding pattern. Precise tension is speed controlled by the exclusive IMC Dancer/Tension Controller. The finished spool size varies according to the needs of the next operation [unspooling] or the handling capability of the spooling operation. Very often miles of material is traverse wound onto a single spool to feed the next operation without the need for splices and costly downtime. The integrity of the spool created by proper control of tension and selection of spool [or pattern] settings will ensure the success of the converted material in the unwinding application. ICE’s careful attention to tension, winding patterns and overall spool geometry is key to high quality finished spools.
The most advanced traverse winding technologies enables ICE to meet the needs of each customer. ICE computerized equipment and proprietary software provides an unlimited choice of spool shape, size and winding patterns as well as precise tension control. ICE offers a comprehensive range of spooling services for nonwoven materials.
www.independentusa.com; www.traversewinding.com
JX Nippon ANCI, Inc.
The benefits which JX Nippon delivers to our customers go beyond the products we manufacture. Our commitment to CLAF and Milife customers is demonstrated by our focus on providing a full line of complementary services and support. The company has developed a wide range of composites for a variety of end-uses. We also can assist in the specification, development, design and testing of just the right fabric. By combining dissimilar fabrics through lamination, our customers can offer a product combining the desirable attributes of multiple products in one composite material.
JX Nippon provides the following services to produce multi-layer laminated fabrics from nonwovens, films, scrims, paper, wovens and knits for a wide variety of applications: Thermal and ultra-sonic lamination and powder application (adhesive powder bonding; SAP or other powder application). We have years of experience working in multiple industries and can assist our customers with composite reinforcement selection and design; process evaluation and recommendation; as well as fabric and resin information and experience.
JX Nippon has designed and built fabrics across a variety of industries and applications including:
• filtration fabrics that combine polyester and polypropylene spunbond, carded, or meltblown fabrics and films
• food packaging composites, including fabrics used in food packaging
• fragrance pouches, heater packs, laundry pouches
• medical fabrics and materials for drapes, covers and mask parts
• cover fabrics including breathable/waterproof cover materials for consumer applications
• construction materials such as housewrap, roofing composites, radiant barrier composites
• and technical fabrics combining durability, wind and water resistance for consumer and industrial applications.
www.claf.com
Kleen Test Products Corporation
Kleen Test Products Corporation (KTP) is a high quality contract manufacturer and innovative developer of products found in the home cleaning, laundry and personal care categories at the retail level and related products for industrial applications. Areas of expertise include nonwoven products such as wet wipes, dryer sheets and die cut pads along with liquid, tube and jar filling and contract bulk blending. With over 70 years in business and a reputation as a product launch specialist, Kleen Test has been at the forefront of many notable product introductions.
Kleen Test Products Corporation recently announced the creation of a Nonwovens Innovation Center. The Milwaukee, WI facility houses a wide variety of nonwovens coating and converting equipment, from pilot scale to full production. Capabilities include basic converting as well as more advanced technologies such as multi-layer sonic bonding.
www.kleentest.com
Micrex Corporation
Micrex Corporation, Walpole, MA, U.S., is the developer and manufacturer of the Micrex/Microcreper family of compressive treatment machinery for nonwovens, paper, films, composites, and textiles. Companies worldwide use Micrex technology to add softness, bulk, drape, absorbency, extensibility, and stretch to a wide range of products.
Micrex expands upon its capabilities by providing product development through the Micrex Innovation Lab. This integrates with contract Microcreping services for those firms whose current needs do not yet require the purchase of a dedicated Micrex/Microcreper system. Micrex is prepared to support projects from initial development through large-scale production. All nine configurations of Micrex/Microcreper are available for contract production.
www.micrex.com
National Wiper Alliance
National Wiper Alliance (NWA) offers custom converting and private labeling of nonwoven dry wipes for a magnitude of industries. Products they produce can be found in aerospace, automotive, industrial, food service, hospitality, medical, government, military, janitorial, and retail industries. Through strong alliances with its customers, NWA has developed the reputation as the go to converter for dry wipe converting. Areas of expertise include developing new products to meet individual customers’ needs by offering custom packaging and private labeling options for all put ups of dry wipes. NWA works closely with roll good producers and small startup entrepreneurs in bringing new product ideas to market.
NWA is currently celebrating their one-year anniversary of moving into their new 500,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility located just outside Asheville, NC. The facility is located within a 2-day ship point to 85% of the U.S. population. NWA is proudly registered to ISO 9001:2008 standards.
Converting capabilities at the new location include: Slitting—maximum of 180 inches; inner folding; folding; sheeting; perforating—core and coreless; and printing—both inline and dedicated print lines.
Additional in-house services offered include: Full service customer service; product development; quality control department with product testing; warehousing; customer inventory management; and distribution and logistical support.
www.nationalwiper.com
Nonwovens of America
Nonwovens of America, Inc. (NOA), is located in Swannanoa, NC, and operates a 5.4-meter air-lay needle punch line and runs colors in a weight range of 3.5 ounces per square yard to 34 ounces per square yard. In addition to the needle punch line, NOA provides custom converting services which include a 10-color 99” wide rotary screen print line, heat set ovens, off-line coating, blanket lines, flame lamination, slitting and re-rolling. NOA offers toll converting services on the needle punch line as well as all other converting lines. The main areas of focus are automotive, retail, industrial and emergency blankets. NOA provides in-house customer service, product development, warehousing, logistics and distribution support.
www.nonwovensofamerica.com
NPS Nonwovens
NPS Nonwovens is a producer of meltblown, laminates, composite roll goods and other specialty fabrics using olefin polymers. Our company was formed to provide the industry with the innovative, high-quality fabrics that users demand in the marketplace.
Our state-of-the-art manufacturing process allows our product development team the flexibility to produce a wide variety of nonwoven fabrics and laminate combinations to meet your needs.
Our fabrics can be tailored to meet your specific requirements using various fiber and fabric combinations. These combinations can deliver superior breathability, stretch, and comfort to your end user.
Available meltblown fabrics include: Mono-layer; bi-laminate; tri-laminate; and elastomeric composites.
Converting capabilities include: Thermal bonding; ultrasonic bonding; adhesive lamination; micro-spanning; slitting; rewinding; cutting; and perforating
www.npscorp.com/nonwovens
Rockline Industries
Rockline Industries is the biggest and most diverse contract manufacturer of wet wipes worldwide. After nearly 40 years of relentless innovation and effort we are now an 1,800-employee global operation boasting the most diverse range of converting equipment in the business. The word “urgency” describes the sense with which we seek to earn recognition by our customers as the unmatched leader in contract manufacturing. This urgency involves five basic imperatives — Renew (invest all earnings in continuous improvement), Respect (treat others as we want to be treated); Integrity (do the right thing); Teamwork (individual goals are secondary to team goals); and Excellence (best in class). We don’t compromise integrity for financial gain. Our partnerships are managed with the utmost respect.
We embrace continuous change through product innovation and capital reinvestment and form a dedicated and passionate team from management on down. Our values are applied to all stakeholder relationships—from customers, associates, and suppliers on out to the communities at large whose needs we meet with uncompromising effort. We work every day to confirm just how much Rockline values each and every one of them. We think this is the only way to build and sustain the reputation we seek within the industry. In the words of our CEO Randy Rudolph, “We won’t make a product we wouldn’t buy for ourselves. We aim for the sweet spot. Rockline is big enough to give our customers the resources and vision of a global company, yet we are small enough to value each and every customer.”
Integrity: Every Rockline associate is asked, “Do what you think is right – every day.” These simple words can make for tough choices, but we’ll never stop trying to do the right thing. Our company has a reputation in the wipes industry, for example, of uncompromising integrity with respect to maintaining strict confidentiality to protect and preserve intellectual property for the ongoing business security of our customers.
Innovation: At Rockline, our core strength is the quality and innovation of our product. The focus of our contract manufacturing group is to deliver excellence in customer service by supporting our customers with cutting-edge product and packaging while strengthening our speed to market. This is supported by a winning combination of leading technical leadership along with the most diverse manufacturing platforms in the wet wipes industry. We listen, innovate and collaborate with our valued customers to deliver customer specific solutions that leverage our expertise in material, manufacturing and innovation.
Sustainabilty: We are committed to conforming to the realities of diminishing resources and increased populations. We are aggressively moving from fossil fuels toward clean, low carbon energy, designing waste and inefficiency out of our system, and embracing strategies like reuse, recycling, and energy recapture to reduce landfill use and waste water production. We strive for Ecological Intelligence in our end products, using less material where we can, and sourcing natural and recycled materials wherever possible. It is our commitment and passion to put our own reputation on the line every day, to measure and report our own progress so you don’t have to. That’s what sustainability means to us.
Values: Our values define us. They reinforce to all our stakeholders—customers, associates, suppliers and communities—just how much Rockline appreciates them. They allow us to build a value-based business and reputation within the industry at large. Within the contract manufacturing sector, they ensure that Rockline maintains a global recognition as the premier supplier in the industry, producing innovative solutions, ensuring mutually profitable partnerships and providing customers with important and trusted services that create lasting relationships.
www.rocklineind.com
Sandvik Hyperion
Sandvik Hyperion is a global leader in the rotary cutting function for the hygienic nonwovens market, providing customers with products and services for increased productivity. Sandvik Hyperion is a part of the Sandvik Group, which counts on 47,000 people all around the world and invests 5% of invoiced sales in R&D.
The cutting function is one of the critical operations of a converting line. Raising the efficiency by few tenths of percentage would mean saving thousands of dollars, due to less machine downtime, spare part optimization and waste reduction. This process starts with the design of the cutting unit and the understanding of the converting process; it continues with the manufacturing and in-house test of the cutting solution; it completes with the start-up and operators’ training; it follows through a regular maintenance and local assistance; it finishes with the recycling of obsolete components.
Sandvik Hyperion offers solutions throughout the complete product lifecycle.
Recent developments in the engineering phase are: extended vibration modelling and analysis to ensure stable and reliable cut at high speeds; Computed Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations to select the correct vacuum pump and design an efficient air system, depending on raw material porosity and machine speed; cutting profile optimization to increase the lifetime of the die; increased capabilities in raw material cutting tests to ensure a clean cut and thus reduce the risks of waste.
All those studies are translated into a suitable design of the cutting unit, adapted to the customer needs and matching the specific process conditions.
When it comes to the after sales service, Sandvik Hyperion shares its expertise with operators and process engineers, through specific trainings, start-up assistance and cutting function audits for continuous performance improvement.
Since 2013, Sandvik Hyperion has opened a new maintenance center in Brazil, which adds to the existing ones in Europe, North America and Asia.
Sandvik Hyperion offers also the recycling of carbide rotary cutters. Customers can benefit from the re-purchase of the carbide dies, thus reducing undesirable stock and helping the Sandvik Group to practice true sustainability, consume less energy and reduce carbon footprint.
www.hyperion.sandvik.com
Tufco Technologies, LLC
Tufco Technologies, based in Green Bay, WI, is a provider of turnkey contract manufacturing services. The facility is ISO 9001-2008 certified, and FDA and EPA approved. Capabilities include wide-web flexographic printing, adhesive laminations, wet and dry wipe manufacturing along with integrated packaging solutions.
Tufco’s modern, high-speed assets have the capability to produce wipes in flat packs, tubs, canisters and sachets. Tufco can also offer in-house formulation and blending.
Tufco has two wide-web flexographic printing presses that can print paper, films and nonwovens up to 61 3/4” wide with either water or solvent-based inks. Tufco has won many awards for flexographic printing and has a reputation for being able to work with difficult substrates. In addition to printing, Tufco can produce adhesive laminations up to 120 inches in web width with adhesive add-on rates from 1 to 30 gsm.
www.tufco.com
Web Industries
Continuing to focus on increasing capacity and adding capabilities to provide “Big Roll Converting” solutions for their clients, Web Industries is proud to announce its latest converting asset: a high-speed, wide-width converting line able to produce jumbo rolls of up to 60” OD by 80” wide. The jumbo rolls produced on this equipment will allow longer runtimes during manufacturing operations for the company’s customers. This line is located at Web’s Fort Wayne facility, which already houses some of the largest converting lines in the world.
“The ability to handle 60” OD rolls is an exciting addition to our existing large-format, high-speed slitting, spooling, and printing portfolio, and it offers our customers the ability to increase their operational efficiencies,” says James Oas, director of operations-consumer products market. “A 60” roll contains 57% more material in area than a 48” roll, and this increase can have a huge impact on client’s downstream manufacturing throughput.”
Web also provides high-speed wide-web (90” width and 48” OD) flexographic printing services with tight dimensional pattern registration and precision inline slitting. The company’s printing assets can handle complex graphics while controlling image bleed-through on nonwovens as light as 10gms at wide widths, giving customers the option of having their materials printed and slit and then spooled under one roof, eliminating unnecessary manufacturing steps while reducing overall costs.
Currently celebrating its 45th anniversary, Web Industries, Inc., is a leader in providing contract manufacturing, converting, and product development services for CPG companies. The company’s material and process expertise work to identify potential problems during product development cycles, and their behind-the-scenes outsource manufacturing experience quietly takes new products from prototype to commercial-scale rollout quickly, efficiently, and economically, providing the speed-to-shelf advantage that the market demands.
A pioneer in contract spooling services, Web Industries is the world’s largest and most diverse provider of spooling and specialized traverse winding services, featuring the widest array of spooling heads and configurations in the business. Web has over four decades of experience working with nonwovens, films and papers, foils, custom laminates, and foams, and the company specializes in developing optimized flexible material processing solutions in-house that deliver spooled and wound product onto custom-designed spools, planetary rolls, and pads for efficient, cost-effective product manufacturing
With over 35 adaptable converting/manufacturing lines, three development labs in six locations, and an outstanding track record of partner confidentiality and reliability, Web Industries is uniquely equipped to provide the speed-to-market advantage that CPG companies need.
www.webindustries.com
Albaad
Albaad USA Inc. is a contract manufacturer for the top 10 branded cosmetics, toiletries and homecare companies globally and within the U.S. Contract manufacturing represents a significant share of the Reidsville, NC-based company’s turnover and it has been defined as a strategic priority by its top management.
“Albaad is a pioneer in the U.S. contract manufacturing market says Stephan Kruczyk, head of the contract manufacturing division at Albaad. “When we opened our U.S. operation back in 2004, we were one of the rare suppliers to offer contract manufacturing and private label services at the same site. Now, several of our branded consumers are asking us to deliver full-buy service including Albaad’s fabric and formulation but customized to their needs.”
Apart from the full-buy model, Albaad is working with branded companies on the traditional converting cost/tolling cost model. Albaad’s effective operation and global knowledge makes it attractive for those companies wishing to contract manufacture their products at competitive converting costs.
“In addition, the fact that we are vertically integrated—producing in-house our spunlace material—allows us to meet our customers demands for tailor made fabrics. This is a significant advantage for those brands that want to have a unique advantage on the market,” says Mike Fitzgerald, vice president of new product development at Albaad USA.
Contract manufacturing customers expect from Albaad the basics: Service, price and quality. However, the company offers more than this. Albaad is a technology driven company.
“Innovation is part of the company’s DNA,” says Fitzgerald. “Every year we organize innovation presentations to our major customers. We understand their consumers’ needs and come up with ideas and NPDs accordingly. It is a win-win situation. Branded companies need us for our wipe expertise—how to convert effectively their products and how to apply their formulations on a substrate—we need them to reach the market with our innovation.”
In short, Kruczyk says Albaad has what is needed to serve brands and make them unique.
www.albaad.com
Albarrie
Albarrie is committed to innovation in the field of needlepunch nonwovens. Its manufacturing operations and technical support staff are wholly dedicated to providing solutions and unparalleled service for its global customer base. Taking advantage of its vertical integration Albarrie is fully capable of converting roll goods for prefabrication requirements by OEM’s or producing finished goods for use within industrial processes. Capabilities include slitting, rewinding, die cutting, lamination, impregnation, extrusion coating, sewing, welding, CNC machining and assembly.
www.albarrie.com
American Custom Converting
American Custom Converting, located in Green Bay, WI, converts nonwovens materials, from airlaid to spunlaced and other fabrics, including difficult, soft, stretchy material. Beginning with wide web slitting and rewinding, their core business, the company does initial steps for other converters, as well as laminating, folding and packaging finished products.
Nonwovens, ranging in size from six inches up to fifteen feet, can be folded in a variety of fold types. Fan-folded and rolled materials such as drop cloths and large drapes are among their converting capabilities. Large web folding also includes the capability of seaming. Adhesive laminations combine nonwovens with other substrates including poly that allows the finished product to have a moisture or other barrier, depending on the application.
Specializing in dry nonwovens wipes, towels and similar products, American Custom Converting (ACC), working in partnership with contract partners is known for problem solving and modifying equipment to achieve an end product requirement. With fifteen years in business, ACC’s mission is to operate with integrity to provide value added converted products and services to the marketplace with a continual commitment to deliver the highest possible level of quality, on time, every time, in a way that allows the maximum amount of customer flexibility.
www.acconverting.com
Beckmann Converting
Beckmann Converting continues to up grade its high tech, ultrasonic laminating equipment, both in bonding ability and in web handling, to create full web, multi-layer and multi-function composites.
Upgrades have allowed the company to process more efficiently, and to process more types of raw materials. Beckmann operates as contract or toll laminators, and are able to create, from 2-layer composites to 6-layers composites. It can create them as wide as 120”, or slit them, in line, to any width that the customer or his next step converter needs. These composites can be a combination of nonwovens, films, knits, wovens, or meshes.
Ultrasonic laminating has a unique place in the creation of multi-layer composites, because nothing other than the original materials gets into the process. This makes it a very “green” process. As long as there is sufficient thermoplastic content in the layers to be laminated, the ultrasonic process works without introducing any foreign substance, such as adhesive, since ultrasonic bonding is a “point bonding” process. All of the properties of the raw material layers, in between the bond points, are the same as before lamination and include properties strength, loft, breathability, filtration and hand.
Beckmann has successfully produced multi-layer composites for applications such as - filtration, environmental, protective apparel, protective covers, medical devices, clean room wipes, and many more.
www.beckmannconverting.com
Berk Wiper
Berk Wiper International, LLC is one of the fastest growing wipe converters in the U.S. Started in 1999 by Larry and Jeff Berk, the company has grown every year since its inception. The Berk family has been in the wipe converting business since 1975 and has established a reputation of producing quality products at reasonable prices.
With one of the broadest lines of wipes in the industry the company is able to compete with the largest manufacturers in the world. Not only does it offer a large selection of in-stock items but it also offers private labeling, custom packaging and drop shipping. Its own branded products including CutnDry, Mighty Wipe, Eden Soft and Chefs Select are well known names in the industry.
Berk Wiper runs 16 production lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In a 275,000 square foot manufacturing facility Berk Wiper is capable of producing 1/4, 1/6 and 1/8 fold wipes as well as flat sheeting, interfolding, perforating roll towels, laminating and slitting. If customers do not see what they want in its stock products, the company will source whatever type of wiper that is needed. In addition, the companies in house designers can help with custom box configurations as well as any artwork necessary for printed boxes.
Berk Wipers state-of-the-art equipment allows it to produce millions of wipes a year for the Jan/San, Food Service, Automotive, Industrial and Healthcare markets.
www.berkwiper.com
Cascades Tissue Group - IFC Disposables Inc.
Cascades Tissue Group – IFC Disposables, Inc., Brownsville, TN, is an active and dynamic North American nonwovens converter that understands the evolution of the market conditions affecting the end-uses of wiping cloth products. The company’s broad range of wiping cloth products are developed to provide the distribution markets with a one source supplier of “Wiping Solutions” for its customers’ needs.
Diversified in the manufacturing and packaging of variable sizes/folds of nonwoven substrates, IFC Disposables’ converting capabilities include multiple size pop-up, interfold, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8 folds, jumbo perforated rolls, flat sheeting, wet wipes, slitting and micrexing of all major substrate offerings in the industry. The company is also vertically integrated with tissue/paper-based substrates from parent company, Cascades, that are manufactured with recycled paper and chlorine-free bleaching. Markets serviced by IFC include but are not limited to industrial, foodservice, jan/san, hospitality, institutional, healthcare and automotive.
Cascades-IFC Disposables strongly believes in building solid customer/supplier partnerships by providing full marketing and sales support along with private label converting and design assistance. The company’s operational flexibility, on time delivery rates and ability to manufacture a broad range of wiping cloth products for the customer’s requirements is the keystone of their business. Continual investment planning enables IFC to broaden and enhance “Wiping Solutions” for existing and new distribution and market channels.
www.afh.cascades.com
Converted Products, Incorporated
In 1993, Converted Products, Incorporated (CPI) opened for business with the simple idea of providing quality contract converting services in slitting and die cutting. Twenty years later, CPI has kept that same simple premise but has expanded its contract services to include wider width, high speed slitting, hot melt laminating, traverse (spool) winding, rotary and flat bed die cutting, warehousing /logistics and product/process development. Operating in an ISO9001 process, Converted Products’ 140,000 square foot facility is located on the northwest side of Milwaukee, WI.
CPI’s slitting capabilities include score, shear, razor, single knife and rotary, widths ranging from 1/8” to 136” and experience with a wide variety of flexible materials. In 2014, CPI upgraded its equipment by installing two new slitter/rewinders. President and founder of CPI, Chris Gorenc says, “We had the opportunity to keep our equipment on the leading edge by installing a high speed turret winder for our long running jobs and also installing a duplex winder that can handle nearly every type of material while improving our efficiencies and quality from our existing equipment.”
Also expanding in 2014 is CPI’s hot melt laminating capacity. While partnering with ITW Dynatec once again, CPI’s hot melt spray laminating capabilities include 2 or 3 ply, add-on levels from ½ gsm to 25 gsm, widths up to 112”, inline slitting and particulate dispensing. Gorenc says, “With the success we were seeing from the Filtration and Industrial market places for lower add-on applications, we realized the need to expand our hot melt laminating capacity and update our technology.”
Brought online in September 2013 was another slitter/spooler with a valuable slitting feature. The slitting station was designed to allow for bringing in wide parent rolls (up to 52”) and slitting/ spooling accordingly. This feature allows the operator to pass back through any off cuts due to spool demand. This process saves time and money on pre slitting from the mill or at CPI.
“We saw this as a great opportunity to save our customers time and money,” says Gorenc. “That’s really why we are in business, to serve our customers by providing quality service, at a competitive price with innovative converting capabilities.”
www.convertedproducts.com
Independent Machine Co.
Independent Machine Co. (IMC) of Fairfield, NJ, U.S., specializing in converting machinery for almost 50 years, manufactures spooling systems ranging from single position offline traverse winders to inline integrated slitting and multi-position traverse winding systems. ICE, the contract converting arm of IMC offers the advantages of computerized spooling without the required capital investment. All ICE converting is done onsite utilizing Independent Machine Co. slitting and computerized traverse winding systems, which are the most highly regarded in the world offering the most accurate positioning and tension control available.
As nonwoven manufacturing processes are able to run faster the converted material that feeds those processes must run continuously with a minimum of splices and downtime. Traverse wound spools provide this capability and can accommodate miles of material in a single package allowing for longer production runs and less operator handling. In addition, the spools are easier to handle during shipping than conventional narrow, large diameter pads or pancakes.
For most narrow width webs the standard method of traverse winding is to move the material back and forth across the face of the core. However, if the nonwoven web is wider than 1.5” moving the spool under the fixed input of the material is preferable. The IMC Smartwinder-XL lateral movement eliminates skewing of the material, will ensure that the wide width web will lay flat and not distort in spool form. The Smartwinder-XL has a computerized microprocessor-based electronic traverse for pitch, stroke length, end dwell and winding pattern. Precise tension is speed controlled by the exclusive IMC Dancer/Tension Controller. The finished spool size varies according to the needs of the next operation [unspooling] or the handling capability of the spooling operation. Very often miles of material is traverse wound onto a single spool to feed the next operation without the need for splices and costly downtime. The integrity of the spool created by proper control of tension and selection of spool [or pattern] settings will ensure the success of the converted material in the unwinding application. ICE’s careful attention to tension, winding patterns and overall spool geometry is key to high quality finished spools.
The most advanced traverse winding technologies enables ICE to meet the needs of each customer. ICE computerized equipment and proprietary software provides an unlimited choice of spool shape, size and winding patterns as well as precise tension control. ICE offers a comprehensive range of spooling services for nonwoven materials.
www.independentusa.com; www.traversewinding.com
JX Nippon ANCI, Inc.
The benefits which JX Nippon delivers to our customers go beyond the products we manufacture. Our commitment to CLAF and Milife customers is demonstrated by our focus on providing a full line of complementary services and support. The company has developed a wide range of composites for a variety of end-uses. We also can assist in the specification, development, design and testing of just the right fabric. By combining dissimilar fabrics through lamination, our customers can offer a product combining the desirable attributes of multiple products in one composite material.
JX Nippon provides the following services to produce multi-layer laminated fabrics from nonwovens, films, scrims, paper, wovens and knits for a wide variety of applications: Thermal and ultra-sonic lamination and powder application (adhesive powder bonding; SAP or other powder application). We have years of experience working in multiple industries and can assist our customers with composite reinforcement selection and design; process evaluation and recommendation; as well as fabric and resin information and experience.
JX Nippon has designed and built fabrics across a variety of industries and applications including:
• filtration fabrics that combine polyester and polypropylene spunbond, carded, or meltblown fabrics and films
• food packaging composites, including fabrics used in food packaging
• fragrance pouches, heater packs, laundry pouches
• medical fabrics and materials for drapes, covers and mask parts
• cover fabrics including breathable/waterproof cover materials for consumer applications
• construction materials such as housewrap, roofing composites, radiant barrier composites
• and technical fabrics combining durability, wind and water resistance for consumer and industrial applications.
www.claf.com
Kleen Test Products Corporation
Kleen Test Products Corporation (KTP) is a high quality contract manufacturer and innovative developer of products found in the home cleaning, laundry and personal care categories at the retail level and related products for industrial applications. Areas of expertise include nonwoven products such as wet wipes, dryer sheets and die cut pads along with liquid, tube and jar filling and contract bulk blending. With over 70 years in business and a reputation as a product launch specialist, Kleen Test has been at the forefront of many notable product introductions.
Kleen Test Products Corporation recently announced the creation of a Nonwovens Innovation Center. The Milwaukee, WI facility houses a wide variety of nonwovens coating and converting equipment, from pilot scale to full production. Capabilities include basic converting as well as more advanced technologies such as multi-layer sonic bonding.
www.kleentest.com
Micrex Corporation
Micrex Corporation, Walpole, MA, U.S., is the developer and manufacturer of the Micrex/Microcreper family of compressive treatment machinery for nonwovens, paper, films, composites, and textiles. Companies worldwide use Micrex technology to add softness, bulk, drape, absorbency, extensibility, and stretch to a wide range of products.
Micrex expands upon its capabilities by providing product development through the Micrex Innovation Lab. This integrates with contract Microcreping services for those firms whose current needs do not yet require the purchase of a dedicated Micrex/Microcreper system. Micrex is prepared to support projects from initial development through large-scale production. All nine configurations of Micrex/Microcreper are available for contract production.
www.micrex.com
National Wiper Alliance
National Wiper Alliance (NWA) offers custom converting and private labeling of nonwoven dry wipes for a magnitude of industries. Products they produce can be found in aerospace, automotive, industrial, food service, hospitality, medical, government, military, janitorial, and retail industries. Through strong alliances with its customers, NWA has developed the reputation as the go to converter for dry wipe converting. Areas of expertise include developing new products to meet individual customers’ needs by offering custom packaging and private labeling options for all put ups of dry wipes. NWA works closely with roll good producers and small startup entrepreneurs in bringing new product ideas to market.
NWA is currently celebrating their one-year anniversary of moving into their new 500,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility located just outside Asheville, NC. The facility is located within a 2-day ship point to 85% of the U.S. population. NWA is proudly registered to ISO 9001:2008 standards.
Converting capabilities at the new location include: Slitting—maximum of 180 inches; inner folding; folding; sheeting; perforating—core and coreless; and printing—both inline and dedicated print lines.
Additional in-house services offered include: Full service customer service; product development; quality control department with product testing; warehousing; customer inventory management; and distribution and logistical support.
www.nationalwiper.com
Nonwovens of America
Nonwovens of America, Inc. (NOA), is located in Swannanoa, NC, and operates a 5.4-meter air-lay needle punch line and runs colors in a weight range of 3.5 ounces per square yard to 34 ounces per square yard. In addition to the needle punch line, NOA provides custom converting services which include a 10-color 99” wide rotary screen print line, heat set ovens, off-line coating, blanket lines, flame lamination, slitting and re-rolling. NOA offers toll converting services on the needle punch line as well as all other converting lines. The main areas of focus are automotive, retail, industrial and emergency blankets. NOA provides in-house customer service, product development, warehousing, logistics and distribution support.
www.nonwovensofamerica.com
NPS Nonwovens
NPS Nonwovens is a producer of meltblown, laminates, composite roll goods and other specialty fabrics using olefin polymers. Our company was formed to provide the industry with the innovative, high-quality fabrics that users demand in the marketplace.
Our state-of-the-art manufacturing process allows our product development team the flexibility to produce a wide variety of nonwoven fabrics and laminate combinations to meet your needs.
Our fabrics can be tailored to meet your specific requirements using various fiber and fabric combinations. These combinations can deliver superior breathability, stretch, and comfort to your end user.
Available meltblown fabrics include: Mono-layer; bi-laminate; tri-laminate; and elastomeric composites.
Converting capabilities include: Thermal bonding; ultrasonic bonding; adhesive lamination; micro-spanning; slitting; rewinding; cutting; and perforating
www.npscorp.com/nonwovens
Rockline Industries
Rockline Industries is the biggest and most diverse contract manufacturer of wet wipes worldwide. After nearly 40 years of relentless innovation and effort we are now an 1,800-employee global operation boasting the most diverse range of converting equipment in the business. The word “urgency” describes the sense with which we seek to earn recognition by our customers as the unmatched leader in contract manufacturing. This urgency involves five basic imperatives — Renew (invest all earnings in continuous improvement), Respect (treat others as we want to be treated); Integrity (do the right thing); Teamwork (individual goals are secondary to team goals); and Excellence (best in class). We don’t compromise integrity for financial gain. Our partnerships are managed with the utmost respect.
We embrace continuous change through product innovation and capital reinvestment and form a dedicated and passionate team from management on down. Our values are applied to all stakeholder relationships—from customers, associates, and suppliers on out to the communities at large whose needs we meet with uncompromising effort. We work every day to confirm just how much Rockline values each and every one of them. We think this is the only way to build and sustain the reputation we seek within the industry. In the words of our CEO Randy Rudolph, “We won’t make a product we wouldn’t buy for ourselves. We aim for the sweet spot. Rockline is big enough to give our customers the resources and vision of a global company, yet we are small enough to value each and every customer.”
Integrity: Every Rockline associate is asked, “Do what you think is right – every day.” These simple words can make for tough choices, but we’ll never stop trying to do the right thing. Our company has a reputation in the wipes industry, for example, of uncompromising integrity with respect to maintaining strict confidentiality to protect and preserve intellectual property for the ongoing business security of our customers.
Innovation: At Rockline, our core strength is the quality and innovation of our product. The focus of our contract manufacturing group is to deliver excellence in customer service by supporting our customers with cutting-edge product and packaging while strengthening our speed to market. This is supported by a winning combination of leading technical leadership along with the most diverse manufacturing platforms in the wet wipes industry. We listen, innovate and collaborate with our valued customers to deliver customer specific solutions that leverage our expertise in material, manufacturing and innovation.
Sustainabilty: We are committed to conforming to the realities of diminishing resources and increased populations. We are aggressively moving from fossil fuels toward clean, low carbon energy, designing waste and inefficiency out of our system, and embracing strategies like reuse, recycling, and energy recapture to reduce landfill use and waste water production. We strive for Ecological Intelligence in our end products, using less material where we can, and sourcing natural and recycled materials wherever possible. It is our commitment and passion to put our own reputation on the line every day, to measure and report our own progress so you don’t have to. That’s what sustainability means to us.
Values: Our values define us. They reinforce to all our stakeholders—customers, associates, suppliers and communities—just how much Rockline appreciates them. They allow us to build a value-based business and reputation within the industry at large. Within the contract manufacturing sector, they ensure that Rockline maintains a global recognition as the premier supplier in the industry, producing innovative solutions, ensuring mutually profitable partnerships and providing customers with important and trusted services that create lasting relationships.
www.rocklineind.com
Sandvik Hyperion
Sandvik Hyperion is a global leader in the rotary cutting function for the hygienic nonwovens market, providing customers with products and services for increased productivity. Sandvik Hyperion is a part of the Sandvik Group, which counts on 47,000 people all around the world and invests 5% of invoiced sales in R&D.
The cutting function is one of the critical operations of a converting line. Raising the efficiency by few tenths of percentage would mean saving thousands of dollars, due to less machine downtime, spare part optimization and waste reduction. This process starts with the design of the cutting unit and the understanding of the converting process; it continues with the manufacturing and in-house test of the cutting solution; it completes with the start-up and operators’ training; it follows through a regular maintenance and local assistance; it finishes with the recycling of obsolete components.
Sandvik Hyperion offers solutions throughout the complete product lifecycle.
Recent developments in the engineering phase are: extended vibration modelling and analysis to ensure stable and reliable cut at high speeds; Computed Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations to select the correct vacuum pump and design an efficient air system, depending on raw material porosity and machine speed; cutting profile optimization to increase the lifetime of the die; increased capabilities in raw material cutting tests to ensure a clean cut and thus reduce the risks of waste.
All those studies are translated into a suitable design of the cutting unit, adapted to the customer needs and matching the specific process conditions.
When it comes to the after sales service, Sandvik Hyperion shares its expertise with operators and process engineers, through specific trainings, start-up assistance and cutting function audits for continuous performance improvement.
Since 2013, Sandvik Hyperion has opened a new maintenance center in Brazil, which adds to the existing ones in Europe, North America and Asia.
Sandvik Hyperion offers also the recycling of carbide rotary cutters. Customers can benefit from the re-purchase of the carbide dies, thus reducing undesirable stock and helping the Sandvik Group to practice true sustainability, consume less energy and reduce carbon footprint.
www.hyperion.sandvik.com
Tufco Technologies, LLC
Tufco Technologies, based in Green Bay, WI, is a provider of turnkey contract manufacturing services. The facility is ISO 9001-2008 certified, and FDA and EPA approved. Capabilities include wide-web flexographic printing, adhesive laminations, wet and dry wipe manufacturing along with integrated packaging solutions.
Tufco’s modern, high-speed assets have the capability to produce wipes in flat packs, tubs, canisters and sachets. Tufco can also offer in-house formulation and blending.
Tufco has two wide-web flexographic printing presses that can print paper, films and nonwovens up to 61 3/4” wide with either water or solvent-based inks. Tufco has won many awards for flexographic printing and has a reputation for being able to work with difficult substrates. In addition to printing, Tufco can produce adhesive laminations up to 120 inches in web width with adhesive add-on rates from 1 to 30 gsm.
www.tufco.com
Web Industries
Continuing to focus on increasing capacity and adding capabilities to provide “Big Roll Converting” solutions for their clients, Web Industries is proud to announce its latest converting asset: a high-speed, wide-width converting line able to produce jumbo rolls of up to 60” OD by 80” wide. The jumbo rolls produced on this equipment will allow longer runtimes during manufacturing operations for the company’s customers. This line is located at Web’s Fort Wayne facility, which already houses some of the largest converting lines in the world.
“The ability to handle 60” OD rolls is an exciting addition to our existing large-format, high-speed slitting, spooling, and printing portfolio, and it offers our customers the ability to increase their operational efficiencies,” says James Oas, director of operations-consumer products market. “A 60” roll contains 57% more material in area than a 48” roll, and this increase can have a huge impact on client’s downstream manufacturing throughput.”
Web also provides high-speed wide-web (90” width and 48” OD) flexographic printing services with tight dimensional pattern registration and precision inline slitting. The company’s printing assets can handle complex graphics while controlling image bleed-through on nonwovens as light as 10gms at wide widths, giving customers the option of having their materials printed and slit and then spooled under one roof, eliminating unnecessary manufacturing steps while reducing overall costs.
Currently celebrating its 45th anniversary, Web Industries, Inc., is a leader in providing contract manufacturing, converting, and product development services for CPG companies. The company’s material and process expertise work to identify potential problems during product development cycles, and their behind-the-scenes outsource manufacturing experience quietly takes new products from prototype to commercial-scale rollout quickly, efficiently, and economically, providing the speed-to-shelf advantage that the market demands.
A pioneer in contract spooling services, Web Industries is the world’s largest and most diverse provider of spooling and specialized traverse winding services, featuring the widest array of spooling heads and configurations in the business. Web has over four decades of experience working with nonwovens, films and papers, foils, custom laminates, and foams, and the company specializes in developing optimized flexible material processing solutions in-house that deliver spooled and wound product onto custom-designed spools, planetary rolls, and pads for efficient, cost-effective product manufacturing
With over 35 adaptable converting/manufacturing lines, three development labs in six locations, and an outstanding track record of partner confidentiality and reliability, Web Industries is uniquely equipped to provide the speed-to-market advantage that CPG companies need.
www.webindustries.com