Tara Olivo, Associate Editor03.10.22
Shortages of meltblown nonwovens at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 set off an unprecedented rate of investment in the material over the past two years. As governments around the globe scrambled to acquire face masks, respirators and meltblown material—a key layer in those products—nonwovens producers and newcomers to the industry began to on-shore manufacturing of these items, which had been predominately produced in Asia pre-Covid. Today, as dozens of new meltblown lines have come onstream around the globe, supply is exceeding demand.
The meltblown nonwovens market was a much smaller market at the start of the pandemic than it is today. According to The Future of Meltblown Nonwovens to 2026, a dedicated study on this market segment published by Smithers in Q4 2021, in 2019 Smithers estimated the global meltblown market at 207,400 metric tons; in 2020 it ballooned to 367,800 metric tons. The main end uses in 2019 were filtration (excluding face masks): 44.1%, sorbents (mainly oil): 16.9%, and insulation (both acoustic and thermal): 13.9%.
In 2020, this changed to face masks: 33.1%, other medical: 16%, and filtration: 26.7%. In 2022, Smithers forecasts filtration: 42.2%, insulation: 15.4%, sorbents: 15.1%, and face masks: 10%.
In 2019, demand for face masks was about 14,400 metric tons, while in 2020 it was 121,800 metric tons and today it is estimated at 26,600 metric tons, according to Phil Mango, consultant – Nonwovens, Smithers. “While this is only about 22% of the demand for face masks in 2020, it is about 185% of the demand in 2019. We forecast face mask demand to remain above historical demand through 2026.”
Qualitatively, Smithers considered the global meltblown supply and demand to be relatively balanced pre-pandemic, in 2019. “Today, supply is significantly higher than demand,” Mango adds. “While some investments may be warranted due to government incentives to ‘on-shore’ and/or stockpile ‘strategic’ materials, most are not warranted.”
According to Enrico Buriani, CEO, Advanced Textile Solutions-Nonwovens, RadiciGroup, meltblown volumes were not particularly huge prior to the pandemic—they were 5% of the worldwide total amount of nonwovens. In Europe, meltblown production was mainly dedicated to applications in industrial sectors, such as filtration, but not for face masks. “Then, in 2020, meltblown manufacturers switched a consistent part of their production to satisfy the demand for protective equipment, besides investing in new production units,” he says. “Later, also newcomers, such as RadiciGroup, decided to approach this market.”
Today, Buriani says there is an oversupply of meltblown even though not all the production lines that were installed during the pandemic are capable of complying with the most demanding qualities, such as those ones destined to FFP2/FFP3, or the industrial filtration sector.
RadiciGroup announced its investment in a production line for meltblown nonwovens in January 2021. Maurizio Radici, the company’s vice president and COO, cited the lack of meltblown production in Europe as one of the reasons the company invested in the technology.
RadiciGroup’s state-of-the-art meltblown line was supplied by Oerlikon Nonwovens. “The line is extremely sophisticated and flexible,” says Buriani. “The line is provided with two extruders and that gives a high throughput in combination with the possibility of setting different process conditions in the two beams and, consequently, to obtain two meltblown layers with a balance of features and characteristics.”
Additionally, apart from polypropylene, the line was designed for using several other polymers such as polyester, polyamide and TPU. It is also possible to generate composites of several layers of spunbond and meltblown, SMSMS being the most complicated one. The applications RadiciGroup is targeting include HVAC, cabin air filters, liquid filtration, oil absorbency, medical, hygiene and protective apparel.
The new line, a €15 million investment, was set up at Tessiture Pietro Radici SpA, a group company based in Gandino (Bergamo), Italy.
For its part, Israeli nonwovens producer Avgol announced a three-tier investment in 2021 at its Uzlovaya, Russia, site to enhance its role in existing markets and to help it expand into new areas. The expansion includes a Reicofil 5 production line, a meltblown line as well as a new line offering cutting-edge lamination capabilities.
“Avgol Industries 1953 LTD, like many similar companies, found ourselves in a pinch at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic,” explains Nick Carter, vice president, Nonwovens Marketing at Avgol. “Our focus at that time was not heavily into pursuing meltblown-only products, instead being more familiar in the production of components for absorbent hygiene products. As we looked at how to pivot against the domestic needs, we had to get a bit inventive in our initial solutions.”
The materials Avgol first introduced met the immediate needs expressed by the market and are continuing to evolve into new versions that meet yet higher levels of performance, appropriate at all levels of filtration, whether for person protection or standalone filtration applications, he adds.
Avgol has taken a multi-stage approach to the introduction of meltblown materials. Beginning at its facility in Israel with first generation capability, it has since continued in both its learning and its new production line developments to create more capacity for higher performing material. Carter says this higher performing capacity is completing commissioning and will be announced in the respective regions.
“The first-generation capabilities necessarily required that we use equipment we could quickly access, as the line of folks for new machinery purchases grew exponentially,” he continues. “We took our many years of experience in adapting equipment to meet our needs, combined with our understanding of producing meltblown, to create the initial commercial offering.”
Overall, for face masks and respirators, Carter says the demand remains strong, though, he adds, the price point has naturally suppressed from better managed stocks, backfilling of replenished stocks and increased capacity. “While certain markets, such as that in China, have supersaturated with producers of meltblown, the demands for consistent quality and achieving better recyclability/sustainability will continue to create opportunities for the forward-leaning meltblown producer.”
In Europe, Neenah, Inc., last month announced a €25 million investment in new meltblown capacity in its German filtration facility. The company is targeting growth in life science and industrial filtration markets. According to the company, its portfolio of meltblown products promotes higher filtration efficacy and lower energy usage. Neenah’s electrostatically charged NeenahPure media solutions support HVAC, air pollution control, and air purification systems, delivering market leading efficiencies >99.9%.
“Clean air and water are critical to our communities and environment. Meltblown technology effectively removes harmful particles from the air we breathe and the water we drink. This new meltblown line intensifies our innovation efforts and allows us to continue to grow with our customers,” says president and CEO Julie Schertell.
While this investment provides an opportunity for new growth, Neenah says it also supports the needs of its existing customers. The new meltblown line is expected to be online in mid-2024.
Elsewhere in Europe, Irema, headquartered in Ireland, also increased meltblown capacity in response to demand during the pandemic. Irema develops a progressive layered meltblown to achieve low pressure drop while achieving high levels of filtration.
From its meltblown nonwoven fabric, Irema produces Facemate Irema branded face masks as well as OEM surgical and respirator masks for medical use. The company also manufactures air filter media used in the manufacture of HVAC air filters, and air filters – all to international standards.
Irema was one of the few companies still manufacturing surgical face masks in Europe before Covid-19 hit, according to Sean Cooke, strategic development manager, Irema. “The company employed 44 people producing 36 million surgical face masks and 1.2 million respirator masks per annum under both the Facemate brand and as a contract manufacturer for companies such as TE Connectivity and other blue chip companies,” he says.
At the outbreak of Covid-19, the company extended capacity by moving to a 24/7 week and investing in additional production lines. Employment increased to 180 people and output capacity is now over 200 million surgical face masks and 28 million FFP2/FFP3/N95 respirators per annum. Irema also doubled its meltblown production output; in 2020, the company added an additional meltblown machine in order to create the nonwoven media for its face masks.
“Much of the additional meltblown investments were specifically made to service the face mask filter media demand,” says Cooke. “Irema spent time developing air filtration at this time as indicators led us to heightened awareness of the need for significant improvements in indoor air quality systems. These will have to be serviced with air filters and Irema is primed and ready for this market.”
From Cooke’s perspective, demand for meltblown is still high because health services in countries are changing their guidelines and encouraging people to wear medical and surgical face masks. “For example, it is law in Germany, Italy and Austria for people to wear FFP2 masks previously worn only in surgical procedures. In Ireland, surgical or FFP2 masks are recommended for those who tested positive for Covid-19 and their close contacts. Since December 2021, FFP2 masks must be worn in all patient-facing healthcare settings—not just operating theaters.”
As the world progresses towards endemic status, he expects demand to be higher than it was in 2019 as, outside of government guidelines, some people will prefer to wear masks to be as safe as possible.
In Turkey, nonwovens producer Mogul added its fifth and sixth meltblown lines targeting medical and industrial face masks. Both lines make electrostatic charged meltblown capable of making N95 and higher efficiency masks as well as high efficiency filtration applications and other industrial applications. Before the Covid-19 pandemic Mogul had been manufacturing meltblown since 2000, targeting sorbents (spill control), filtration, wipes, medical and dust bags, according to CEO Serkan Gögüs.
“Currently still there’s a demand, less compared 2020 peak time, but [it] still exists,” he says. “Also, due to transport issues, there’s still a shortage of supply from Asia, so when the pandemic is over and Asia starts supplying finished products again to the U.S. and EU, we’ll see the real picture. This will create a lot of overcapacity and many idle lines. There will always be a certain demand for masks, the spill control market will continue as before, wipes as usual, filtration as usual, but this capacity pressure will either push players to find new markets or some lines will go idle.”
Meanwhile, in North America Kimberly-Clark produces meltblown, used in filtration media for N95 respirators and industrial grade wipes, and spunbond nonwovens, a critical component in many disposable hygiene products.
Throughout the pandemic, Kimberly-Clark acted as an essential business, ensuring consumers had access to its essential products, according to Lori Shaffer, vice president of Kimberly-Clark’s Global Nonwovens business. This, she says, resulted in investments in its Global Nonwovens business such as its $140 million investment in the company’s Corinth, MS, nonwovens facility in 2020.
“Meltblown capacity has increased significantly over the past two years as we brought our recent investments online to address rising demand for products that require the properties it provides, including apparel, respirators and sanitizing wipes,” Shaffer says. “In periods of capacity expansion, it is not uncommon for supply to outpace demand, but given the sustained healthy growth rates in these categories, supply and demand will equalize over time. In the meantime, it is likely that this new capacity will be leveraged to fuel growth in new categories.”
During the pandemic Kimberly-Clark began to produce National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-certified N95s respirators domestically at its LaGrange, GA, manufacturing facility. The company initially manufactured respirators to help protect its global manufacturing employees when the Covid-19 pandemic first started, Shaffer says. “The work took place on an accelerated timeline—going from concept to production in a record 45 days. We expanded production to make these non-medical respirators available for our customers who serve essential infrastructure workers outside of healthcare (i.e., pharma, manufacturing, etc.),” she adds.
Looking Ahead
While much of the meltblown investment over the last couple of years was intended to meet the needs of face masks and respirators, nonwovens producers have been looking to other categories for growth.
Beyond face masks, Smithers see some opportunities for meltblown in air filtration, fuel filtration and sorbents.
“In general, many air filtration applications are upgrading due to Covid as well as growing air quality concerns,” says Mango.” Meltblown has the smallest pore size of all nonwovens and can be electrostatically charged, making them capable of removing more and finer particulates.”
As companies around the world prepare for employees to return to the office, Cooke of Irema confirms there has been a huge increase in demand for air filters and filter material for HVAC systems. “Facilities managers always wanted to ensure building air is clean to protect the workers, but Covid has made this vital,” he says. “The filter material quality is more important than it used to be and Irema’s filter media complies with all international standards and regulations.”
Cooke expects growth to continue for meltblown nonwovens, and the company added another meltblown line in anticipation of increased demand for air filter media, and with the reduction in demand for face mask media, the company’s air filter media production has doubled in the last 12 months.
Meanwhile, in response to growing demand for industrial-use meltblown nonwovens, Mitsui Chemicals announced last month it is expanding its production facilities for meltblown at its wholly owned subsidiary Sunrex Industry Co., Ltd., in Yokkaichi, Mie, Japan. The investment will boost Mitsui Chemicals Group’s overall meltblown capacity by 30%. Mitsui also expanded its meltblown capacity by 50% at Sunrex in January 2021, which also responded to demand for the substrate in industrial applications.
As part of Mitsui’s new Vision 2030 Long-Term Business Plan, the Japanese producer will be positioning nonwovens as a growth business under Life & Healthcare Solutions in the revised portfolio. Mitsui Chemicals is therefore looking to supply nonwovens not only as sanitary materials for products like disposable diapers, but also as industrial materials for a variety of applications.
Products targeted toward this end will include Tafnel, which can be used as an oil-adsorbing material, a structural material for automotive seats and a civil engineering material; Syntex, a structural material for filters and masks, and other such high-quality nonwovens. In particular, Syntex nano – a brand consisting of superfine fibers – is expected to find use in products such as highly advanced precision filters.
For Kimberly-Clark, a significant application for meltblown outside of face masks and respirators is pre-saturated wipes for cleaning and disinfecting hard surfaces. “Meltblown is compatible with a variety of chemicals and provides a good balance of strength and cleaning efficiency, making it a logical choice for this application,” says Shaffer.
The company’s Kimberly-Clark Professional brand (KCP) recently entered the pre-moistened surface disinfection wipes category, borrowing technologies from its consumer baby wipes business and knowledge of the dry wipers market. Scott 24 Hour Sanitizing Wipes are the first wipes on the market to maintain surface sanitization for a full 24 hours, killing 99.9% of bacteria, even after multiple touches.
From a raw materials perspective, KCP developed the liquid formulation completely internally, and in the development process, the company tested the formulation with both KC developed substrates and externally-sourced substrates. The solution is delivered via KCP’s own meltblown-based wipe treated with its own proprietary blend of chemistry that minimizes quat binding.
Scott 24 Hour Sanitizing Wipes are ideal for easily wiping surfaces and helping to continuously protect high-touch surfaces such as door handles, elevator buttons, keypads, keyboards, countertops, airplane armrests, gym equipment, school desks, etc.
The meltblown nonwovens market was a much smaller market at the start of the pandemic than it is today. According to The Future of Meltblown Nonwovens to 2026, a dedicated study on this market segment published by Smithers in Q4 2021, in 2019 Smithers estimated the global meltblown market at 207,400 metric tons; in 2020 it ballooned to 367,800 metric tons. The main end uses in 2019 were filtration (excluding face masks): 44.1%, sorbents (mainly oil): 16.9%, and insulation (both acoustic and thermal): 13.9%.
In 2020, this changed to face masks: 33.1%, other medical: 16%, and filtration: 26.7%. In 2022, Smithers forecasts filtration: 42.2%, insulation: 15.4%, sorbents: 15.1%, and face masks: 10%.
In 2019, demand for face masks was about 14,400 metric tons, while in 2020 it was 121,800 metric tons and today it is estimated at 26,600 metric tons, according to Phil Mango, consultant – Nonwovens, Smithers. “While this is only about 22% of the demand for face masks in 2020, it is about 185% of the demand in 2019. We forecast face mask demand to remain above historical demand through 2026.”
Qualitatively, Smithers considered the global meltblown supply and demand to be relatively balanced pre-pandemic, in 2019. “Today, supply is significantly higher than demand,” Mango adds. “While some investments may be warranted due to government incentives to ‘on-shore’ and/or stockpile ‘strategic’ materials, most are not warranted.”
According to Enrico Buriani, CEO, Advanced Textile Solutions-Nonwovens, RadiciGroup, meltblown volumes were not particularly huge prior to the pandemic—they were 5% of the worldwide total amount of nonwovens. In Europe, meltblown production was mainly dedicated to applications in industrial sectors, such as filtration, but not for face masks. “Then, in 2020, meltblown manufacturers switched a consistent part of their production to satisfy the demand for protective equipment, besides investing in new production units,” he says. “Later, also newcomers, such as RadiciGroup, decided to approach this market.”
Today, Buriani says there is an oversupply of meltblown even though not all the production lines that were installed during the pandemic are capable of complying with the most demanding qualities, such as those ones destined to FFP2/FFP3, or the industrial filtration sector.
RadiciGroup announced its investment in a production line for meltblown nonwovens in January 2021. Maurizio Radici, the company’s vice president and COO, cited the lack of meltblown production in Europe as one of the reasons the company invested in the technology.
RadiciGroup’s state-of-the-art meltblown line was supplied by Oerlikon Nonwovens. “The line is extremely sophisticated and flexible,” says Buriani. “The line is provided with two extruders and that gives a high throughput in combination with the possibility of setting different process conditions in the two beams and, consequently, to obtain two meltblown layers with a balance of features and characteristics.”
Additionally, apart from polypropylene, the line was designed for using several other polymers such as polyester, polyamide and TPU. It is also possible to generate composites of several layers of spunbond and meltblown, SMSMS being the most complicated one. The applications RadiciGroup is targeting include HVAC, cabin air filters, liquid filtration, oil absorbency, medical, hygiene and protective apparel.
The new line, a €15 million investment, was set up at Tessiture Pietro Radici SpA, a group company based in Gandino (Bergamo), Italy.
For its part, Israeli nonwovens producer Avgol announced a three-tier investment in 2021 at its Uzlovaya, Russia, site to enhance its role in existing markets and to help it expand into new areas. The expansion includes a Reicofil 5 production line, a meltblown line as well as a new line offering cutting-edge lamination capabilities.
“Avgol Industries 1953 LTD, like many similar companies, found ourselves in a pinch at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic,” explains Nick Carter, vice president, Nonwovens Marketing at Avgol. “Our focus at that time was not heavily into pursuing meltblown-only products, instead being more familiar in the production of components for absorbent hygiene products. As we looked at how to pivot against the domestic needs, we had to get a bit inventive in our initial solutions.”
The materials Avgol first introduced met the immediate needs expressed by the market and are continuing to evolve into new versions that meet yet higher levels of performance, appropriate at all levels of filtration, whether for person protection or standalone filtration applications, he adds.
Avgol has taken a multi-stage approach to the introduction of meltblown materials. Beginning at its facility in Israel with first generation capability, it has since continued in both its learning and its new production line developments to create more capacity for higher performing material. Carter says this higher performing capacity is completing commissioning and will be announced in the respective regions.
“The first-generation capabilities necessarily required that we use equipment we could quickly access, as the line of folks for new machinery purchases grew exponentially,” he continues. “We took our many years of experience in adapting equipment to meet our needs, combined with our understanding of producing meltblown, to create the initial commercial offering.”
Overall, for face masks and respirators, Carter says the demand remains strong, though, he adds, the price point has naturally suppressed from better managed stocks, backfilling of replenished stocks and increased capacity. “While certain markets, such as that in China, have supersaturated with producers of meltblown, the demands for consistent quality and achieving better recyclability/sustainability will continue to create opportunities for the forward-leaning meltblown producer.”
In Europe, Neenah, Inc., last month announced a €25 million investment in new meltblown capacity in its German filtration facility. The company is targeting growth in life science and industrial filtration markets. According to the company, its portfolio of meltblown products promotes higher filtration efficacy and lower energy usage. Neenah’s electrostatically charged NeenahPure media solutions support HVAC, air pollution control, and air purification systems, delivering market leading efficiencies >99.9%.
“Clean air and water are critical to our communities and environment. Meltblown technology effectively removes harmful particles from the air we breathe and the water we drink. This new meltblown line intensifies our innovation efforts and allows us to continue to grow with our customers,” says president and CEO Julie Schertell.
While this investment provides an opportunity for new growth, Neenah says it also supports the needs of its existing customers. The new meltblown line is expected to be online in mid-2024.
Elsewhere in Europe, Irema, headquartered in Ireland, also increased meltblown capacity in response to demand during the pandemic. Irema develops a progressive layered meltblown to achieve low pressure drop while achieving high levels of filtration.
From its meltblown nonwoven fabric, Irema produces Facemate Irema branded face masks as well as OEM surgical and respirator masks for medical use. The company also manufactures air filter media used in the manufacture of HVAC air filters, and air filters – all to international standards.
Irema was one of the few companies still manufacturing surgical face masks in Europe before Covid-19 hit, according to Sean Cooke, strategic development manager, Irema. “The company employed 44 people producing 36 million surgical face masks and 1.2 million respirator masks per annum under both the Facemate brand and as a contract manufacturer for companies such as TE Connectivity and other blue chip companies,” he says.
At the outbreak of Covid-19, the company extended capacity by moving to a 24/7 week and investing in additional production lines. Employment increased to 180 people and output capacity is now over 200 million surgical face masks and 28 million FFP2/FFP3/N95 respirators per annum. Irema also doubled its meltblown production output; in 2020, the company added an additional meltblown machine in order to create the nonwoven media for its face masks.
“Much of the additional meltblown investments were specifically made to service the face mask filter media demand,” says Cooke. “Irema spent time developing air filtration at this time as indicators led us to heightened awareness of the need for significant improvements in indoor air quality systems. These will have to be serviced with air filters and Irema is primed and ready for this market.”
From Cooke’s perspective, demand for meltblown is still high because health services in countries are changing their guidelines and encouraging people to wear medical and surgical face masks. “For example, it is law in Germany, Italy and Austria for people to wear FFP2 masks previously worn only in surgical procedures. In Ireland, surgical or FFP2 masks are recommended for those who tested positive for Covid-19 and their close contacts. Since December 2021, FFP2 masks must be worn in all patient-facing healthcare settings—not just operating theaters.”
As the world progresses towards endemic status, he expects demand to be higher than it was in 2019 as, outside of government guidelines, some people will prefer to wear masks to be as safe as possible.
In Turkey, nonwovens producer Mogul added its fifth and sixth meltblown lines targeting medical and industrial face masks. Both lines make electrostatic charged meltblown capable of making N95 and higher efficiency masks as well as high efficiency filtration applications and other industrial applications. Before the Covid-19 pandemic Mogul had been manufacturing meltblown since 2000, targeting sorbents (spill control), filtration, wipes, medical and dust bags, according to CEO Serkan Gögüs.
“Currently still there’s a demand, less compared 2020 peak time, but [it] still exists,” he says. “Also, due to transport issues, there’s still a shortage of supply from Asia, so when the pandemic is over and Asia starts supplying finished products again to the U.S. and EU, we’ll see the real picture. This will create a lot of overcapacity and many idle lines. There will always be a certain demand for masks, the spill control market will continue as before, wipes as usual, filtration as usual, but this capacity pressure will either push players to find new markets or some lines will go idle.”
Meanwhile, in North America Kimberly-Clark produces meltblown, used in filtration media for N95 respirators and industrial grade wipes, and spunbond nonwovens, a critical component in many disposable hygiene products.
Throughout the pandemic, Kimberly-Clark acted as an essential business, ensuring consumers had access to its essential products, according to Lori Shaffer, vice president of Kimberly-Clark’s Global Nonwovens business. This, she says, resulted in investments in its Global Nonwovens business such as its $140 million investment in the company’s Corinth, MS, nonwovens facility in 2020.
“Meltblown capacity has increased significantly over the past two years as we brought our recent investments online to address rising demand for products that require the properties it provides, including apparel, respirators and sanitizing wipes,” Shaffer says. “In periods of capacity expansion, it is not uncommon for supply to outpace demand, but given the sustained healthy growth rates in these categories, supply and demand will equalize over time. In the meantime, it is likely that this new capacity will be leveraged to fuel growth in new categories.”
During the pandemic Kimberly-Clark began to produce National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-certified N95s respirators domestically at its LaGrange, GA, manufacturing facility. The company initially manufactured respirators to help protect its global manufacturing employees when the Covid-19 pandemic first started, Shaffer says. “The work took place on an accelerated timeline—going from concept to production in a record 45 days. We expanded production to make these non-medical respirators available for our customers who serve essential infrastructure workers outside of healthcare (i.e., pharma, manufacturing, etc.),” she adds.
Looking Ahead
While much of the meltblown investment over the last couple of years was intended to meet the needs of face masks and respirators, nonwovens producers have been looking to other categories for growth.
Beyond face masks, Smithers see some opportunities for meltblown in air filtration, fuel filtration and sorbents.
“In general, many air filtration applications are upgrading due to Covid as well as growing air quality concerns,” says Mango.” Meltblown has the smallest pore size of all nonwovens and can be electrostatically charged, making them capable of removing more and finer particulates.”
As companies around the world prepare for employees to return to the office, Cooke of Irema confirms there has been a huge increase in demand for air filters and filter material for HVAC systems. “Facilities managers always wanted to ensure building air is clean to protect the workers, but Covid has made this vital,” he says. “The filter material quality is more important than it used to be and Irema’s filter media complies with all international standards and regulations.”
Cooke expects growth to continue for meltblown nonwovens, and the company added another meltblown line in anticipation of increased demand for air filter media, and with the reduction in demand for face mask media, the company’s air filter media production has doubled in the last 12 months.
Meanwhile, in response to growing demand for industrial-use meltblown nonwovens, Mitsui Chemicals announced last month it is expanding its production facilities for meltblown at its wholly owned subsidiary Sunrex Industry Co., Ltd., in Yokkaichi, Mie, Japan. The investment will boost Mitsui Chemicals Group’s overall meltblown capacity by 30%. Mitsui also expanded its meltblown capacity by 50% at Sunrex in January 2021, which also responded to demand for the substrate in industrial applications.
As part of Mitsui’s new Vision 2030 Long-Term Business Plan, the Japanese producer will be positioning nonwovens as a growth business under Life & Healthcare Solutions in the revised portfolio. Mitsui Chemicals is therefore looking to supply nonwovens not only as sanitary materials for products like disposable diapers, but also as industrial materials for a variety of applications.
Products targeted toward this end will include Tafnel, which can be used as an oil-adsorbing material, a structural material for automotive seats and a civil engineering material; Syntex, a structural material for filters and masks, and other such high-quality nonwovens. In particular, Syntex nano – a brand consisting of superfine fibers – is expected to find use in products such as highly advanced precision filters.
For Kimberly-Clark, a significant application for meltblown outside of face masks and respirators is pre-saturated wipes for cleaning and disinfecting hard surfaces. “Meltblown is compatible with a variety of chemicals and provides a good balance of strength and cleaning efficiency, making it a logical choice for this application,” says Shaffer.
The company’s Kimberly-Clark Professional brand (KCP) recently entered the pre-moistened surface disinfection wipes category, borrowing technologies from its consumer baby wipes business and knowledge of the dry wipers market. Scott 24 Hour Sanitizing Wipes are the first wipes on the market to maintain surface sanitization for a full 24 hours, killing 99.9% of bacteria, even after multiple touches.
From a raw materials perspective, KCP developed the liquid formulation completely internally, and in the development process, the company tested the formulation with both KC developed substrates and externally-sourced substrates. The solution is delivered via KCP’s own meltblown-based wipe treated with its own proprietary blend of chemistry that minimizes quat binding.
Scott 24 Hour Sanitizing Wipes are ideal for easily wiping surfaces and helping to continuously protect high-touch surfaces such as door handles, elevator buttons, keypads, keyboards, countertops, airplane armrests, gym equipment, school desks, etc.