Jayden Liu, technical application manager Danson Science and Technoloy and Ian Davenport, president Davenport International Associates jointly presented their findings on fluffless Chinese diapers and how they compare to both traditional diapers and U.S. fluffless diapers in performance.
Danson, is a Chinese manufacturer of superabsorbent polymers, that was formed in 2011 to bring an improved SAP product to the market. The company has two specific SAP grades, DSORD 8930 and DSORD 8060, for fluffless diaper applications. It operates a pilot machine where it experiments with making diaper cores using different types of nonwovens and compares the performance of different types of pulp.
Chinese flufflless diapers use two layers of SAP surrounding a fiber layer. While the absence of an acquisition and distribution layer has resulted in a high leakage rate, these diapers are significantly thinner, two to three millimeters or 40-50% than conventional diapers and have a higher retention rate.
Danson tested two U.S. diapers and two Chinese diapers to assess these differences and found that right now the current Chinese designs are not well suited to the current preferences of the U.S. market, Liu says, but the U.S. market should look to Chinese designs for inspiration if it seeks to reduce the amount of fluff in diapers.
Currently, Chinese diaper manufacturers are gaining marketshare to international brands, with the percentage of locally made diapers comprising about 38% of the market last year, compared to 30% in 30. However, the field of manufacturers is extremely crowned with about 800 Chinese manufacturers making 2000 brands.