Buyukkaristiran Organized Industrial Zone
Muratli Yolu No. 16 39780
Lüleburgaz / Turkey
+90 288 436 2474
www.madalinefabric.com/en

A key executive at Turkish nonwovens producer Mogul Nonwovens has established a subsidiary to boost Mogul's microfilament technology, with a concentration on the converted dry wipe, or cleaning cloth, market. Asterion hopes to challenge the reusable microfiber wipes market, which is traditionally comprised of woven rags, and open up new opportunities for nonwovens.

Mogul Nonwovens invested in unique microfilament technology with a high throughput production line commercialized at the beginning of the last year. The investment made Mogul one of just two nonwoven producers, globally, to have such a high capacity and patented production line in-house.

Mogul is marketing its microfilament technology under the Asterion brand name and has established a separate subsidiary for the product.

When used in the cleaning wipes market, Mogul’s microfilament technology, which is known as Madaline, performs well when cleaning dust and dirt commonly found in industry, light and heavy manufacturing and professional cleaning. Featuring microfilaments 100 times thinner than a human hair, Asterion wipes are a cost-effective, convenient and portable tool for spot cleaning and wiping irregularly shaped surfaces.

“The cleaning industry is basically fragmented into two major distinct applications, one is the disposables and the other is washable,” says Enver Kayali, president of Asterion Global. “The disposables can be named as paper-based multi use wipers and man-made fibers (spunlace), etc. In the washable segment, the products are textile scraps/rags, terry towels and microfibers. The nonwovens industry supplies to the disposable side of the industry and almost has no presence in the washable side.”

Asterion, however, can be washed up to 300 times at temperatures between 30-60 degrees Celsius without degradation of strength, shape or surface, and can also be washed at up to 95 degrees C for the hospital and institutional applications. Other benefits of Asterion include lint-free, binder-free and high absorption.

Also, with unique endless filaments, Asterion dry wipes, in addition to difficult and sensitive surfaces, offer an ideal solution to clean or dry glass and painted surfaces. The endless filaments ensure dimensional strength and stability while ensuring safe, scratch-free, smear-free and lint-free wiping.

The microfilament fabric possesses a special structure, which is strong in all directions. Asterion  wipes do not lose their shape or uniformity even after heavy use or multiple wash cycles. Also, Asterion does not leave particles behind during cleaning that could contaminate the environment. 

Asterion has already proven to work well with Diversey industrial detergent agents and currently almost 40 Diversey agents are delivering Asterion to the major hotels, hospitals, restaurants, cleaning service companies (like ISS) in Turkey alone, and the Asterion business is growing consistently under the responsibility of a former Diversey and Ecolab professional.

“The commonly known cleaning cloths or dry wipes are complementary products of the detergents, and the competitive price level and cleaning performance has been the strength of Asterion that we observed in the Turkish market against traditional microfiber cleaning clothes, mainly imported from China. With this ambitious startup, I will be striving to structure a similar business model for Asterion on a global basis to the markets of the U.S., China, Europe and the rest of the world,” Kayali says.

Calling the success of Asterion a win for the nonwovens market in general, he adds, “I believe the high throughput of the Madaline line will bring competitiveness and therefore success to gain the business. And personally, I believe the material is filling the gaps between nonwoven wipers and woven microfiber cleaning cloths.”