Among the largest durable markets for nonwovens, roofing and construction materials are a crucial part of the structure of homes and buildings. Nonwovens deliver durable, cost-effective and efficient solutions for house and building wrap, roofing underlayment, window flashing, flooring, insulation, and other products.

Despite economic uncertainties over the last year brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic, nonwovens suppliers to the roofing and construction market are expressing optimism. While some major cities and regions shut down construction projects early on in the pandemic, the market is beginning to rebound.

Bijan Mansouri, principal engineer, Typar Building & Construction, Berry Global, says that at the beginning of the pandemic everyone was concerned about the economy and the messages from customers were mixed. “But to our own surprise, three to four months into the pandemic we were actually getting more orders than we ever imagined. We had one of our best years in 2020, and 2021 and beyond looks very promising. The construction industry is really booming.”

The pandemic encouraged people in highly populated areas to move out to less populated areas, and as a result there’s been much more construction, Mansouri adds. “The fact that interest rates are really low is also encouraging a lot of people to buy a home.”

For the construction industry, Berry Global manufactures polypropylene spunbond under the Typar brand, including Typar BuildingWrap, Typar MetroWrap, Typar DrainableWrap as well as Typar Flashings and Tapes. Another brand called Surround VR is used as a synthetic roofing underlayment. “We provide the whole building envelope in the construction industry,” Mansouri says.

Typar BuildingWrap provides a crucial protective barrier to help protect homes against air and moisture intrusion. BuildingWrap also eliminates drafts in the wall, which helps reduce energy costs.

Meanwhile, Typar MetroWrap is used for commercial projects from multi-family dwellings and light commercial projects to large commercial structures. According to Mansouri, MetroWrap is designed to be subject to more weathering. While BuildingWrap has six months of UV protection, which he says is still far beyond a majority of the products that are on the market, MetroWrap features 12 months of UV protection. “Our product is one of the thickest in building wraps, but the MetroWrap it is about 30% thicker,” he explains. “When it comes to water holdout, we’re still four times higher than the leading competition, but with the MetroWrap, it’s about six times higher.”

Nonwovens offer many advantages for the roofing and construction industry. One of the unique properties of nonwovens is its durability, Mansouri says. “Nonwovens in particular tend to cover more area, they tend to come in different forms, different diameters, different shapes, so it gives you that durability that you would need in a building wrap.”

Typar in particular is a very unique product, he says, because it consists of two layers—one layer is a nonwoven and the other is a special coating on top of it—a microporous coating to give it ultimate water holdout, ultimate air efficiency and breathability.

Freudenberg Performance Materials
Freudenberg Performance Materials produces and develops high-tech nonwovens, as well as composites, for the roofing and construction industry. In the roofing market, Freudenberg offers a wide range of high performing carrier materials for bituminous and polymer coated membranes, nonwovens and three-dimensional entangled composites for roof ventilation, anti-condensation for uninsulated metal roofs and green roof systems and components. Solutions for the construction industry include acoustic floor insulation, geotextiles and geogrids for the reinforcements of roads and railways, drainage of buildings and soil and many other products to protect the buildings and infrastructural objects.

Most of its nonwovens are manufactured using 100% post-consumer recycled PET that contributes to limit the consumption of natural resources and guarantee a reduced environmental impact, or are made of polymer-based yarns and fibers. “We have a very broad technology platform to provide innovative materials,” says Frank Heislitz, CEO, Freudenberg Performance Materials. “Besides the one step production process, we can manufacture polyester nonwovens with a unique two steps process solution, allowing us to be even more flexible. Thanks to our state-of-the-art technologies, our experts are able to manufacture highly functional materials for even the most demanding requirements.”

According to Heislitz, the construction industry is one of the sectors that can contribute more to the saving of natural resources, through improved energy efficiency of buildings and using products that can guarantee a reduced environmental impact all over their life cycle. “Freudenberg helps improve sustainability around the world by minimizing its footprint and maximizing the handprint,” he adds.

Freudenberg’s nonwovens made of recycled polyester from post-consumer PET bottles help to save natural resources. This in turn means fewer CO2 emissions, less waste and reduced consumption of water. Today, Freudenberg converts an estimated 7 million post-consumer PET bottles into polyester nonwovens every day. “At Freudenberg we are constantly striving to find new ways to make our processes and products more sustainable. This is part of our DNA,” he says.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the construction industry everywhere is facing difficulties and challenges. “Nevertheless, even in past crises, the construction segment has experienced a proven countercyclical and multiplier function, thanks to the generation of ‘spin-off’ effects that can create jobs, thus contributing to the recovery of local economies, and to tax incentives issued by the single governments,” Dr. Heislitz says.

In 2021, thanks also to the global Covid-19 vaccine campaign, Freudenberg expects a potential rebound phase, linked to the completion of projects, frozen during the lockdowns of the past months, and to investments in public buildings.

“Surely there will be an increasing attention on the sustainability and green projects, considered a strategic trend, aimed at reducing energy consumptions and environmental impact and at developing more and more eco-friendly products,” he continues. “In spite of this economic uncertainty and the different situation of the economies of world countries, the market of nonwovens continues to develop products able to add value to the final user.”

Lydall Technical Nonwovens
Lydall Technical Nonwovens produces many building material components including a roofing fleece. This fleece is a nonwoven, needlepunched polyester with reinforcement specially designed for compatibility with the PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) resins compounds. This fleece is used as reinforcement in flashing systems, membrane systems and surfacing systems.

According to Lydall, in the U.S., building managers are solving difficult roofing challenges by using PMMA cold liquid-applied roofing systems. PMMA roofing systems have been popular in Europe and on the East Coast of United States for many years, but the company is now seeing increasing sales all over the country. Generally, PMMA flashings are installed as a composite structure of polyester fleece reinforcement between two layers of PMMA polymer encapsulation. The PMMA will adhere to most common building materials, including concrete, masonry, metals and plastic. Its quick curing and ease of application provide a very rapid seamless, reinforced, waterproof termination. Today several American manufacturers are now producing their own PMMA resins, which will increase the demand of the roofing fleece in the United States, Lydall says.

Lydall Technical Nonwovens also produces an acoustical flooring underlayment known as Ecoduo. This acoustical nonwoven is made from the best quality recycled polyester fibers available on the market. The Ecoduo has a vapor barrier, which meets the industry requirements for floor moisture protection and is resistant to molds and mildew.

According to Lydall, in the flooring industry, there’s nothing better for acoustical abatement than carpet, and the deselection of carpet throughout the years for hard surface flooring has generated an increased demand to solve the noise problem related to hard flooring materials. As the hard surface flooring market continues to grow, this trend is bringing pressure on specifiers and owners to find solutions to bring down the noise. They now have a wide range of tools at their disposal, from construction material selection and design of the space to acoustical ceilings, textured walls and enhancements of flooring and subfloor system. The use of acoustical nonwoven underlayment can help to dampen sound transmission, the company says.

Beckmann Converting
Throughout the 30 plus years that Beckmann Converting has been laminating roll goods, applications in the roofing and construction industry have always been a part of the customer base. The company has been experiencing a surge in activity in this field since mid-2020, and expects a host of new high volume projects heading into production before the end of 2021. Due to the materials that are often part of the specialty products involved, bonding them into laminates presents unique challenges.

“The multiple layer laminate ‘packages’ that are more common in the roofing and construction industries are difficult to bond using ultrasonic bonding technology,” states Ray Piascik, manager of marketing and sales for Beckmann Converting. “One or more of the layers typically are thicker and stiffer than the materials used in other applications, and this can be problematic.”

Piascik explains that the stiffer materials will pass through the ultrasonics equipment more like a board than like flexible textiles. If not managed well, this condition will dissipate the energy throughout the material rather than concentrate it on the raised “pins” of the anvil roll to create specific bond points. The team at Beckmann has figured out the adjustments that are needed to the processes in order to achieve adequate bonding between the layers without causing other problems such as pinholes. “The challenges are worth the effort because, if successful, the finished product often delivers high value benefits in performance and sustainability,” he adds.

The ultrasonic bonding process does not introduce any additional materials to the laminate beyond the various layers in the design, including adhesives or other chemistries. This makes ultrasonic bonding a truly “green” laminating process. Further, because the bond points are a very small percentage of the overall area of the finished product, most of the material in each layer remains available to deliver the performance it is intended to give.

Beckmann Converting is seeing a sharp increase in new product development from its customers in roofing and construction. The rebound expected in construction projects following the lulls during the pandemic seem to have caused product manufacturers to evolve their offerings. “Construction was one of the first industries to ‘pause’ as the pandemic became a reality, but it was also one of the first to begin to reopen,” offers Piascik. “The uncertainty of the economic impact on construction projects is still unfolding, but it seems the industry is preparing for whatever paths lie ahead.”