Techtextil 2022 Preview

Techtextil 2022 will return to Messe Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany, where it will be held June 21-24 in conjunction with Texprocess. Top international decision-makers can expect a diverse and innovative product range at Techtextil and Texprocess from more than 1000 registered exhibitors from 45 countries. Many joint stand participants and 12 international country pavilions round off the variety of products on offer. Strongly represented at Techtextil are, among others, the offerings for the application areas of construction, mobility, health, protection, as well as apparel for sports, medicine and functional clothing. Texprocess will feature the latest machinery, equipment, processes and services for processing apparel and textiles from various product groups such as CAD/CAM, cutting, textile finishing, sewing and embroidery technology or product preparation and finishing. Important aspects include digitalization and efficiency improvements.

“Since the last edition of Techtextil and Texprocess in 2019, many exhibitors have invested intensively in the research and development of their products. They can now finally present their new products and innovations to customers, decision-makers and the public,” explains Michael Jänecke, director, Brand Management Technical Textiles & Textile Processing.

At the last edition of Techtextil in 2019, 42,500 visitors came from 105 countries with an international participation of 63%.

The following is a look at what some companies will be exhibiting in Frankfurt next month.

AndritzHall 12.0  Booth B99

Andritz Asselin-Thibeau designs and manufactures integrated production lines that include inline and/or crosslaid carding, spunlace, needlepunch, and thermal, chemical, or through-air bonding. All lines can be equipped with a supervisory control assistance system, including production recipes. The product portfolio includes equipment for several levels of performance, depending on local market size, fabric weight, production speed, final application, and maintenance requirements. Brands like eXcelle, aXcess, ProDyn, ProWid or ProWin have set a worldwide benchmark for quality and ensure that customers always find exactly the right technology for their individual demands.

Sharing this booth will be Andritz Nonwoven, one of the world’s leading suppliers of technologies for the nonwovens and textile finishing industry. Its key competences lie in technologies for air-through bonding, airlay, needlepunch, spunlace, spunbond, wetlaid/Wetlace, converting, textile finishing, recycling, and bast fiber processing.

Andritz Küsters (based in Krefeld, Germany), founded in 1953, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of nonwoven and textile technologies. The company looks back on a successful history in calendering and wet finishing processes for the nonwoven and textile industries, with more than 2500 calenders and 24,000 deflection-controlled rolls sold worldwide.

On display will be original Andritz Wetlace technology, which combines wet forming and hydroentanglement. This tried-and-tested process has proven ideal for producing flushable wipes from 100% natural and/or renewable raw materials without chemical binders.

The Andritz Wetlace technology incorporates contradictory properties. The process behind the core solution to provide excellent web uniformity blends the web on the inclined wire and bonds it mechanically in the hydroentanglement unit. This process results in superior web uniformity and product quality. The final strength is achieved by mechanical bonding of the web via hydroentanglement, which ideally complements the wetlaid technology by entangling fibers without any chemical binders or thermoplastic fibers.
www.andritz.com

AS NonwovensHall 12.1  Booth B10

Akınal Sentetik (AS Nonwovens), which was established in 1999, is Turkey’s first spunlace nonwoven fabric manufacturer. With its more than 1000 employees based in Gaziantep, it continues its activities on a total area of 450,000 square meters with a closed area of 200,000 square meters and also has production facilities in Talin, Estonia. It exports to more than 65 countries on five different continents.

With the slogan ‘Nonwovens for Life,’ AS Nonwovens has taken its place among the world’s largest nonwoven producers by reaching production capacity of more than 135,000 tons per year with investments in different production technologies both in hygiene and technical textiles.

The company offers spunlace, spunbond roofing bituminous membrane, needlepunched, wetlace (biodegradable product), air through bonded  and  meltblown technologies in its facility. Akınal produces for hygiene, medical, automotive, filtration, footwear, cleaning wipe and industrial areas. Finishing process like chemical coating, powder scatter, velour, needle combine loom, stitch bond dipping, singeing and calendering, dot coating, shearing line, lamination, printing, cut and folding and various finishes can be applied.

Also, in the group company Koza Polyester is Turkey’s second virgin polyester staple fiber producer with one of the largest capacities in Europe in terms of staple fibers. Koza Polyester started-up its production activities at the end of 2013. In addition, the company is addressing and meeting the tailor made requests of fiber users such as: apparel, home textile, wide range nonwovens productions and products, filling applications (wadding, padding), etc. Its annual production capacity is 120,000 tons of virgin polyester fiber. 
www.asnonwovens.com.tr

Autefa SolutionsHall 12.0  Booth D85

Autefa Solutions Nonwoven Technology is a full-line supplier for all leading nonwoven technologies, starting from bale opening, to carding, crosslapping, needling, hydroentangling and thermal bonding, up to finished products on a one stop shopping basis. The company combines the technology of the former companies Fehrer, F.O.R, OCTIR, Autefa and Strahm. Autefa Solutions nonwovens lines meet customers’ requirements for quality web formation, bonding, active weight regulation, and minimal maintenance requirements. Besides the complete equipment, Autefa Solutions’ scope of supply comprises comprehensive engineering services, including start-up and production support, as well as guarantees for quality and capacity. Autefa Solutions Fiber Logistic Technology offers the entire range from fiber transport to the baling press, as well as bale transport and storage of the finally pressed, wrapped and strapped bales in bale warehouses. Highest efficiency of fiber production is only granted by consequent automation of a fiber line.
www.autefa.com

DiloHall 12.0  Booth B95

Since the formation of Dilo System Group, over 350 complete lines have been supplied worldwide. DiloSystems is the engineering partner for a customer’s production needs and offers any staple fiber web forming and consolidation technology. The company is specialized in the field of needling technology but also supplies complete lines for thermobonding (calendering and thermofusion) or water-entangling together with partners. DiloSystems engineers lines for any type of fiber, working width, weight and field of application including floor and wall coverings, household wipes, personal and baby care wipes, medical and cosmetic products, synthetic leather, mattress and bedding pads, technical felts for automotive applications, heat and sound insulation, geotextiles, filtration felts, paper machine clothing felts and any other staple fiber application. Virtually any type of fibrous material may be processed on card and crosslapper web forming lines or aerodynamic web forming machines: man-made fiber such as polypropylene, polyester, polyacrylic, polyamide, polyaramid etc., man-made mineral fiber such as carbon, glass, rock wool, and ceramic or natural fiber such as flax, hemp, jute, kenaf, curaroa, sisal, coir fiber, cotton and wool.

DiloSystems engineers the special lines including production calculation and quality definition. Its quotations for the whole line package include: machine hardware and electrical installation for synchronization, automation and line operation. The computer controls with graphic menu screens include software features for highly efficient production, operation and maintenance. Storage is provided for production recipes, access levels for production and service and error messages.

A complete line installation from DiloSystems has many advantages. DiloSystems not only coordinates the manufacturing and delivery of excellent machinery, but also assures professional training and service during installation, start-up and the maintenance cycle of the equipment.
www.dilo.de

Don & LowHall 12.1  Booth B58

Don & Low is a U.K.-based, and internationally renowned, manufacturer of innovative, high performance woven and nonwoven PP & PE technical textiles. Its international success has been based on an outstanding reputation for quality, developing new technology and customer service. As a market leader in the manufacture of technical textiles, embracing change has become a way of life within Don & Low and its products cover a wide range of applications including, but not limited to: roofing and wall membranes, primary and secondary backings, geosynthetics, horticultural textiles, medical fabrics and sports products.

As part of the Thrace Group, solutions can be found in a variety of markets and applications, globally including floor coverings, geosynthetics, construction, horticulture, filtration, medical and more.
www.donlow.co.uk

EmtecHall 12.0  Booth E35

Testing device manufacturer emtec Electronic, will present the TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer, a specialized measuring solution for measuring the haptic of textiles and nonwovens. Because of its singular design and unique measuring principle, the TSA is poised to replace traditional means for measuring the haptic parameters softness, smoothness and stiffness, as well as deformation and recovery behavior. This includes methods such as hand-panel testing, in which many tactile experts compare and rank material samples, often in a series of tests. Some of the drawbacks to this method include the length of time needed and the subjective results. Humans are rarely able to distinguish between haptic parameters, and can only provide an overall impression of a material’s hand-feel. In addition, due to its analog nature, the results of hand panel testing usually have to be manually digitalized. 

In comparison, the Tactile Sensation Analyzer allows companies to easily and objectively measure the haptic of textiles with the click of a button. The results have been shown to correlate very closely with the human tactile perception and are available within minutes in digital form. 

“Textiles and nonwoven specialists looking to improve their process efficiency—and still maintain a high quality—need tools that save them time and resources,” says Alexander Grüner, global marketing and business development manager at emtec. “The TSA helps by quickly and reliably providing measurement data to find the right mix of haptic traits for a product in less time.” 
www.emtec.de

Farè SpaHall 12.0  Booth C97

Farè is a worldwide leader supplier of complete range of machines for spunbond, composites, meltblown, nonwovens and staple fibers.

Farè can offer: spunbond, meltblown and composite lines, monocomponent and bicomponent, up to six beams covering all market applications from hygienic to geotextile.

They can process several polymers for production of bicomponent from sheath-core to segmented pie for thermobonding, hydroentangling and through-air bonding.

Additionally, Farè offers fiber lines - Short (one-step) and Long spinning (two-step) for PP and PET staple fiber for all applications (mono and bicomponent) from light weight to the geotextile field. These lines can process recovered PET obtaining fine and heavy denier fiber quality as produced with virgin raw material.
www.farespa.com

Fibertex NonwovensBooth 12.1  Booth B03

Fibertex Nonwovens is the leading global partner in innovative performance-based materials and nonwovens solutions.

The company will present new and next level sustainable product properties. In 2022, the company is investing $100 million in new spunlace technology in the U.S. and Europe. Spunlace is a good tool not only to complement Fibertex’s existing technology platform (needlepunch, spunlace and thermal bonding) but also reinforcing the need for more sustainable products in the lower weight range targeting speciality applications within wipes and personal care.

With these investments, the company wants to position Fibertex as a market leader within the market for wipes, personal care, filtration and industrial end-uses.

Fibertex offers more than high-performance materials to its customers in more than 70 countries. It also offers strong partnerships that include access to in-depth industry knowledge and a best-in-class technological platform with production facilities in Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, Turkey, the U.S., South Africa and Brazil.
www.fibertexnonwovens.com

Hills, Inc. Hall 12.0  Booth E70

Hills, Inc., a world leader in multi-component fiber extrusion technology, is planning to present its latest innovations in fiber extrusion equipment technology. Hills’ unique polymer distribution and metering can be used in all nonwovens processes: spunbond, meltblown and staple fibers. Hills will be showcasing a number of samples and sustainable products that have been produced on Hills lines including:

• High Island Count Islands-In-The-Sea Fibers
• Nanofiber Meltblown webs (HEPA, ULPA, etc.)
• High Spinning Speed Spunbond
• Lofty (bulky) Spunbond
• Stretchy SB without Elastomeric Polymer
• Microfiber Spunbond
• Logo Fibers

www.hillsinc.net

Hoftex GroupHall 12.1  Booth D83

Within the Hoftex Group, Tenowo manufacturers nonwovens for a number of technical applications. The company works with its customers and partners to develop sustainably innovative nonwoven solutions that improve the quality of people’s lives. Tenowo uses innovative nonwoven products and services and generates indispensable added value for its customers and partners. Tenowo links its requirements with its technological range, the worldwide production base and the wealth of experience of its employees.
www.tenowo.com

hydroWEBHall 12.1  Booth E24

HydroWEB is a producer of bi-component spunlace and spunbond nonwovens. With the market and production knowledge of over 20 years, hydroWEB is offering products to individual customer needs. The company’s BiCo filaments offer endless solutions in many areas.
www.hydroweb.com

Indorama VenturesHall 9.1  Booth D05

Indorama Ventures is one of the world’s leading petrochemical producers, with a global manufacturing footprint across Europe, Africa, Americas, and Asia-Pacific. The company’s portfolio comprises combined PET, integrated oxides and derivatives, and fibers. Indorama Ventures’ products serve major FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and automotive sectors, i.e., beverages, hygiene, personal care, tire and safety segments. Indorama Ventures has approx. 26,000 employees worldwide and consolidated revenue of $14.6 billion in 2021.

Indorama Mobility Group (IMG), a business unit under the Indorama Ventures (IVL) Fiber division, was formed in 2019 following successive strategic acquisitions of PHP Fibers, Performance Fibers, Glanzstoff, Kordarna Plus and UTT Technische Textilien, combining decades of industry knowledge and experience, as well as the brand equity of each company accumulated over the years in the technical yarn and fabrics.

The group operates into three main markets, namely Tire, Automotive Safety and Functional Materials, where it has built leading market positions over the years, and delivering best customer value with its unified go-to-market strategy, aligned global manufacturing assets and combined product portfolio. Its product offer includes fibers, yarns, single-end cord and fabrics based on Polyester, Polyamide, Rayon and Aramid hybrid, as well as new products like Enka TecTape and Breathair. Through its R&D activities, the group also developed a pipeline of innovative solutions aiming at a safer and more sustainable mobility globally.

Indorama Hygiene Group was established to harness the wealth of technical knowledge and expertise of six Indorama Ventures companies, specializing in the Hygiene and Technical arena. With extensive expertise in performance fibers and nonwovens development and production, Auriga, Avgol, FiberVisions, IVL Asia, Trevira and Wellman International are all leaders in their fields and pioneers in their respective markets. Serving multiple applications within the hygiene and technical space, including baby and personal care, femcare, filtration, automotive and insulation, sustainability and innovation are at the core of group effort and expertise.

Wellman International, leading European provider of recycled polyester fiber has been supporting the market for over 50 years, with sister companies Trevira and Auriga also offering a range of  rPET products. When recycling may not be possible, Avgol and Fibervisions can support biodegradable nonwoven and fibers solutions, through recently launched Biotransformation technology. For rPET and PET, biodegradation solutions, when appropriate,  are also offered by Auriga and Wellman utilizing CiCLO technology. The combination of sustainable polymers, technologies and global reach which this unified group of companies can offer, uniquely positions them to support the hygiene and technical sectors towards a sustainable future.
www.indoramaventures.com

Kansan MachineryHall 12.0  Booth D43

Kansan Materials was established to supply complete wetlaid nonwoven lines and web forming technologies for the manufacturing of fully dispersible, biodegradable and environmentally friendly, sustainable materials for wet wipes, hygiene, filtration, healthcare, automotive, construction and insulation industries to answer the increasing demand for sustainable raw materials.

Kansan Materials’ wetlaid production line consists of a headbox unit, hydroentanglement unit, a dewatering system, an air-thru dryer and a slitter winder, developed, designed, engineered and manufactured by Kansan.

A wide range of natural and unnatural fibers can be used in the wetlaid process such as cotton, wool, hemp, jute, coconut, viscose fibers, fibers from PET, PP, aramid, carbon, glass, wood, ceramics and metal. The wetlaid technology allows the use of a combination of various fibers at the same time.

Kansan Materials provides energy-saving high-efficiency systems. The heat recovery system and facility heating are some of the engineering marvels of the Kansan R&D team.

Heat Recovery System: To dry the web in the Air-Thru Dryer, clean air at ambient temperature is heated up to 180°C by burning natural gas. The heated air is then expelled as flue gas at the exhaust after the recirculation in the machine. If the temperature of clean air at the inlet of the machine can be increased then the natural gas energy consumed will decrease.

The flue gas can be mixed with clean air before the inlet at the heat exchanger. The clean air can be heated up to 60-70°C before entering the dryer. This way a significant amount of heat energy is recovered.

Facility Heating: The facility heating and air conditioning work similarly as explained in the heat recovery system. The heated air coming out of the dryer can heat the main water of the facility with the help of a heat exchanger by extending the installation path.

It can also be used to heat the facility environment bypassing certain paths throughout the facility. By heating the mains water, energy saving can be achieved for the hot water to be used in the facility’s toilets and kitchens.
www.kansanmak.com

Mogul NonwovensHall 12.1  Booth D41

Mogul offers PP spunbond, PET spunbond (mono and bico), spunlace (parallel and cross lap), meltblown (including SMS), microfilament and extrusion coated fabrics.

The company’s Madaline Bico microfilament hydroentangled fabric uses state-of-the-art patented bico technology with unique filament designs that are sheared and subjected to high pressure water jets to simultaneously fibrillate and entangle and consolidate the microfilaments. Microfilaments are up to 100 times thinner than a human hair which is the key to Madaline’s unique properties. Its dense structure provides very good barrier and filtration properties. Thanks to its microfilament structure, it is very absorbent, but quick to dry, and breathable (good moisture management) and washable. It also exhibits very good thermal insulation, wind resistance and UV protection. This unique technology provides very smooth fabric hand that is closest to textiles with excellent dye capability, excellent durability and no “Velcro” effect.

Madaline fabrics can be used for a wide range of different applications such as: clothing (sportswear, leisure wear, uniforms and workwear), home textiles, industry, digital large-format printing media for signs and advertising and printed labels, mattress covers, dry wipes and towels (sports towels, industrial cleaning cloths), filtration, technical packaging, sun protection (tents, shelters, awnings, truck covers) and window blinds, coating substrates and synthetic leather backing, all covering, automotive applications (interior seat covers), acoustic insulation for cars and building applications.

Meanwhile, Dynetex is a cross lap spunlace made from UHMWPE. With Dynatex, Mogul provides products with ballistic and stab protection. They can be used to make protective footwear, security forces clothes (military-police), gloves, climbing, cycling, anti-vandal products and protectors for a wide range of industries. In shoemaking, safety shoes can be produced by using this product instead of steel. Also, it is a product that can be used in the mattress industry as it has a cooling effect.

Metatex is a cross lap spunlace made from meta and para-aramid and blends. Metatex provides a range of high-grade fabrics that answer the market’s needs for a lightweight material applied in thermal clothing. These fabrics can be used in firefighter protective clothing and rubber reinforcements. From protective clothing to automotive hoses and filtration systems the possibilities are very wide ranging. It provides a longer lifetime for automotive hoses, industrial felt, filtration bags, and other products that operate in severe heat conditions.
www.mogulsb.com