10.03.24
Converting companies are an integral part of the nonwovens supply chain. For all of the advantages the industry’s products provide, a lot has to happen prior to their end use. Nonwovens need to be cut into a variety of shapes and sizes, scaled down to become a single-use product, as well as printed, packaged and more. Sometimes the process is simple, and sometimes more complex, with converting companies using the latest technology to add value to products and make them easier to use. The following is a compilation of capabilities and services of some the nonwovens industry’s leading converters.
In late 2023, the company made a significant investment to upgrade its primary laminating machine with the latest ultrasonic technology. Beckmann Converting leadership collaborated with engineers from Herrmann Ultrasonics, Inc., at their North American headquarters in Bartlett, IL, to create a hardware and controls software solution to fit the unique operating requirements of a laminating converter. Results over the first 12 months have exceeded expectations.
Finished laminate is more consistent in bond quality across the entire web. Gains are being realized in efficiency and productivity. Equipment maintenance disruptions and costs have been reduced, as well. The company intends to migrate this ultrasonics technology upgrade across its other laminating equipment.
When it comes to web handling for both raw materials and finished laminate, Beckmann Converting takes more of a continuous improvement approach. As controllers, motors, rolls, and other components require maintenance, they are either refurbished or replaced to incorporate additional capabilities to meet changing requirements. The company’s goal is to improve its ability to manage and correct for issues that might be present in raw materials such as bagginess, wrinkles and inconsistent basis weights, among others, before ultrasonic bonding takes place. Further, finished laminate needs to be slit, wound up and packaged in ways that customers specify.
Beckmann Converting, Inc., recently added a new bonding pattern to its portfolio. With a unique bond point shape and pattern, the “CC” roll provides another option for customers needing high inter-ply adhesion for their applications. This special pattern creates a bonded area close to 10% of the full laminate web, and also has an interesting and appealing appearance which can be important when material surfaces are visible to end users and consumers.
Two examples of products that could benefit from the CC roll pattern are industrial wipers and car covers. Composite materials in applications such as these typically have two to four layers of the same, or different, textiles. The higher bonded area, which can be problematic in other applications such as filtration, is a plus in the final performance of these products.
The U.S.-based company converts continuous, wide web, roll-to-roll customer owned technical materials into multiple layer high performance textile composites. Ultrasonic laminating lines process raw materials up to 126 inches wide with finished product incorporating two to seven layers of nonwovens, films, knits, wovens, meshes and other materials. Beckmann Converting operates on a fully registered ISO9001:2015 Quality Management Program.
The company website contains multiple tools to support people in new product development roles. The Virtual Swatchbook, supplemented by a hardcopy Laminating Sampler, enables the customer to learn details about options for their products with ultrasonic laminating. https://www.beckmannconverting.com/resources/virtual-swatchbook/
www.beckmannconverting.com
CPI’s slitting capabilities include score, shear, razor, single knife and rotary, in widths ranging from 1⁄8 to 136 inches along with experience in a wide variety of flexible materials. CPI also offers a full-service Quality department performing on-site analysis, certifications and reports to meet a wide array of industry needs.
Recently CPI acquired an additional duplex center slitter rewinder and 17-position spool winder. Along with these assets, CPI teamed with Muse Food Safety Solutions to develop and implement an HAACP (Hazzard Analysis Critical Control Point) food packaging plan. Combining the additional line time with an HAACP food packaging plan allows for increased productivity and assurance that quality standards required for this market are met or exceeded.
“Today’s customers desire rapid turnaround and on-demand response time,” says CPI president and founder Chris Gorenc. “Investing in new equipment, maintaining a quality work force, and providing personal customer service prove to our partners that we are committed to meeting their needs. The additional equipment and our HAACP food packaging plan are great additions to our already robust list of services.”
Continuous improvement is a staple of CPI’s ever-evolving capabilities.
The new duplex center slitter features a 72” max width, a 32”max rewind OD, 54” max unwind OD, and differential rewinding. The 17-position spool winder includes an 18” spool width and 20” max OD, 40” max unwind. It is capable of sheer, razor and score cutting along with level and/or taper winding.
CPI is a fixture in the contract converting market and serves a wide array of industries both domestically and globally. CPI is ISO 9001:2015 certified and offers slitting/rewinding, hot melt laminating and spool winding.
www.convertedproducts.com
It has continued its world-wide expansion in 2024 with a new baby diaper manufacturing site in Reidsville, NC, creating 300 jobs. The 430,000-square-foot plant is Drylock Technologies’ second U.S. site and 10th globally. The investment is part of Drylock’s strategy to follow its customers, answering the increasing demand for baby care products among its valued North American customers.
Seven years ago, the Belgium-based hygiene specialist began U.S. production of adult incontinence products in Eau Claire, WI, with a multi-million-dollar investment. With the current establishment of baby diaper manufacturing in the U.S., Drylock will be able to deliver innovative solutions even more swiftly and efficiently and provide its U.S. clients with unparalleled speed to market.
“In 2023, we reached in excess of €1.2 billion in sales, but we’re eager to keep growing,” says CEO Bart Van Malderen.
By continuously exploring market trends, listening to its customers, and building long-term partnerships, Drylock creates opportunities and makes the way for an innovative and sustainable future.
drylocktechnologies.com
Fox Converting has process development experts. The company helps its customers with superior process development and improved process controls. Fox Converting has assisted customers in developing innovative manufacturing processes to produce improved paper product around the world.
www.foxconverting.com
KTP’s core values of safety, quality and customer service ensure that it delivers the highest quality products for its customers each and every production run. This commitment to quality has allowed KTP to maintain long-term customer relationships, some for more than 50 years. And to keep its customers coming back, KTP continues to invest in upgrading and automating manufacturing facilities, increasing production capacity and improving delivery and shipping logistics. Additionally, KTP continually provides safety and technical training for its employees.
KTP’s focus on manufacturing high-quality products to meet or exceed customer expectations has kept it at the forefront of contract manufacturing for 80 years. And its continued investment in its people and its facilities has positioned KTP for growth and business success for the future. KTP truly delivers on its corporate promise: ‘Your brands, in trusted hands.’
www.kleentest.com
Contract Microcreping is at the core of its business. Running a wide range of materials improves Micrex’s grasp of market needs and informs its R&D. As Micrex has no product except its technology, the company will never be a competitor to its contract converting customers
Micrex performs product development through the Micrex Innovation Lab. This integrates with contract Microcreping services for those firms whose current needs do not yet require the purchase of a dedicated Micrex/Microcreper system. Micrex is prepared to support projects from initial development through large scale production. All configurations of Micrex/Microcreper are available for contract production.
No-cost lab scale screening trials are available to qualified customers. For information about this program please see: http://micrex.com/screening-trials/
www.micrex.com
National Wiper Alliance has built its reputation over the years through its customer-centric focus and unparalleled service.
National Wiper Alliance is registered to ISO 9001:2015 standards and maintains their site registrations with EPA, FDA and recently completed NSF Supplier Assurance Packaging certification.
Contact sales@nationalwiper.com for inquiries.
www.nationalwiper.com
“For consumer packaged goods, brands must maintain manufacturing speed and efficiency to protect profitability,” says Ed Martins, vice president of Web’s Industrial & Consumer business unit. “The biggest consumer product companies trust Web’s wide-format slitting, spooling, printing, and supply chain management solutions. We’re enabling those companies to achieve scale, speed, and optimized production across a wide range of personal hygiene, home care, and packaging products.”
Another challenge for these companies is finding cost-competitive efficiencies from reliable domestic suppliers who can keep market channels stocked regardless of global conditions. That’s where Web Industries’ unmatched converting scale, innovative slitting/spooling formats, and wide-width multi-color flexographic printing options can provide real business advantages.
“Web has some of the largest converting lines in the world, and we’ve developed highly-automated solutions for producing large format and extra-large-format spooled output,” Martins continues. “Spooled slit materials offer significant runtime advantages versus traditional slit pads, and Web’s largest spools provide twice the capacity of regular spools.”
Backed by years of expertise, Web’s proprietary spooling design optimizes tension control to convert thinner, extensible, and high-loft nonwovens with precision while maintaining material integrity.
For brands looking to secure their manufacturing base through onshoring, Web’s co-located converting and printing operations simplify the process of rationalizing a regionalized supply chain.
www.webindustries.com
Athea Laboratories
With nearly 60 years of experience, Athea Laboratories is a leader in private label wet wipe and liquid manufacturing and packaging. Athea’s expertise and experience give customers an extensive variety of product formulas to serve numerous end user markets with a private labeled product. As an EPA and FDA facility, Athea’s manufacturing capabilities include custom wipe converting, custom formula development, blending services, on-site chemists, formula-substrate compatibility testing, graphics, and technical support. Athea can offer customers a turnkey solution to their private label needs at low minimums.
www.athea.com
Beckmann Converting
Beckmann Converting, Inc., is a toll converter delivering ultrasonic laminating services to its customers who design and make textile products for diverse industries and applications. As novel, more sustainable raw materials become commercially available, multiple layer composite solutions are gaining in popularity with product designers. While these innovative media can better meet the needs of end users, they often introduce new web handling and bonding challenges during the laminating process.In late 2023, the company made a significant investment to upgrade its primary laminating machine with the latest ultrasonic technology. Beckmann Converting leadership collaborated with engineers from Herrmann Ultrasonics, Inc., at their North American headquarters in Bartlett, IL, to create a hardware and controls software solution to fit the unique operating requirements of a laminating converter. Results over the first 12 months have exceeded expectations.
Finished laminate is more consistent in bond quality across the entire web. Gains are being realized in efficiency and productivity. Equipment maintenance disruptions and costs have been reduced, as well. The company intends to migrate this ultrasonics technology upgrade across its other laminating equipment.
When it comes to web handling for both raw materials and finished laminate, Beckmann Converting takes more of a continuous improvement approach. As controllers, motors, rolls, and other components require maintenance, they are either refurbished or replaced to incorporate additional capabilities to meet changing requirements. The company’s goal is to improve its ability to manage and correct for issues that might be present in raw materials such as bagginess, wrinkles and inconsistent basis weights, among others, before ultrasonic bonding takes place. Further, finished laminate needs to be slit, wound up and packaged in ways that customers specify.
Beckmann Converting, Inc., recently added a new bonding pattern to its portfolio. With a unique bond point shape and pattern, the “CC” roll provides another option for customers needing high inter-ply adhesion for their applications. This special pattern creates a bonded area close to 10% of the full laminate web, and also has an interesting and appealing appearance which can be important when material surfaces are visible to end users and consumers.
Two examples of products that could benefit from the CC roll pattern are industrial wipers and car covers. Composite materials in applications such as these typically have two to four layers of the same, or different, textiles. The higher bonded area, which can be problematic in other applications such as filtration, is a plus in the final performance of these products.
The U.S.-based company converts continuous, wide web, roll-to-roll customer owned technical materials into multiple layer high performance textile composites. Ultrasonic laminating lines process raw materials up to 126 inches wide with finished product incorporating two to seven layers of nonwovens, films, knits, wovens, meshes and other materials. Beckmann Converting operates on a fully registered ISO9001:2015 Quality Management Program.
The company website contains multiple tools to support people in new product development roles. The Virtual Swatchbook, supplemented by a hardcopy Laminating Sampler, enables the customer to learn details about options for their products with ultrasonic laminating. https://www.beckmannconverting.com/resources/virtual-swatchbook/
www.beckmannconverting.com
Converted Products
Converted Products, Incorporated (CPI) has been operating for over 30 years and remains a leader in the contract converting industry. CPI’s services include wide width, high speed slitting, hot melt laminating, traverse (spool) winding, rotary and flatbed die cutting, warehousing/logistics and product/process development. Certified in ISO 9001:2015, Converted Products’ 160,000 square foot facility is located on the northwest side of Milwaukee, WI.CPI’s slitting capabilities include score, shear, razor, single knife and rotary, in widths ranging from 1⁄8 to 136 inches along with experience in a wide variety of flexible materials. CPI also offers a full-service Quality department performing on-site analysis, certifications and reports to meet a wide array of industry needs.
Recently CPI acquired an additional duplex center slitter rewinder and 17-position spool winder. Along with these assets, CPI teamed with Muse Food Safety Solutions to develop and implement an HAACP (Hazzard Analysis Critical Control Point) food packaging plan. Combining the additional line time with an HAACP food packaging plan allows for increased productivity and assurance that quality standards required for this market are met or exceeded.
“Today’s customers desire rapid turnaround and on-demand response time,” says CPI president and founder Chris Gorenc. “Investing in new equipment, maintaining a quality work force, and providing personal customer service prove to our partners that we are committed to meeting their needs. The additional equipment and our HAACP food packaging plan are great additions to our already robust list of services.”
Continuous improvement is a staple of CPI’s ever-evolving capabilities.
The new duplex center slitter features a 72” max width, a 32”max rewind OD, 54” max unwind OD, and differential rewinding. The 17-position spool winder includes an 18” spool width and 20” max OD, 40” max unwind. It is capable of sheer, razor and score cutting along with level and/or taper winding.
CPI is a fixture in the contract converting market and serves a wide array of industries both domestically and globally. CPI is ISO 9001:2015 certified and offers slitting/rewinding, hot melt laminating and spool winding.
www.convertedproducts.com
Drylock Technologies
Drylock Technologies is a leading manufacturer of hygiene products, protecting people and the environment through continuous innovation.It has continued its world-wide expansion in 2024 with a new baby diaper manufacturing site in Reidsville, NC, creating 300 jobs. The 430,000-square-foot plant is Drylock Technologies’ second U.S. site and 10th globally. The investment is part of Drylock’s strategy to follow its customers, answering the increasing demand for baby care products among its valued North American customers.
Seven years ago, the Belgium-based hygiene specialist began U.S. production of adult incontinence products in Eau Claire, WI, with a multi-million-dollar investment. With the current establishment of baby diaper manufacturing in the U.S., Drylock will be able to deliver innovative solutions even more swiftly and efficiently and provide its U.S. clients with unparalleled speed to market.
“In 2023, we reached in excess of €1.2 billion in sales, but we’re eager to keep growing,” says CEO Bart Van Malderen.
By continuously exploring market trends, listening to its customers, and building long-term partnerships, Drylock creates opportunities and makes the way for an innovative and sustainable future.
drylocktechnologies.com
Fox Converting
Fox Converting offers a range of high-performance machines designed to meet converting needs with precision and efficiency. The company’s equipment includes advanced C1S, C2S and laminating machines. All engineered to handle various materials such as silicones, moisture vapor transmission resistant (MVTRs), primers, wash coatings, adhesives, pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) indicator inks, and two-part thermal coatings. Fox Converting’s machinery is built for wide web products, high-speed operations and versatile applications, ensuring reliable results across different production requirements.Fox Converting has process development experts. The company helps its customers with superior process development and improved process controls. Fox Converting has assisted customers in developing innovative manufacturing processes to produce improved paper product around the world.
www.foxconverting.com
Kleen Test Products
Kleen Test Products, founded in 1944, is celebrating its 80th anniversary. KTP is a family-owned, financially strong business headquartered in Port Washington, WI, and is one of five subsidiaries of Meridian Industries, Inc. With five manufacturing locations in Wisconsin and two in Ohio, KTP has become a trusted production partner to Consumer-Packaged Goods companies both large and small. Known for innovation and strong relationships with suppliers and technology partners, KTP consistently delivers high-quality products in the Home Health, Personal Care and Home Cleaning segments.KTP’s core values of safety, quality and customer service ensure that it delivers the highest quality products for its customers each and every production run. This commitment to quality has allowed KTP to maintain long-term customer relationships, some for more than 50 years. And to keep its customers coming back, KTP continues to invest in upgrading and automating manufacturing facilities, increasing production capacity and improving delivery and shipping logistics. Additionally, KTP continually provides safety and technical training for its employees.
KTP’s focus on manufacturing high-quality products to meet or exceed customer expectations has kept it at the forefront of contract manufacturing for 80 years. And its continued investment in its people and its facilities has positioned KTP for growth and business success for the future. KTP truly delivers on its corporate promise: ‘Your brands, in trusted hands.’
www.kleentest.com
Micrex
Micrex is the developer and manufacturer of the Micrex/Microcreper family of compressive treatment machinery for nonwovens, paper, films, composites, and textiles. Companies worldwide use Micrex technology to add softness, bulk, drape, absorbency, extensibility, and stretch to a wide range of products.Contract Microcreping is at the core of its business. Running a wide range of materials improves Micrex’s grasp of market needs and informs its R&D. As Micrex has no product except its technology, the company will never be a competitor to its contract converting customers
Micrex performs product development through the Micrex Innovation Lab. This integrates with contract Microcreping services for those firms whose current needs do not yet require the purchase of a dedicated Micrex/Microcreper system. Micrex is prepared to support projects from initial development through large scale production. All configurations of Micrex/Microcreper are available for contract production.
No-cost lab scale screening trials are available to qualified customers. For information about this program please see: http://micrex.com/screening-trials/
www.micrex.com
National Wiper Alliance
National Wiper Alliance, a business of Ecolab Inc., is recognized as the largest private-label contract converting operator in the United States. Its expansive 500,000ft² production facility safely houses over 40 converting lines, now including pre-saturated wipes.National Wiper Alliance has built its reputation over the years through its customer-centric focus and unparalleled service.
National Wiper Alliance is registered to ISO 9001:2015 standards and maintains their site registrations with EPA, FDA and recently completed NSF Supplier Assurance Packaging certification.
Contact sales@nationalwiper.com for inquiries.
www.nationalwiper.com
Web Industries
As the global nonwovens market continues to grow, Web Industries offers Personal and Home Care (P&HC) product companies unique capabilities and capacities that ease end-product manufacturing challenges and reduce business uncertainties.“For consumer packaged goods, brands must maintain manufacturing speed and efficiency to protect profitability,” says Ed Martins, vice president of Web’s Industrial & Consumer business unit. “The biggest consumer product companies trust Web’s wide-format slitting, spooling, printing, and supply chain management solutions. We’re enabling those companies to achieve scale, speed, and optimized production across a wide range of personal hygiene, home care, and packaging products.”
Another challenge for these companies is finding cost-competitive efficiencies from reliable domestic suppliers who can keep market channels stocked regardless of global conditions. That’s where Web Industries’ unmatched converting scale, innovative slitting/spooling formats, and wide-width multi-color flexographic printing options can provide real business advantages.
“Web has some of the largest converting lines in the world, and we’ve developed highly-automated solutions for producing large format and extra-large-format spooled output,” Martins continues. “Spooled slit materials offer significant runtime advantages versus traditional slit pads, and Web’s largest spools provide twice the capacity of regular spools.”
Backed by years of expertise, Web’s proprietary spooling design optimizes tension control to convert thinner, extensible, and high-loft nonwovens with precision while maintaining material integrity.
For brands looking to secure their manufacturing base through onshoring, Web’s co-located converting and printing operations simplify the process of rationalizing a regionalized supply chain.
www.webindustries.com
