Nonwovens & Converting

Techtextil is the next exhibition on the calendar for absorbent solutions provider Technical Absorbents (TAL). Hailed as the main technical textiles and nonwovens trade fairs, the event in Frankfurt is expected to be the biggest in the exhibitions history and will cover the whole industry spectrum with its 12 different application areas. The event attracted nearly 30,000 visitors in 2011, and so TAL is preparing for a busy three days. Techtextil takes place at Messe Frankfurt from 11-13 June.

Fibre based materials manufacturer Ahlstrom, reports it is strengthening its focus on wallcoverings by continuing to invest in both new product development and production facilities.

Procter & Gamble, the company behind consumer brands including Pampers, Gillette, Ariel and Tide has announced that 45 of its facilities have now achieved zero manufacturing waste to landfill, which marks a major step towards the company’s long-term vision of sending zero manufacturing and consumer waste to landfills. P&G says that over the past 5 years its work to find worth in waste has created over $1 billion in value for the company.

Lenzing will be focussing on the hygiene sector when it showcases its speciality fibres at this year’s IDEA13 which takes place in Miami, Florida from 23-25 April. The Austrian fibre producer will place special emphasis on Tencel and particularly its new hydrophobic fibre Tencel Biosoft for hygiene applications in line with the slogan - Green solutions for hygiene products.

Nominations are open for the 2013 World of Wipes Innovation Award, which recognizes and rewards innovation within the entire wipes value chain that utilizes nonwoven fabrics in a way that expands the usage of nonwovens.

A new publication from Textile Media Services – Agrotextiles: A growing landscape with huge potential – provides a unique overview of woven, knitted and nonwoven fabrics and other textiles used in agriculture, forestry, horticulture, floriculture and landscape gardening, as well as in fishing and aquaculture. These include fabrics for livestock protection, shading, weed and insect control, and for extending the growing season of plants and crops.

Lenzing has succeeded in achieving the second best business result in its history in the 2012 financial year in spite of difficult market conditions in its core fibre business. The Austrian company’s Annual Report published today says that this can be attributed to new record fibre sales volumes and good performance of its specialty Tencel fibre. Readers can download the full Lenzing Group Annual Report 2012 at the foot of this article.

Monadnock Non-Wovens LLC (MNW), a subsidiary of Monadnock Paper Mills, has called for a ubiquitous global standard for surgical face masks. Established in 1999 to meet the fast growing air and liquid filtration, medical face mask and healthcare markets, MNW is a global supplier and is ISO 9001:2008 certified.

Market leaders in the sportswear sector will present specialist technologies at Texprocess, the leading international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials from 10-13 June this year in Frankfurt, Germany, in co-location with Techtextil, the international trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens. The following text, provided by the show’s organiser summarises some of the leading technologies which will be exhibited.

Ahlstrom has entered into a collaboration agreement with Dow Water & Process Solutions (DW&PS), a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, to use its Ahlstrom Disruptor technology in drinking water applications. Ahlstrom Disruptor, a new category of nonwoven media that filters water with the efficiency of a membrane but a higher flow rates and many times less pressure drop, is a unique nanoalumina technology designed for a wide range of water filtration applications.