Following a notable debut at ITMA 2011 in Barcelona, YingYang Nonwoven Machinery – a leading Chinese manufacturer of complete nonwoven manufacturing lines – has significantly expanded its global reach and will showcase a major new technology development at ITMA 2015 in Milan this November.

During 2014, the company manufactured and supplied no less than 200 complete nonwoven manufacturing lines – from fibre bale opening to needled or thermally-bonded finished fabric – and its reputation has now extended well beyond China.

The company’s output includes lines for geotextiles, filter media, nonwoven carpets, artificial leather substrates and automotive interiors and claims to have the widest nonwovens machinery range of any manufacturer anywhere.

“It is engineering flexibility and know-how which continues to win us new customers – literally on a daily basis,” says Liyuan Fan, who founded the company in 1993. “Of course we do have a price advantage, and this is important, but this is largely because we have the economies of scale in place and are able to rationalise many products into a design which allows virtually continuous production methods. This gives us enormous advantages in the economics of production.”

A proven track record of reliability is evidenced by the fact that Ying Yang – which  is CE certified and also ISO 9000 accredited – successfully secures repeat business from many of its customers.

Service

In addition to its technology prowess, however, the company is also gaining a solid reputation for the expertise of its local technicians and sales and maintenance support, along with a rapid global parts service.

YingYang now has significant references in Europe and North America under its belt, having recently supplied a complete five-metre-wide manufacturing line for the production of automotive nonwovens to International Automotive Components (IAC) in Mexico. It has also supplied an advanced 3.2-metre-wide carding system for filter fabrics to Precision Custom Coatings (PCC), the leading manufacturer of technical nonwovens based in New Jersey, USA.

There are also now a number of YingYang manufacturing lines operating in Europe and the company has its own European service centre based in Bradford, UK. With engineers trained on the servicing, testing and maintenance of YingYang equipment, the new service centre can provide a rapid response to any technical issues and stocks all critical spare parts.

VLS

A dedicated, company-wide R&D programme meanwhile bears fruit in an ongoing expansion of the company’s machine programme. Recent introductions have included a 1.5-metre-wide needlepunching range for medical bandages and three thermobonding lines for cotton or wool felts for applications in home textiles.

At ITMA 2015, the latest addition to the YINGYANG machinery range will be unveiled – the VLS – a completely new vertical lapping system incorporating a uniquely-designed thermal bonding oven.

Vertically-lapped nonwovens are highly advantageous in the automotive industry, primarily for the weight savings they afford, but also because the materials are chemical free, unaffected by oil and water and totally recyclable.

The VLS line is a 100% closed and zero waste system for their production and several global patents are in the process of being secured for it.

It allows the fibres to be orientated in a truly vertical structure and in material thicknesses of up to of 100mm and in an extremely wide weight range from 250 to 4,000 gsm.

It is based on a single card design and eliminates the need for the additional card and cross lapper employed by other systems,  making it both extremely simple – with just four drive rods, rather than the usual ten – compact and highly cost effective.

The unique VLS oven has both top and bottom belts which control and accurately gauge the structure thickness of the material from the moment of the vertical structure formation, guaranteeing total control throughout the process.

The VLS can process all fibers which are suitable for carding, both natural and synthetic, with the resulting nonwoven density depending on their selection and denier.

According to the company, testing has proven that the resilience of the VTS nonwovens in terms of loft regain is far superior to that of both air-laid nonwovens and cross-laid and thermally-bonded high loft materials.

YingYang now has a 2.5-metre-wide VTS line available for trials at its plant in Jiangsu.