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ANDRITZ presents new product portfolio for the nonwovens industry at IDEA ‘13

Graz, January 9, 2013. At IDEA ‘13 in Miami, USA, international technology Group ANDRITZ – uniting three leading suppliers to the nonwovens industry under one roof – will present its extended product portfolio. ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau, France, provides the third nonwovens competence center to join ANDRITZ Küsters and ANDRITZ Perfojet. ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau is a worldwide leading supplier of drylaid nonwovens lines (including cards, crosslappers, drafters, and needlelooms) and ideally complements the ANDRITZ Perfojet spunlace technology. ANDRITZ Küsters contributes with expertise in wetlaid, thermobonding, and finishing technologies. Whether the requirement is for drylaid, wetlaid, spunbond, spunlace, or needlepunch, ANDRITZ offers integrated in-house solutions from forming to finishing.

In the USA, ANDRITZ is well supported in sales and service by its local branch in Spartanburg, South Carolina. US customers benefit from a highly skilled sales team, responsive service by experienced field and process engineers, and a great range of original ANDRITZ spare parts on stock. ANDRITZ provides responsive service and maintenance for all nonwovens segments. One main field of experience is the roll service center, specialized in the repair, reconditioning, and upgrading of all types of rolls. Sales and field engineers from ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau and ANDRITZ Perfojet have now joined the ANDRITZ Küsters team and form a widely experienced task force that ensures life-cycle support for all ANDRITZ nonwovens technologies.

The ANDRITZ nonwovens competence centers in Europe have invested in state-of-the-art technical centers in Elbeuf and Montbonnot, France, and Krefeld, Germany, and joined forces in research and development. Complete pilot lines and individual equipment for spunlace, needlepunch, wetlaid/wetlace, bonding, and finishing are available for customer trials and have already led to innovative process solutions. One major development, for example, has been the neXline wetlace, a line concept that integrates ANDRITZ Küsters wetlaid and ANDRITZ Perfojet hydroentanglement technologies. Wetlace is an ideal process for the production of flushable wipes from 100% natural and/or renewable fibers without chemical binders.

Another step ahead in quality control and documentation has been made in the hydrophilic treatment of spunbond nonwovens for hygiene applications: An innovative dosing concept including neXdetect measuring device allows reliable inline measuring of the oil pick-up after the dryer. Thus, first-class quality is easily detected and documented, at the same time substantially reducing wastage.

In the spunlace industry, ANDRITZ offers high-speed integrated production lines with unequalled energy efficiency ratio: neXline spunlace – which includes the Excelle carding system, the Jetlace hydroentangle-ment process, the neXaqua dewatering unit, the Perfodry through-air dryer, and the neXcal twin embossing calender – provides a major competitive advantage to spunlace producers. The optimum solution for top-speed spunlace lines for commodity products like wet wipes is a combination of Isoweb TT card and Jetlace Essentiel, producing lightweight spunlace at very high capacity and low MD/CD ratio. This new generation of carding systems was launched during the fourth quarter of 2011 and since then, ANDRITZ has already sold 14 Isoweb TT cards. A pilot line including Isoweb TT card will be available for customer trials from March 2013 in the ANDRITZ Perfojet technical center.

In the needlepunch area, ANDRITZ has integrated the double carding Isoweb technology with the ProDyn concept into the neXline needlepunch. This is a major improvement in order to achieve the excellent technical product characteristics requested by the market. Fibers are the major cost factor in nonwovens production. The ProDyn system provides a remarkable reduction in fiber consumption and therefore a better return on investment. This unique line concept integrates the double Excelle Isoweb card with innovative feeding system, the Dynamic crosslapper with integrated web control device, A50 needlelooms with optimized adapted patterns, and a range of neXdraft drafters. A fully automatic final weight control with inline adjustment completes the equipment.

Another major development in the carding industry is the Excelle card for through-air bonding technology, which is an ideal process for multi-layer products. From May 2013, a complete pilot line will be available at the new ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau technical center.

ANDRITZ nonwovens experts look forward to presenting their combined technologies and customized process solutions from April 23-25, 2013 at the IDEA ‘13 trade show in hall D, booth 601.

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The ANDRITZ GROUP
International technology Group ANDRITZ is a globally leading supplier of plants, equipment, and services for hydropower stations, the pulp and paper industry, solid/liquid separation in the municipal and industrial sectors, the steel industry, and the production of animal feed and biomass pellets. In addition, ANDRITZ offers technologies for certain other sectors including automation, pumps, machinery for nonwovens and plastic films, steam boiler plants, biomass boilers and gasification plants for energy generation, flue gas cleaning plants, plants for the production of panelboard (MDF), thermal sludge utilization, and torrefaction plants. The publicly listed ANDRITZ GROUP is headquartered in Graz, Austria and has a staff of about 17,700 employees worldwide. ANDRITZ operates over 180 production sites as well as service and sales companies all around the world.