The future of nonwovens promises to be interesting and potentially very rewarding.

By Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Technical Editor

While the nonwoven and textile industries share some common heritage, the nonwoven industry has grown to present a broad array of engineered-fiber and polymer-based products that are driven by high-speed, low-cost, innovative, value-added processes. The nonwoven industry created an ecosystem that is built on automation, reducing the dependence on low cost labor — hence, the industry has not had to set up manufacturing facilities in low-labor cost regions in the world. Nonwovens are typically made and converted where they are sold thereby minimizing shipping costs.

The industry has adapted technologies from the pulp and paper, and extrusion industries, for example, to create the desired products at reasonable cost. Automated converting has been a major part of the nonwoven supply chain for many years, and today, the industry can produce in excess of 1,000 diapers per minute.

Clearly, high speed, large volume and low unit cost of production demands full automation. This in turn, means that short runs and flexibility in offerings becomes limited.

Today’s nonwoven segments of the industry include raw material suppliers, roll goods producers, the converters/fabricators of the end use products, a machinery industry supporting the previous three categories, auxiliary material suppliers, winding, slitting, packaging equipment makers, among other segments. This list does not offer as clear a picture as one might imagine, because the picture is further clouded by varying degrees of vertical and horizontal integration within the industry. Globally, the picture is further complicated by the local market and economic nuances.

What is clear however, is that the nonwovens industry continues to be adaptive, creative and relentlessly opportunistic. This means that in the immediate years to come, there may be an array of products that can replace more traditional textiles — some may see this an opportunity, while others may see this as a threat.

Sustainability

While a move to sustainable production is partly driven by regulations and taxation, the nonwoven industry has always been at the forefront leading the charge for sustainability. At ITMA 2015, sustainability was one of the major themes that dominated some of the educational sessions, discussions and awards. The topic also was evident in the themes presented by a number of key manufacturers. Almost entirely, the nonwovens exhibitors at ITMA 2015 had some degree of focus on sustainability.

Words like sustainability, recycle, reduce and reuse, are more than buzzwords in the nonwovens world, they are real. Add to these words also reinvent. Given macro-trends globally, reinvention of existing products and processes is more real than ever.

In January 2018, the European Commission adopted the world’s first comprehensive Plastics Strategy. In May, the commission released “The Single-Use Plastics: New Measures to Reduce Marine Litter” report, which proposed new rules to reduce the 10 most found plastic waste items on Europe’s beaches that account for 43 percent of total marine litter. The 10 items are:

1. Cotton buds;
2. Cutlery, plates, straws and stirrers;
3. Sticks for balloons and balloons;
4. Food containers;
5. Beverage cups;
6. Beverage containers;
7. Cigarette butts;
8. Plastic carrier bags;
9. Crisp packets and candy wrappers; and
10. Wet wipes and sanitary items.

The actions recommended to reduce this waste includes:

• Ban — replace with sustainable alternatives;
• Education and extended producer responsibility (EPR);
• Reduction of use;
• Increased recycling efforts;
• New labeling to encourage proper disposal; and
• Redesign.

This ban on single-use plastics has already impacted the nonwoven industry. Item 10 on the list, the nonwoven wet wipes and sanitary items, were subjected to EPR. This is a policy approach that extends the producer’s responsibility for a product beyond the current scope — for worker health and safety, consumer safety and production costs — to also include management of product after the product has been used by consumers. EPR policies generally shift the waste management cost or physical collection partially or fully from local governments to producers. Policies can also involve incentives for producers to take environmental considerations into account when designing their products.

EPR was first pioneered in Europe more than 20 years ago. Since then, the vast majority of European Union Member States have introduced EPR for packaging.

EPR is not an option for such products as baby wipes and sanitary products. These products are made using a mixture of cellulose and a man-made fiber such as polyester (PET) or polypropylene (PP), and are produced mostly using carding and hydroentangling methods.

Complying with the European Union ruling requires a different solution for wet wipes and sanitary items. The nonwovens industry offers alternatives for producing sustainable wipes and other products. For example, a major innovation was offered by Austria-based Andritz AG. The high-performance Wetlace™ process for flushable, dispersible, and biodegradable wipes was showcased back in 2015. Similarly, Germany-based Trützschler Nonwovens GmbH, in collaboration with The Voith Group, Germany, offers solutions that can replace existing fossil-based polymeric fiber products with cellulose and other bio-based polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA) to overcome the EU ban.

These processes can produce wipes by combining wetlaid and hydroentanglement technologies proven to producing nonwovens and nonwoven wipes from 100-percent natural and/or renewable raw materials without chemical binders. The processes also expand the range of potential offerings allowing carbon and glass to also be processed on the same machinery.

Patterning allows producers to differentiate their products clearly with an almost unlimited number of possible patterns. An example of a 100-percent cellulose based flushable wipe featuring unique artwork is shown in Figure 1.

These wetlaid/hydroentangled processes are economically viable in that they have a much higher throughput than the current carding/hydroentangling systems they are replacing. While capital costs may be higher, the total system cost is lower because of the higher throughput and this should translate to no increase in cost to the consumer. Indeed, it may result in lower total unit cost if the volumes are large enough — and for the markets of interest, they indeed are.

Another major area of focus is reuse. There is significant industry activity around zero waste as well as recycling. This is a real challenge for industries such as the nonwovens industry where large volume production also means large volume edge trim and other waste. Reuse will be a major area of focus for many companies. Activities will focus on finding new applications for such waste or complete reuse of the same product. The challenge will be with mixed materials and also bicomponent fiber recycling/reuse. New approaches, new compatibilizers and new chemistries will be needed to recycle mixed materials.

There will be also much more significant focus on the use of biopolymers such as PLA, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), and their blends, and when possible, cellulose fibers. It’s likely that a generation of new products will replace the existing state-of-the-art. One key is that these new materials have to also be economically sustainable — today, the industry has many sustainable solutions that are not yet economically sustainable and that will remain a challenge unless regulations and taxation outweigh the material costs. In the more niche markets, these new bio-friendly products will appear first, as was seen with the PLA-based coffee/tea filters and single-use coffee pods.

From Disposable to Reusable

There are several drivers that will lead to the use of nonwovens in traditional textile products. These are:

• The recent advances in printing technology. This may lead to the replacement of multicolored woven fabrics made using multicolored yarns with simple woven fabrics that can be printed to mimic the finer structures. These products may result in significant savings because of the ability to do short runs and offer mass-customization like never before. The right kind of nonwoven structure would be an ideal candidate for such printed materials.
• The need for controlling costs, while offering unique fabrics that offer the right kind of performance. This is where nonwovens will excel. Imagine for example, a structure that can utilize polyethylene (PE) to provide a cool touch on one side, with PET on the other surface that offers a warm touch. PE fibers available today such as Dyneema and Spectra, are all high performance and very expensive. A bicomponent spunbond can easily be made using materials that are not used today in the textile industry offering performance and differentiation at lower cost if the volumes are justified. A printed nonwoven can replace many traditional structures. One correctly sized piece of nonwoven machinery can replace hundreds of looms and offer savings in capital costs, power consumption and lower carbon foot prints. The time is right. But, are such structures available today?

Durable Products

The meaning of the word durable, a popular word at the current time, is not always clear. Nonwovens can be long-lasting or have a short lifecycle. Most nonwovens are engineered to be single-use products, and function adequately for the applications for which they’re designed. Products such as automotive nonwovens and geosynthetic nonwovens are intended to last for a long time, and are often called durable. The nonwoven industry prefers to refer to these longer lasting products as long-life nonwovens, rather than durable products.

The industry also has multi-use nonwovens. For example, many commercial wipes used in Europe today are multi-use — that is, they can be used to wipe a surface, then be washed, rinsed and cleaned to be reused many times over.

From the perspective of functional clothing, materials need to withstand multiple launderings without loss of functionality or appearance. There is a distinction here: Long-life nonwovens are not necessarily washable, although they can function for a very long time. Durable, washable nonwovens are a different class altogether, and there are not too many such products on the market … yet. Watch out for functional nonwovens products in technical clothing applications because these will emerge a lot sooner than many imagine. The technology of choice will depend on the assets in place, the applications, and the functions required, among other factors. However, spunbond hydroentangled structures will be optimal for such applications because of their strength, durability and flexibility in the choice of materials. Polymer to fabric allows the use of polymers that are not commonly used, and this can lead to performance attributes that would differentiate these structures from the pack.

Historically, there have been two major efforts in forming durable fabrics. PGI Nonwovens, now part of Evansville, Ind.-based Berry Global Inc., introduced the line of Miratec® fabrics not so long ago. These staple-fiber-based products were carded and hydroentangled with additional chemical bonding. The hydroentangling was performed using PGI’s unique Apex® technology that could create textures and structures equivalent to any textiles. Miratec featured blends of fibers and could perform equal or better than its woven counterparts. Most of these fabrics contained additional binders to ensure that the fabrics would not un-entangle during laundering. Consequently, these fabrics did not have the hand or drape required for most uses, and consequently, their use remained limited.

The other durable nonwovens effort was by Germany-based Freudenberg Group utilizing the bicomponent spunbond technology coupled with hydroentangling.¹ Spunbond bicomponent extrusion technology involves spinning continuous filaments composed of two polymers that are deposited onto a forming belt and bonded either mechanically, thermally or chemically. Fine fiber spunbond process often is only capable of producing fibers larger than 10 to 15 microns. The key to this technology will be forming a structure composed of smaller fibers than usual and that only means that exotic fiber types will be needed for these applications. One of the key patents in this area is held by Freudenberg (Robert Groten, et al), which details the process for splitting segmented pie fibers in a continuous process using hydroentangling — a process that uses high pressure water-jet curtains to mechanically move, wrap and entangle fibers.² During the process, the water jets split the bicomponent segments resulting in two different, wedge-shaped fibers (See Figure 2). The term splittable refers to bicomponent fibers that have one single common interface and where the two components are exposed to air on the surface of the fibers. Classical examples of splittable fibers include segmented pie (see Figure 3), segmented ribbon and side-by-side. Mechanical splitting requires the fiber components to have little affinity to one another; therefore, the selection of polymers and polymer ratios plays a key role in the ability to split and quality of the split fiber.³

Freudenberg’s fabric was marketed as Evolon® — originally a 16 segmented pie — and is the first commercially available spunbond reusable, durable microdenier fabric. The latest version of Evolon, a 32 segmented pie, is an amazing structure that provides a smooth uniform surface ideal for printing applications.

The fiber size after splitting is dependent on the diameter of the original fiber, the number of segments and the spinning parameters. There are a few limitations to the segmented pie structure. However, wedged shaped fibers formed during the splitting tend to pack densely, and often this may lead to low tear resistance. A hybrid structure composed of two or more bicomponent fibers can lead to more permeability and higher tear resistance. One such structure is the Madeline durable nonwoven produced by Turkey-based Mogul Co. Ltd.

Spunbond microfibers are also formed by removing one of the components in a bicomponent structure using caustic and other solvents. The most common cross section used is the islands-in-the-sea where the sea is removed leaving the islands behind. As the number of islands increases, the size of the resulting fibers decreases. Because this method requires the removal of a component there are often environmental concerns along with additional costs because of the removal process and waste of the sea polymer. Additionally, the challenge with these structures is that the islands tend to stay bundled.

Microfiber nonwovens are used in suede and leather products, durable wipes and automotive components such as headliners, but have made little headway in durable, washable, technical clothing applications. This is partly because microdenier fabrics thus far have lacked adequate drape and stretch, and are difficult to dye — they cannot produce deep shades.

Emerging Durable Nonwoven Fabrics

There have been a number of attempts to overcome the shortcomings of the existing micro-denier and staple fiber durable nonwovens, which have resulted in a number of new developments. Below, is a glimpse into the future and what some new technologies may offer in a durable nonwoven structure.

Structures With Super Moisture Transport. Products such as Coolmax®, 4DG, and other structures use fiber shape as a means to create capillarity for rapid moisture transport.

Coolmax® is essentially a flat fiber with a superior surface finish to allow the transport of moisture. Because of its shape, it also packs differently compared to round fibers leading to more capillarity.

4DG (Deep Grooved) fiber originally developed by Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., and Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), is formed by controlling the shape of the spinnerets and consequently, fibers are normally larger than what is commonly used in apparel, and not ideal for technical clothing applications unless used in a blended structure.

A new, emerging structure is known as the winged fiber or nano-channel fiber (See Figure 4).⁴ While it was originally created for use in a spunbond nonwoven, the filaments or even the staple fibers can easily be utilized in critical applications where Coolmax and other similar structures are used. Here, the filaments are formed as a bicomponent fiber where the winged component is wrapped by a sacrificial sheath much the same as islands in the sea. The shape is controlled through the spinpack design and not the spinneret.

Consequently, fibers as little as 1 denier or less are possible and with a density of less than 0.7 grams per cubic centimeter, these fibers can be light, offer warmth and moisture management like no other fiber. With this technology, the fibers are formed into the final product and a finishing step removes the sacrificial sheath to release the winged fibers. The fibers do not inter-digitate, but stay apart resulting in higher permeability and capillarity. The fibers can reach a specific surface area of 20 square meters per gram (m2/g) as compared with 0.2 m2/g for a round fiber of the same size.

The nonwovens structure made using winged fibers is durable, drapable and will be an interesting component in activewear (See Figure 5). Whether as a knitted fabric, woven or nonwoven, the high surface area will translate to much faster wicking and therefore, for next-to-skin applications requiring moisture management, this structure can offer unrivaled performance.

Note that structures made with fibers such as the winged fiber also can be used to form durable wipes, filters, and suede and leather products.

High Strength Micro and Nanofiber Structures. Nonwovens are not necessarily known for their strength because they tend to be associated with disposable products. However, high-performance nonwovens are used to stabilize structures such as roads and embankments, although they are often heavy and not necessarily drapable.

It was recently discovered that through mechanical actions — shearing and hydroentangling — islands-in-the-sea fibers can be fibrillated (See Figure 6).^5-6 If the sea component is fractured and fibrillated, the sea remains in the structure not only making the process more economical and environmentally friendly, but the fractured/fibrillated sea elements wrap the fibers and can act as a binder when and if melted.⁷

This allows the formation of structures composed of sub-micron fibers that are superior in terms of tear and tensile strength and abrasion properties, and offers properties not easily achievable.⁸ As a coated substrate, they can be formed into shelters, tents and awnings.⁹ Figure 7 shows a full-size tent recently delivered to Tyndel Air Force Base.

Conclusions

High-speed textile printing is going to be a game-changer for the traditional textile industry and also the nonwoven industry. The reduction in SKUs and the ability to do mass-customization and on-demand printing will change the textile industry as we know it. Durable nonwovens will also likely find a home in the more traditional areas of textiles where printed durable nonwovens will replace many of the textiles as we know them. The new generation of Evolon, the Madeline fabric and the new emerging fabric structures utilizing the winged fiber or fibrillated islands-in-the-sea demonstrated by The Nonwovens Institute, Raleigh, N.C., will be game-changers in this regard.

Macro trends in sustainability will drive major new product and process innovations in nonwovens. Also, new developments in durable nonwovens may emerge as the next generation of technical textiles for many critical applications. These structures are also strong, and possess significantly higher surface area than existing fabrics that will enable functionalities that are not available today.

Note that some of the developments may also impact wovens and knits because the fiber technologies developed for new nonwovens can readily be spun into filaments and staple fiber that can be used to make woven and knitted fabrics, forming the basis for the next generation of technical clothing fabrics.

The emerging nonwovens however, will not be your father’s nonwoven, and will be different from nonwovens in use today. The future of nonwovens promises to be interesting and potentially very rewarding. The IDEA show in March will highlight some of these new innovations.

References:

¹ Groten, R., Grissett, G. “Advances made in Micro-Denier Durable Nonwovens”, Presented at TechTextil, March 29, 2006, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.

² Nakajima, T, Advanced Fiber Science, Woodhead publishing Limited, 1992, pp 108-109.

³ Durany A, Anantharamaiah N, Pourdeyhimi B, “Micro and nanofiber nonwovens produced by means of fibrillating/fracturing Islands-in-the-Sea fibers”(2009) J Mater Sci 44(21 ):5926

⁴ High Surface Area Fiber and Textiles Made from the Same, US Patent 8,129,019

⁵ Nagendra, A., Verenich, S., Pourdeyhimi, B., Durable Nonwoven Fabrics via Fracturing Bicomponent Islands-in-the-Sea Filaments. JEFF,  Volume 3, Issue 3, 2008

⁶ Fedorova, N; “Investigation of the utility of islands-in-the-sea bicomponent fiber technology in the spunbond process”, (2007) Dissertation, Fiber and Polymer Science, North Carolina State University

⁷ Micro and Nano-Fiber Fabrics by Fibrillating Islands in the Sea Fibers, US Patents 7,981,226 and 8,420,556

⁸ High Strength, Durable Fabrics Produced by Fibrillating Multilobal Fibers, US Patent 7,883,772

⁹ Fedorova, N; Pourdeyhimi, B. High Strength Nylon Micro- and Nanofiber Based Nonwovens via Spunbonding, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2007, Vol. 104, 3434

January/February 2019

Nature Fiber Welding Inc. is commercializing a closed-loop chemistry process developed through Department of Defense funding.

TW Special Report

When the Department of Defense (DoD) began funding scientific research into how naturally occurring materials function, creating a keystone piece of a new circular economy was not necessarily on its radar. However, after more than 10 years of research, Natural Fiber Welding Inc. — a tangible outcome from several DoD research initiatives — is poised to become a platform technology that enables better living using abundant, natural materials.

Armed with a passion to upend the status quo, Dr. Luke Haverhals was directed to learn from and leverage nature during his research, which led him down a path to develop new manufacturing technologies that utilize widely available natural materials like silk and hemp instead of non-biodegradable man-made plastics. In providing alternatives to these plastics, the Natural Fiber Welding® platform has expanded the limits of biology, chemistry; and, with its induction into the 2019 Fashion for Good Scaling Programme, the limits of fashion.

Founded in 2015 by Haverhals, Natural Fiber Welding is a startup with more than 20 full-time personnel. Located in Peoria, Ill., the team is steeped in engineering and manufacturing competencies. Several team members, including Haverhals, have deep roots and knowledge of sustainable agriculture. This is a key differentiator for the corporate culture, setting Natural Fiber Welding squarely in the tech space, but with a rugged get it done mentality that values aptitude and action. It’s that mentality that brought Haverhals, COO Steve Zika, CTO Aaron Amstutz and Chad Stamper, director of marketing and commercialization, together to build out a revolutionary manufacturing platform in the heart of Illinois.

“Peoria is an under-the-radar innovation hub for the Midwest,” Stamper said. “With its deep manufacturing roots, the city is supportive of startups; especially those tackling issues having global impact. It is the perfect environment to support the vision and growth of Natural Fiber Welding.” Stamper’s entrepreneurial and commercialization background has helped the company find its place among new material innovators.

Natural Fiber Welding has developed a scalable fabrication platform that can offset the global dependence on petroleum-based man-made materials. It does so by manufacturing high-performance materials using low cost plant fibers and other natural materials. Helmed by Haverhals, Zika, Stamper and Amstutz the company benefits from a different mix of chemistry, material science, engineering, business, and intellectual property transfer experience. Their vision and mission are aligned: to reduce dependence on petroleum-based synthetics by creating revolutionary performance materials, sustainably made, from cost-effective natural materials. This mission has become tangible with the development of fiber welding processes and machine automation patented by Haverhals and the Natural Fiber Welding team.

“Natural materials have long been known for their sustainability, but their utility and manufacturability have previously had limitations,” explained Dr Haverhals. “We have patented scalable processes that tune natural materials in ways not possible with any other technology. This is providing increased utility to use billions of pounds of renewables, in ways previously unattainable. That is true sustainability — when what we produce is naturally derived and meets, even exceeds, the properties of petroleum-based synthetics at meaningful scale.”

Innovation With Enormous Potential

Using his Ph.D. in Chemistry, Haverhals took the objective to partner with nature down to its core. According to the company, the technologies devised are elegant and efficient while getting the most out of complex materials like cotton and wool. This is done without the necessity to either break or to remake what nature does so well at large scale. The company is focused on making “impossible” products from the hundreds of billions of pounds of available virgin and recycled cotton fiber.

Natural Fiber Welding is a proprietary, closed-loop chemistry process, that imparts physical changes to fibers. Intrinsically safe chemistries are used to open fibers at the molecular level and fuse them together. Throughout the process, all chemistries are continuously reclaimed and reused, making this closed-loop process extremely efficient. The net effect is to “glue” fibers together without actually using any glues or resins. This means complex composite materials can be assembled quickly and efficiently. Connecting natural fiber in this way creates structures with properties previously only possible with plastics; going beyond what biology, or even biosynthetic biology, can achieve. Natural Fiber Welding’s process can be tuned — performance characteristics and functionalities of cotton fabrics can be precisely controlled in new ways. By replacing man-mades with performance fabrics made from recycled cotton, the platform can solve problems associated with plastic microfiber pollution. Fabricating with materials that remain natural allows the safe degradation of the fibers at the end of their useful lifetimes.

The technology can create a wide spectrum of capabilities at scale. Whereas some new technologies have difficulties scaling because of unfavorable unit economics, Natural Fiber Welding has a mantra to enable new products that span premium to commodity markets. The company is now beginning to partner with companies in the textile industry to take Natural Fiber Welding fabrication to the masses at the same time as creating new luxury categories that were previous unattainable.

As companies around the world work to eliminate textiles from landfills and incinerators, they are met with the challenge of recycled fibers lacking length and strength; the two necessary qualities to truly make recycling material a viable production channel. This challenge has been particularly acute for natural fibers — until now. Toad & Co. materials manager Ciara Cates, an early adopter of the technology, put it this way:

“Natural Fiber Welding Inc. is providing a quality recycled natural fiber yarn option in a market that traditionally has few options and many limitations. This technology provides an opportunity for a whole new category of quality recycled yarns that have not existed before. Taking advantage of their innovation will help Toad & Co continue to push to be a leader in our industry for sustainable quality apparel. They are providing innovation in a sector where apparel struggles the most. No sacrifices needed.”

The Natural Fiber Welding platform is applicable to fibers already being collected and available within the textile supply chain. Through collaborative partnerships, the fiber welding team is radically improving the performance of materials collected by recycling companies. This approach makes their efforts and end products truly viable solutions for a sustainable and scalable circular economy.

Sustainable, Scalable and Circular Products

In addition to making performance fabrics, the company is also able to divert textile waste directly into building products for furniture and even materials that perform like leather. Unlike many other vegan leather-like materials on the market today, Natural Fiber Welding is able to achieve high performance luxury materials without using synthetics like polyurethane.

“We think vegan should mean plants, not plastic,” said Dr. Haverhals. “Unfortunately, many new vegan and faux leather products are really just natural fibers coated with polyurethane and other non-biodegradable plastics.”

The vegan materials created by Natural Fiber Welding are fully natural and extremely tunable, allowing application specific properties and performance to be dialed-in for different applications. “Leather is a remarkable material, but Natural Fiber Welding can go beyond leather to access entirely new properties and performance,” added Haverhals.

According CTO Amstutz, the new leather-like materials are applicable far beyond categories traditionally dominated by leather. “We are creating entirely new classes of plant-based materials to be used in place of faux and vegan leather,” Amstutz said. “These materials are formulated for durability, suppleness, and luxury, and greatly expand a designer’s options. Not only do our products avoid tanning, which saves costs, we can even avoid harsh chemical dyes by instead using structural colorants that are safe and do not fade.”

Future Growth

Natural Fiber Welding is producing materials to specification for multiple high-demand clients with a quickly expanding pilot manufacturing facility. Simultaneously, the company has built a patent portfolio for future sales and licensing for high-growth opportunities. With significant industry traction, Natural Fiber Welding is now earning support from organizations like Fashion For Good.

Last fall, the company was selected for Fashion For Good’s Scaling Programme which will bring funding, connections, and direct guidance from the industry segments. These partnerships are devoted to building the sustainable models and technologies that will displace unsustainable incumbents. The team also has been awarded almost $2 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding to develop new processes and materials, notably electronic textiles. Jimmie Grow, advisor to Natural Fiber Welding Inc. and retired director of product development at Cary, N.C.-based Cotton Incorporated, summed up the potential: “This is the most exciting innovation in textiles that I have seen in my 40-plus-year career in the textile industry.”

Formerly heading his own venture firm, Zika jumped into the COO role early on. “When you hear the passion of the team, the practicality of the process and the scope of the problem they are able to address, this idea of solving with nature becomes a reality,” Zika said. “It is a reality that is not years away from producing sustainable high-performance materials at large scale. We are ready today and we are entering the market with a platform that is performance driven, with the agility to scale truly sustainable materials for the maturing circular economy.”

For the last several years, Natural Fiber Welding has been flying below the radar, but the team is poised for a breakout year. The company has three distinct, proven material offerings headed to global textile markets in 2019. Events and partnerships will take Nature Fiber Welding innovations around the world in 2019, ensuring that the company is making circular happen.

January/February 2019

A look at some of the new technologies entering the digital textile printing market.

By Dr. Lisa Parillo Chapman, Technical Editor

InPrint USA, to be held April 9-11, 2019, in Louisville, Ky., will once again be collocated with the International Converting Exhibition USA (ICE). InPrint will highlight exhibits from industry suppliers that service the functional, decorative, and package printing market. InPrint/ICE attendance will be highly beneficial to companies wishing to keep abreast of the newest technologies and to learn best practices in the complex operations of inkjet printing for plastics, metals, woods, glass, ceramics, and textiles, in market sectors such as apparel, automotive, furnishing and interior décor, labels, signs and banners, and packaging.

InPrint USA 2019 will partner with two major trade organizations; The Wallcoverings Association (WA) and the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA). For both the packaging and wall décor market, inkjet printing has the capability of meeting consumers’ demand for higher print quality, increased number of colors and faster response to market trends. In addition, digital printing enables customized prints and has the unique advantage of enabling color and design cohesiveness across multiple substrates. So for example, businesses such as boutique hotels, wishing to offer residents a lifestyle experience, can coordinate the print décor of ceramic, wood, and carpet flooring, with wall and window coverings, bedding and even packaging of personal care items. Round table participants at the 2018 InPrint conference felt that décor — including textiles, flooring, and wallcoverings — and packaging are the two segments that provide immediate growth opportunities. According to Boston-based I.T. Strategies, research consultants for the digital print community, wallcoverings saw more than $100 million in revenue in 2017, and is one of the many fast-growing sectors within industrial printing. To support the décor print market, a number of new colorant and machinery developments will be showcased that are worth investigation.

Colorant Systems

Switzerland-based Sensient Imaging Technologies, a subsidiary of Milwaukee-based Sensient Technologies Corp., recently introduced ElvaJet® Opal SB inks formulated for low-viscosity Epson® printheads. ElvaJet Opal SC inks for mid-viscosity print heads, such as Kyocera, were launched in 2018 and were awarded the ECO PASSPORT by OEKO-TEX® certification, a certification now also achieved by the ElvaJet Opal SB inks. Both the ElvaJet Opal SB and SC inks offer exceptional digital dye sublimation performance in terms of color, sharpness, and superior release from coated and uncoated transfer papers as low as 18 grams per square meter in weight, according to the company.

However, the greatest benefit to users may be the ability to standardize colors across different types of printers. Dr. Simon Daplyn, marketing manager of Sensient’s inks division stated: “Users of wide format and industrial printers in the same print shop can now reproduce the same output on all machines because ElvaJet Opal SB and SC inks use the same color reference. This standardization offers unique options for production flexibility and a reduction of consumable costs.”

Austria-based Zimmer Austria Inc. is a producer of machines for textile and carpet finishing. For special applications that require colorant penetration through the substrate such as carpeting, terry towels, flags, and plush, or heavy automotive and home décor fabrics, Zimmer offers the Colaris3 high-performance pre-treatment, digital printing, and colorant systems. The Colaris series of printers can be used with a variety of colorants such as reactive, disperse, acid, pigment, and vat. Inline pre- and post-treatment systems can be added to improve print quality and increase ink penetration.

• MAGNOROLL GMA is used as an inline pre-treatment applicator for lighter to medium-weight fabrics.
• CHROMOJET (CHR-DPT) is an inline pre-treatment system for medium to heavy substrates such as terry towels, flocked fabrics, velour and carpet.
• SUPRAPRESS press station is used as a penetration and equalization device to ensure maximum penetration on qualities like carpets or polyester blankets. Products like velour, or even flags and banners, may also benefit from the additional pressing.
• SUPRAFIX SHS is a combined, horizontal color fixation system using optionally saturated steam, superheated steam or hot air condition according to the amount of ink being used. The fixation activity is controlled by a flow through steam/hot air stream and ensures highest penetration, ink fixation and drying in a single pass at shortest possible time.

Printhead Development

The Colaris3 printers can be configured with up to 96 StarFire™ SG1024 compact industrial printheads. Developed by Tokyo-based Fujifilm, the StarFire SG1024 printhead is available in three models for Colaris3 printers, each with varying drop size capability — the SA model is intended for printing light- and medium-weight home decor, apparel, and flag substrates that can achieve ink penetration with drop sizes ranging from 12 to 35 picoliters; the MA model has capability of 30 to 75 picoliter drops and is best suited for medium-weight carpets velours, terry cloth and low to medium plush piles; and the LA model printhead is capable of 75 to 180 picoliter drop sizes for ink penetration of voluminous substrates such as heavier weight carpet, furs, and plush blankets.

The StarFire SG1024 printhead is a compact, self-contained unit built to withstand demanding industrial textile and other applications. The life of the printhead is extended because of the replaceable coated metal nozzle plate and continuous ink recirculation with RediJet™. The printhead is compatible with solvent, ultraviolet-curable and aqueous ink formulations.

Digital Dye Sublimation System Development

The Epson Group, led by Japan-based Seiko Epson Corp., has taken a whole system approach with the Epson SureColor F9370 Dye-sublimation Inkjet Printer. The machine offers industrial-level production speeds up to 1,169 square feet per hour and is equipped with dual PrecisionCore® TFP® printheads. The PrecisionCore print chips are based on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, which uses a 1-micron-thin piezo actuator that acts like a pump to deposit ink.

The ability to pump larger amounts of fluid through densely packed nozzles yields a multitude of small, round, precise dots ensuring a high print quality when reaching high print speeds. The UltraChrome® DS with High-Density Black dye sublimation inks, combined with the included Wasatch® SoftRIP® TX SureColor F9370 Edition softwear from Salt Lake City-based Wasatch Computer Technology, ensures a large color gamut and high color quality.

• Features of the software include:
• Color Atlas Generator — to create a custom swatch book and match colors accurately by specifying and printing a range of color swatches on a target fabric. RGB values for
  chosen swatches then may be entered into SoftRIP or saved to a Wasatch Color Database.
• Color Neighborhood Analyzer — to specify a spot color and create a targeted 100-patch test pattern centered on that color.
• Color Database — enables the user to maintain a list of saved and frequently used colors. The color chosen from the Color Database can be routed through ICC management or directly to print heads, depending on workflow needs.

Single Pass Printers

Single pass printers, capable of printing up to 70 meters per minute (m/min) when set with a CMYK colorant system, now surpass speeds of rotary screen printing. Unlike scan-type printers, single pass printhead systems print on the substrate as the fabric is fed under a fixed print unit. IT-Strategies reported that in 2017, the Lario printer manufactured by Italy-based MS Printing Solutions S.r.l., was installed in more locations that any other single pass printers.

New to this market, and introduced in late 2018, the EFI™ Reggiani BOLT, can reach speeds of 90 m/min. Unique to this system is a proprietary technology for combining digital and rotary techniques for hybrid solutions. One or more analog printing stations, which may be easily connected as an optional feature, can be integrated into the digital printer for special effects or spot colors. The robust recirculating printhead has been developed in partnership with a leading printhead manufacturer and will be available exclusively to EFI Reggiani. With drop sizes ranging from 5 to 30 picoliters, the Bolt is capable of high-quality grayscale images. The year 2019 may prove to be a game changer for digital printing as companies continue to specialize and provide innovative solutions for increased flexibility and speed to market.

January/February 2019