Pakistan Textile Journal. march index

INDEX 08 attracted more companies from new countries than ever before, as the use of nonwovens continued to expand geographically across all sectors. Most notably this year, there was increasing number of exhibitors from Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. One country, however, remained at the centre of the show in Geneva, and the nonwovens industry in general. Of the total of 520 exhibitors taking part in the 2008 show, 100 - around one fifth - were from Germany.

In general terms, Germany’s nonwovens industry has a greater focus on products for industrial applications such as filtration, construction and geotextiles, compared to, for example, Italy, which with around 90 exhibitors at INDEX 08 is the second largest exhibiting country and has always specialised in lighter-weight nonwovens, and particularly for the hygienic disposables sector. Germany’s leadership in mechanical engineering was also reflected at the stands of many German INDEX 08 exhibitors.

The country is home to the most successful builder of spunmelt systems in Reifenhäuser Reicofil, the biggest manufacturer of needlepunching lines in the Dilo Group and a key player in spunlace and finishing lines in Fleissner , to name just three.

It is notable that technology developments are coming increasingly to the fore at INDEX shows, as machine builders become ever more determined to drive developments and among candidates for this year’s INDEX Innovation Award for new machinery is Germany’s Andritz Küsters. The company’s neXdetect unit employs a patent-applied-for measuring technique for the detection of stripe applications on nonwovens. For producers of nonwovens with hydrophilic stripes for the hygiene industry, this not only makes the task easier, it also leads to quality improvements and a marked cost reduction in production.

Oerlikon Neumag, meanwhile, is arguably the biggest manufacturer of fabric manufacturing technologies in the world, including competence in all of the key nonwovens manufacturing methods.

In this broader field of textile machinery, Germany is by far the biggest exporter in the world. German textile machinery exports in 2005, for example, were worth a total of €3.4 billion, with its nearest rival, Japan, achieving exports of €1.9 billion and Italy €1.8 billion. China, often thought to be quickly making in-roads in the sales of such machines, achieved exports of around €500 million by comparison.

China was the biggest export market for German machines, worth €742 million, followed by the USA with €315 million and Turkey with €309 million.

Germany is also the headquarters of the world’s largest manufacturer of nonwovens in Freudenberg, which in 2008 reached a significant milestone in its history.

It is now 60 years since the company began production of its first nonwoven products developed by Dr. Carl Nottebohm at Weinheim in Germany.

The drylaid, staple fibre webs that formed the basis of Freudenberg’s first commercial products – Vliesline garment interlinings and Vileda window cloths which were both instantly successful and continue to be so today.

Equally as revolutionary was the invention by Dr. Ludwig Hartman in the mid-1960s of a method for spunbonding nonwovens.

Dr. Hartmann’s cost efficient solution for creating finished nonwovens directly from polymers led to Freudenberg’s first commercially successful spunbonded nonwoven products – sticking plaster backings and Vildan tablecloth material, followed later by Lutrasil polyester carpet backings.

The many major suppliers of raw materials and fibres for nonwovens production, including INDEX 08 exhibitors BASF, Henkel, Huntsman, Trevira and Wacker, have also made significant contributions to the industry’s progress.