At ANEX 2024, ANDRITZ will focus on innovative nonwoven solutions to produce sustainable products

Innovations in hygiene solutions 

ANDRITZ provides complete lines and individual machines to produce hygiene nonwovens and applications, such as airlaid, air-through bonding, spunlace lines, nonwovens calenders, Spunjet equipment, and complete converting lines for baby, adult, and fem care products.  

For instance, one highlight at ANEX will be the concept for a bio-based diaper. In close cooperation with key players in the hygiene industry, ANDRITZ has developed a concept for an environmentally sustainable diaper made of 90% bio-based materials, perfectly demonstrating that personal care and environmental protection can go hand in hand. At the same time, this concept diaper can show further development opportunities in the production of increasingly environmentally friendly, sustainable, bio-compostable materials made of spunlace nonwovens. At ANDRITZ, we are working with our technologies on the entire value chain, from fiber to nonwoven to converting, for our customers to the end user. This fits in perfectly with ANDRITZ's strong focus on sustainability. The company recently introduced its "FOR THE CHANGE" initiative, which combines sustainable technologies and solutions and makes them visible to the market. 

Converting hygiene forerunning in new sustainable solutions

Within the hygiene converting area, ANDRITZ designs, manufactures, and supplies turnkey converting machines to produce a comprehensive range of absorbent hygiene products for baby, adult, and fem care. The latest development is a comprehensive process to recycle SAP, fluff pulp and other components of industrial waste absorbent hygiene products (AHP), while maintaining high material quality. This recycling process is the result of a joint effort within ANDRITZ Nonwoven & Textile and contributes to the development of more sustainable practices for the disposal and recycling of industrial waste AHP. The newly developed line separates SAP, fluff pulp and other components of AHP and can recycle SAP and fluff pulp in a closed loop to produce new AHP. High quality of the recycled material is ensured. This contributes to the responsible management of industrial waste AHP. 

Moreover, ANDRITZ will present its technology development in the spunlaid sector: the patented nonwovens process called Spunjet. It is the in-line hydroentanglement of continuous filaments, creating a new generation of spunlaid nonwovens with unrivalled bulkiness and softness compared to standard spunbond fabrics. Spunjet offers customers the best properties ever achieved in existing and new nonwovens applications. 

Medium-capacity solution to produce flushable and biodegradable wipes 

For many years now, ANDRITZ has offered different nonwoven processes for biodegradable wipes, like Airlace, spunlace, Wetlace and Wetlace CP, with one goal in mind: reduction and elimination of plastic components, while maintaining the high quality of the desired product properties. The latest development in this field is the ANDRITZ neXline wetlace aXcess line to produce flushable and biodegradable wipes. This is a fully engineered production line medium capacities and especially designed for the Asian market. The compact line is an ideal entrance to the growing wetlaid market. 

Technologies for durable nonwovens  

ANDRITZ, a leading supplier in the needlepunch industry for over fifty years, continues to innovate and develop new innovative solutions for customers and market needs.  

The latest development, the neXloom eXcelle Elliptica-Type DF-4 needleloom, exemplifies ANDRITZ's push towards high-speed production for lightweight nonwoven products, notably automotive lightweight fabrics down to 40gsm with speeds higher than 25m/min, ensuring both excellent fibers’ dispatch and visual surface aspect. Available in large widths up to 6.75m, the elliptical pre-needling capacity is a clear asset when producing very light felts, providing optimized consolidation and an even visual appearance by reducing the drafting ratio by 30 to 50% in the first needleloom. The neXloom eXcelle Elliptica-Type DF-4 needleloom is thus the preferred equipment when quality aspects of high-grade for low-weight fabrics are important as there is no fabric delamination in the needling phase, freezing the fabric in a perfect manner.  

ProWin as new reference for weight evenness control

Moreover, the ProWin™ system represents a significant advancement in web weight evenness control, combining ANDRITZ's technologies for optimal fiber weight profiling and enhancing production efficiency. This device is used to optimize CV% processes, provide a faster return on investment, and save significant raw materials up to 7% fibers a year. The patented ProWin system also minimizes the level of instantaneous acceleration which offers as a result that the same batt forming equipment can run faster with less mechanical stress and a more optimized product regularity.

Maximum flexibility with ANDRITZ Airlay 

Another highlight at ANEX is the airlay technology for durable applications. The high flexibility of this process allows customers to process all types of fibers from virgin, recycled fibers to non-fiber particles such as foam, shredder paper, and straw.  

One of the latest developments in this sector is the patented multi-density web forming robot. It can be easily integrated to new or existing neXline airlay production lines. This single equipment has two main objectives. First to increase the density in strategic parts of the mat to reinforce specific areas and second to improve acoustic properties. The multi-density web forming technology perfectly fits market expectations for the automotive and bedding industries. This innovative solution brings high production flexibility compared to existing technologies based on molding. It enables to switch production between infinite 3D patterns on the same line without hardware adaptations and offers the capability to create composite materials with layers of various types of fibers. 

In addition, the multi-density web forming enables producers to save fibers and generate substantial cost savings in material use, avoiding also the expensive and long-time consuming prototyping steps that molding technologies usually require. 

The entire ANDRITZ Nonwoven & Textile team is looking forward to welcoming customers and partners at booth J417 in hall 1.