The EDANA Nonwovens Innovation Academy began 7 years ago as the ”Nonwovens Research Academy” also in Roubaix and it remains one of the few meetings to feature original technical papers mainly from the European technical institutes. This year it was hosted by the European Centre for Textile Innovation (CETI) and commenced with a tour of the recently opened €50m nonwoven pilot plant. This comprises state-of-the-art pilot lines for carding, cross-folding, spunlaying of mono, bi- and tri-component fibres, meltblowing, thermal bonding, hydroentanglement, and needlepunching. Machinery has been supplied by Andritz, Laroche, Strahm and Hills Inc. The layout allowed continuous production of laminates of carded and SMS webs with either calender or HE bonding.
Photos from CETI follow:
The hydroentanglement zone is in line with both the Hills Inc spunbond system and the dry-lay card...
...and feeds an Andritz through-air dryer/bonder
The full-size Andritz card can feed a crossfolder for felt and wadding development or feed a narrower lighter web through the spunmelt zone into hydroentanglement
The Laroche Flexiloft airlayer feeds webs under the crossfolder for combination with card webs.
