Nonwoven Technology Conference - Sorrento March 8th -11th 2004

Marketing Technology Services European conference once again concentrated on air lay technology, opening as before with Jim Hanson’s short course on absorbent products which continues to attract the full range of industry talent from new starters to CEO’s. Around 200 delegates stayed at the Hilton overlooking a showery Sorrento, a snow-capped Vesuvius providing a spectacular backdrop.

The air-laid industry at the cross-roads

Ralf Hovelmann, General Manager of Concert GmbH discussed the problems being faced by the air-laid producers since the massive capacity expansion.

• Between 1998 and 2002 capacity had risen from 270,000 to 400,000 tpa but the expected large increase in sales into diapers had not occurred.
• Femcare and wipes were still the main markets for air-laid, European deliveries being 65% femcare, 10% hygiene wipes, 7% industrial wipes, 11% table products and 3.4% incontinence products.
• Capacity utilisation was at 72% in 2004 and expected to rise to 78% next year.
• Potential growth areas were cigarette filters, repulpable boxes, blood transport packs, transdermal patches, filters, and dessicants. High modulus air-laid products were now possible.

Mr Hovelmann said Concert had closed the South Carolina plant and expected this to be a sufficient capacity-correction. He did not know what Georgia Pacific intended to do with the old Fort James operation, but some consolidation within the industry was essential. Air-lay was at a fork in the road. None of the current producers could supply the requirements of a major diaper producer should they decide to switch. They must either consolidate or form partnerships with major customers. Only then would it be possible to open up major new markets.

Ason-Neumag, 4DG, Nanoval and now M&J

Anders Moller described how the recently purchased M&J Fibretech would complement the other nonwoven technologies the Saurer Group had acquired recently i.e. Ason, Nanoval and 4 DG fibres. Saurer with a €1.8bn turnover comprised Allma (twisting machines), Barmag (spinning and textile machines), Neumag (fibre spinning machines), Schlafhorst (automatic yarn winders), Zinser (cotton spinning machines), Volkmann (yarn processing) and Melco (embroidery).

• In January this year they opened a new nonwoven R&D centre with an Ason-Neumag spunbond line designed to switch polymers without rebuilding. Fibre deniers between 0.5 and 8 can be spun into fabrics of 10 to 150 gsm from PP, PE, PET, PLA, PA6 and PU. Meltflow rates from 20 to 350 can be handled. The PET can be spun at 8000m/min, the high speed being achieved by use of a short air gap.
• They are expecting polyester prices to fall below polypropylene as the massive Chinese capacity expansion comes on stream, so spunbond lines capable of switching PP<>PET “on the run” will be in demand.
• They have acquired a licence for the 4DG fibre in spunbonding from Clemson University whose patents originally came from Eastman and P&G.
• Nanoval uses a spunbond polymer grade (cheaper than meltblown) to make continuous microfibres through a Laval nozzle with high velocity, non-turbulent cold air to “explode” each filament into a cluster of microfibres.
• They are installing the first 1.2 meter wide Nanoval head on the spunbond line to make spunbond/Nanoval laminates. Because the Nanoval layer is strong, it does not need the protective extra layer of spunbond required by the meltblown in an SMS structure. Output per hole is 10 times that of meltblown, but because Nanoval uses wider spaced holes, output per meter is currently only double that of meltblown (between 70 and 140 kgs/hr/meter). They expect the system to be commercially available in 2005.

Mr Moller concluded with a conceptual multilayer absorbent laminate made on one machine: a spunbond topsheet, a spunbond 4DG acquisition layer, an M&J pulp/SAP core, a Nanoval barrier layer and spunbond PP/PE bico textile backsheet.

In response to questions, the new spunbond system would spin PP at 6000m/min, PE at 2500-3000 m/min and a PE/PET bico at 8000m/min.

The better economics of the Nanoval approach to microfibres would cut the cost of barrier fabrics dramatically.

A new air-lay machine supplier

Alessandro Celli, Nonwovens Director of A.Celli Nonwovens S.p.A described the philosophy behind their recent development of an air-lay machine to complement their winder business. Celli’s historical core business was the supply of turnkey wet-laid tissue machines up to 5.6 meters wide and running at 1800 m/min. Supplying winders to the nonwovens industry was a side-line, but they had established themselves in this market and felt their pulp knowledge and laying skills could be exploited in the air-lay sector.

• The “Wingformer” air-lay machine uses an innovative process which does not copy any existing technology.
• The fibre distribution system is based on R&D and mathematical modelling at the University of Pisa and achieves better integration of electronics, software, and mechanics than others.
• They feel there is a need for more sturdily built equipment and their experience with tissue machines allows them to provide this.
• They built 2 formers during 2002, the smaller 1 m wide unit being installed during 2003 in the new Rieter Perfojet nonwoven pilot plant to allow the development of spunlaid/air-laid/spunlace composites.
• The larger commercial line is likely to be installed in the next 3 months.
• After 8 months testing up to March 2004 it has proved capable of high 3D uniformity with both treated and untreated pulps due to its unique wings in the forming zone.
• On treated pulps it has achieved 450 kgs/hr/m throughput.

Photos of the former now at Rieter Perfojet suggest that the Wingformer abandons the flour-sifter principle of the DanWeb and M&J systems in favour of pre-dispersion of the pulp in air prior to forming the sheet from a headbox onto a wire.

A new source of air lay technology

Alexander Maksimow and Kilian Saueressig of the Airlaid Alliance described how this new company had been formed to licence airlaid lines based on McAirlaid’s proprietary bonding technology. Their Supercore® laminate was 100% superabsorbent sandwiched between two layers of hydrogen bonded 100% woodpulp, and point-bond calendered to fix the whole structure together. The use of 100% woodpulp layers maximised the absorbency and wicking compared with either latex or thermal bonding and therefore allowed fluid to spread farther and faster than in cores using these bonding agents. The absence of bonding reduced costs to 80% of a conventional core and Mr Maksimow believed that further optimisation would achieve a 60% cost target. Additional claims made were:

• No gel blocking occurs even with 100% SAP in the centre
• Zero rewet “even after the addition of an extra 50 mls fluid”
• Satisfactory core integrity.

The Airlaid Alliance is primarily interested in selling the “knowledge package”, not in building the machinery.

Hydroentangled air-laid composites

Thomas Fechter of Fleissner used the latest EDANA statistics to show that thermal bonding was the most used staple nonwoven bonding method (174,000 tonnes in 2002) but was in decline, while hydroentanglement had shown double-digit growth to 134,000 tonnes.

His World nonwoven production statistics showed :

• North America 1.2 million tonnes
• W.Europe 1.1 million tonnes
• Asia Pacific 0.64 million tonnes 11% Growth
• Japan 0.34 million tonnes
• Latin America 0.24 million tonnes 10% Growth
• Middle East 0.17 million tonnes 15.5 % Growth
• ROW 0.16 million tonnes 10.5% Growth

The growth figures above were for 2001-2006 and based on INDA estimates, where NA, WE and Japan were combined to average 6% growth. Production in China, presumably included in the above Asia-Pacific data, reached 480,000 tonnes in 2002 having grown at an average rate of 23% for at least a decade.

• In 2006, he expected to see 2,632,000 tonnes of spunlaid, 2,229,000 tonnes of carded, 567,000 tonnes of airlaid, and 202,000 tonnes of wetlaid, with carded growing fastest, followed by spunlaid, airlaid and wetlaid.
• Within Carding, spunlacing would grow fastest to command 16% of the total by 2006 (up from 9% in 1996), the combined latex/thermal bond share declining to 31% (from 39% in 1991). Needlepunching was static at 53%.
• Chinese expansions between 1999 and 2002 were 500% for airlaid, 175% for carded/spunlace, 130% for spunbond, 90% for carded/thermal, and 40% for carded/needled. Carded/latex declined. Wetlaying had expanded 30%.

Mr Fechter thought the ideal nonwoven would have the strength of spunbond, the absorbency of airlaid and the softness of spunlace. He also thought that of all the processes, only spunlace could be developed to provide all three attributes in the same material. To further improve absorbency and strength simultaneously he proposed a polyester/pulp/polyester sandwich with a structured surface to further enhance bulk and softness. If the polyester layers were on-line spunbonds, then a 35,000 tonne line would be possible and this would yield fabric at 65% of the cost of current polyester/viscose staple products on a 12,000 tpy/line. Furthermore it would be thicker and more absorbent than current wipes.

In response to questions, Mr Fechter said spunlace production speeds were currently around 200-250m/min. Fleissner had tried spunlacing with air-jets: it works but the energy transfer levels are (unsurprisingly) low. What levels of pulp-loss could be expected when bonding the laminates? Low, if a high grade pulp were used.

The Honshu air former

Mr Setsuo Toyoshima of Oji-Kinocloth described what was once known as the Honshu airlay process and its use to make the current “BK” and “TDS” low density air-laid products.

The BK process sandwiched air-laid pulp between two thin (~2 gsm) skins of ~1.5inch fibres prior to latex bonding. The finished product had a low density core with soft surfaces giving much better strength and integrity. Its main market is the Oshibori hot-towel, followed by cooking papers, soup filters, oil removal pads, food freezing wraps, fish/meat packs and kitchen wipes. SAP and/or bico short-cut could be added to the pulp layer, in which case food packing, femcare cores and inco-pad cores were the target uses.

The TDS process made high void volume products up to 3500 gsm in basis weight using the same Honshu formers, but here the surfaces were readymade nonwovens or tissues fed into the machine from unwind stands. Core densities of 0.05 gms/cc were typical and the thicker products were die-cut into the finished product shapes. The very high wicking rates achieved by these 3D structures led to applications in volatalising room air-fresheners while the low density allowed its use as a cushion layer in packaging and in wallpaper.

In response to questions, Mr Toyoshima said they were trying the BK process on 100% synthetics. Softwood pulp was preferred for both TDS and BK materials.

A new hydroentangled air-lay supplier

Domenico Milesi of Main S.p.A. compared their business plan with reality after 3 years of operating the air-laid plant in Southern Italy. Table napkins, wet wipes, femcare cores and “miscellaneous” were to be the main applications. “Miscellaneous” required very flexible equipment and this they had installed.

• Their first applications were food-tray absorbents, packaging, panty liners and other hygiene products.
• Now, femcare and wet wipe applications were in difficulty due to lack of growth and competition from spun-lace.
• The panty liner market offered some relief, but these needed local manufacture in the countries where growth was to be expected.
• Preformed diaper cores were still years away (inadequate quality/cost benefit).
• The food pad market has been good, and here new developments will lead to further growth.
• Similarly in wipes for domestic use, new needs are emerging.

Unfortunately, pulp air-lay looks unlikely to meet those needs so Main SpA have decided to add a spunlacing capability to their existing line rather than doubling their capacity. To do this they are collaborating with ORSA in the “ORMA” venture, which begins production next month. He explained that increasing the strength of pulp airlay by using more bico fibre (€2.5/kg) was expensive compared with using PES (€1.2/kg), so carding PES and using it to reinforce pulp would give a similar priced product with even better properties. What products would be targeted on the new system?

• Impregnated personal care wipes (ship dry/use wet, only the central pulp layer would carry the dry-powder ingredient)
• Dedicated cleaning wipes of the Swiffer variety.
• Dedicated industrial wipes e.g. lint-free products for the printing industry.
• 2-sided wipes: abrasive – soft for kitchen use.

Asked if filters would be a possibility if 100% synthetic fibres were used, Mr Milesi thought not. They would be too expensive.

Small-scale air-lay

Henning Skov-Jensen of M&J Fibretech illustrated how small air-lay lines could make high value products profitably. Wound-care products from SCA Molnlycke, male inco-pouches from Conveen Colorplast, carbon powder and fibre blends with woodpulp for filters, and fuel-cell membranes were examples of commercial successes. At the other end of the scale, they now had an air-lay head capable of 2.5 tonnes/hr/meter for a 100,000 tpy diaper core machine. Asked about powder handling capabilities, Mr Jensen said they could do 80% SAP/20% Pulp mixtures, but 35% SAP seemed to be optimum for an air-laid core.

Thin air-laid cores

John Tharpe of R&L Engineering reviewed a method of making thin preformed cores using air-laid technology. He pointed out that since the core forming methods had been developed for one piece diapers, pulp usage per diaper had fallen from 60 gms to 12 gms, implying that a better method of core making must now be possible.

He had tested a variety of ways of converting air-laid pulp/SAP sheets into cores and favoured Z-folding the two edges followed by creating what looked like primitive stand-up leg-gathers from the top edges of the core. These final origami-like folds created a target area below the coverstock and tended to raise up as they got wet, thereby separating the topsheet from the core. He argued that this meant an ADL was not required giving a cost saving that allowed this approach to slightly undercut the on-line core forming methods.

The folding idea avoided prior Z-fold art. The hammer-mill, drum former and SAP units of a conventional diaper line could be replaced with an unwinder for the airlaid, and a Z-folder. He thought this would run at 1000 diapers/min and realise $0.5million capital cost savings per line. (This approach was proposed by Jim Hanson several years ago).

Pre-formed diaper cores

Rich Chapas (Consultant) listed the reasons why preformed cores had failed:

• Logistical problems associated with low run-time and frequent roll changes
• The volume of fluid to be absorbed was greater – therefore thicker products were needed.
• Some diapers needed shaped pads.
• No clear benefits to the consumer had emerged from all the testing.
• No clear cost advantage for the manufacturers had emerged.

The advantages of pre-forming over the in-line forming systems now in use were clearly insufficient:

• Lower capital, energy and maintenance
• Greater flexibility of material use
• Multi-layering possible with a wide range of densities
• Lower waste, improved quality, easy start ups

Mr Chapas thought that diaper performance had been improved so dramatically by the use of leg cuffs and acquisition/distribution layers that the clear technical superiority of the pre-formed core was undetectable in use.

For the future, new materials such as Wellman’s porous polyester fibre (in cross-sectional view this looks like a tubular sponge) and Lysac’s bio-based SAP would improve core design. The Wellman fibre showed high absorbency and rapid wicking compared with standard polyester. Lysac’s SAP absorbency was higher due to it being as absorbent of saline as it was of distilled water, giving double the free-swell capacity and treble the centrifuge retention capacity of conventional SAP. However new technologies such as Tyco’s use of cellulose acetate tow as SAP carrier in a pulp-free core, and new absorbent foams will have to be taken into account.

Better wet-wipes machinery

Alessandro D’Andrea of Fameccanica Data S.p.A considered the problems of designing wet-wipe production machinery to produce a basic range of wet-wipes using 2 different nonwovens and 2 different liquids to make economy, mid-range and high-quality wipes. One of the fabrics would have to be soft, and one of the liquids would have to be creamy for the high quality fabric, the opposite being the case for the economy version.

The differing frictional regimes created by these combinations meant differing levels of overlap in folding to get the right pop-up characteristics for the consumer. The differing overlaps meant differing folded widths and hence differing flow-pack sizes and differing stacking and pallet characteristics. Fameccanica had solved these problems by introducing the new “W-fold” as an alternative to the traditional folding patterns, all of which gave width changes as overlap levels were altered.

Unwind problems were the greatest cause of efficiency losses. Mr D’Andrea considered 4 possible unwind configurations:

• 10 individual reels – manual splicing
• 20 individual reels – manual splicing
• 1 Jumbo Roll slit on-line to 10 lanes – manual splicing
• 2 half-Jumbo rolls slit to 5 lanes each, with automatic splicing.

Efficiency measurements increased from 76.4% for Option 1, through 79.9% and 81.2% to 99.8% for Option 4.

Many factors contribute to the consumer’s perception of value when using wet-wipes, the most important being the appearance and thickness of the fabric. Consumer panel studies showed that for thickness increases ranging from 10% to 60%, the acceptable price increase was 3% to 20%, roughly a third of the thickness increase. So, Fameccanica now offer on-line embossing to create extra bulk and distinctiveness in the wipes produced. This removes the need to buy the more costly embossed nonwovens and provides more flexibility to the smaller producers.

Asked if their machines would cope with 2-sided wipes, one side harsh, the other soft, Mr D’Andrea said they would, but he would recommend separate wetting stations for each side.

Flushability review

Calvin Woodings (Consultant) reviewed flushable disposables development drawing on work carried out in Courtaulds Research and on the recent sharp increase in US flushability patenting.

Disposal of disposables in the liquid waste stream where the sewage infrastructure could transport the waste to aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation units would be cleaner and more energy efficient than landfilling. For this to be possible, disposables would have to be designed to be processed down this route, and to date this has proved difficult without sacrificing some of their convenience.

By using several of the newer nonwoven technologies in combination, the development of true flushables was now looking more feasible:

• Laying pulp reinforced with short biodegradable man-made fibres on air- or wet-lay systems.
• Low-pressure hydroentanglement to increase the strength temporarily. (hydrodisentanglement occurs later in turbulent water).
• Film/fibre laminates which are waterproof when wetted from one side yet dispersible when wetted from both.
• Ion-sensitive binders to increase wet-strength.
• Blends of polyethylene oxide and polyethylene to make fibres, spunbonds and films with varying degrees of absorbency and solubility.

Tissue market overview

Andrew Battista of RISI (part of Paperloop) reviewed the tissue market and considered how its trends could affect the nonwovens industry.

• Tissue demand continued to rise and was predicted to reach 7 million tonnes in 2005 in North America compared with 5.5 million tonnes in 1995.
• In Europe the demand was growing faster from 4 million tonnes in 1995, to 5.7 million tonnes in 2005.
• Compared with the paper industry as a whole these were healthy figures considering graphic papers (newsprint etc) had shown a 15% decline.
• Tissue consumption growth remained strongest in Latin America (5.4%) and Asia (5%) compared with W. Europe’s 3.2% and North America’s 2.1%.
• Capacity expansions were broadly matching these figures, with 540,000 additional tonnes coming on stream in North America, 600,000 tonnes in W Europe, 370,000 tonnes in Latin America and 947,000 tonnes in Asia (2003-2005).
• Worldwide, a million tonnes of new capacity would be added each year for the next three years and this would exceed the expected demand growth.
• From the nonwoven industries viewpoint, pulp prices could be expected to increase through 2005, from around $500/t to ~$700/t.
• There would be enormous cost pressure on tissue producers worldwide, and tissue rices could be expected to rise by 5-6% during this summer.

Microporous film development

Rick Jezzi of Clopay described monolithic breathable films as typically a copolyester film capable of absorbing moisture on one side and evaporating it from the other. These are commercial but at $3/lb they are too costly for disposables. Microporous breathable films are thin open-celled foams, the pores of which are generally small enough to prevent the passage of liquid water, but large enough to allow vapour through. Polyethylene (any type) could be filled (>40%) with fine particles, typically 0.1 to 5 micron calcium carbonate, coated to improve dispersion and stretched after extrusion to elongate the holes created by the particles.

MD stretching was most common and this was adjusted to give an average 1.5 micron pore size. Unfortunately the pore size varied quite a bit and it was possible to get some “spotting” due to tiny amounts of liquid breakthrough.

A better process involved interdigitating rollers (“ring rolling”) which stretched the film over small areas in the cross direction while also applying MD stretch. This process gives pores around 0.25 microns with much less variability and zero liquid leakage. If PP film is used, larger pores are obtained from the same filler size and stretching process.

Bicomponent spunbond and meltblown die technology

Mark Snider of Nordson described work aimed at optimising quality from their 1.2m wide pilot spunbond line. Variations in air-flow of up to 10% can occur and variations in temperature of 36 0C were discovered by thermal imaging. A new “coat-hanger” polymer distribution system and the use of electrical rather than oil heating of the spinnerette gave a 60% improvement in the regularity of 17 gsm fabric production.

Asked if his system would handle PLA resins, Mr Snider said confidential development work was in progress.

INDA Vision – Las Vegas 26th – 28th January 2004

FTC: Truth in Advertising

Elaine Kolish, Associate Director for Enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said they had powers to remedy deceptive or unfair advertising or labelling in the form of:

• Cease and desist orders
• Court Order banning the advertisement
• Enforcing a corrective advertising campaign
• Enforcing refunds to consumers

The 2-step enquiry following a complaint first establishes how a reasonable consumer would perceive the suspect claims and then looks for competent and reliable evidence to substantiate this perception. If the claims are qualified, such qualifications must be prominent and presented in clear, easily understandable language and positioned near to the claim wherever it is made.

Some examples of problem claims are:

• “Environmentally Friendly”: needs qualification except in the rare event that the product is EF in all the ways a reasonable consumer might understand the phrase.
• If a “Green Award” is to highlighted, then an explanation of exactly what the award was for would be required.
• “Recycled or Recyclable” needs to be followed with a statement of which parts of the product or package are being considered and how the recycling is to take place. Recycling is assumed to be possible in the local community and in many cases a “Recyling may not be possible in your area” statement will be required.
• “Please Recycle” is regarded as a claim that the product can be recycled in your area.
• Use of the standard polymer identification symbol implies recyclability.
• “Biodegradable” is understood to mean that the product will disappear in reasonable time in a landfill. Because landfills are so variable this claim is rarely acceptable for solid waste stream disposal. The term can be used if the product is biodegradable in the liquid waste stream and is designed to be flushed down the sink or toilet.
• “Non-toxic” is understood to apply to all life-forms, not just humans and animals.
• “Made in the USA” implies all or virtually all domestic content and therefore negligible foreign content. Qualifiers are allowed e.g. “60% US content” or “Made in the USA from imported steel”, if truthful and backed by evidence.
• “New” used to imply that the product had been on the market for no longer than 6 months. Now with extended test marketing being common, the more liberal interpretation of a reasonable consumer is used.

In response to a question, Ms Kolish was not aware of any FTC thinking on “Flushability” claims. In fact she thought this was an area which need not concern them. Labelling a product as flushable when in fact it blocked drains was a sure way to lose customers.

Antimicrobials Labelling

David Savardi, also with Keller and Heckmann LLC , was a certified industrial hygienist and therefore well qualified to deal with the subtleties of antimicrobial product claims where the FDA and the EPA jurisdictions overlapped with regard to FIFRA. Pesticides were regulated by, and must be registered with, the EPA, but a pest was defined to exclude microorganisms on man, animals or on their processed foods. Such excluded products came under the FDA. In outline, if the antimicrobial claims were public health related then the FDA would be interested, otherwise the EPA. However:

• The use of antimicrobials in plastic chopping boards was investigated by the EPA because here they ruled that the antimicrobial was to protect the plastic, not the user of the plastic.
• The use of antimicrobials to protect paint and wallpaper from mould and mildew used to be a clear-cut EPA issue, but recently these moulds have caused allergic reactions so the FDA are taking an interest. No implication that such treatments can improve human health by reducing allergies is allowed.

A key issue is how reasonable people interpret any claim. “Antibacterial” is not acceptable to the FDA because it implies an ability to control a disease. “Antimicrobial” is acceptable so long as it is qualified to prevent anyone from inferring a public health benefit. In particular the wording must not create the impression that the article so treated provides protection against disease-causing bacteria. The FDA argue that “safe” levels of antimicrobial are insufficient to be effective against organisms other than those in direct contact with the article.

• Trademarks can imply bacterial control. “Microban” is a case in point, but here the EPA have decided to allow it given suitable qualifying phrases.
• Antimicrobial drapes and gowns used in surgery and other treated medical devices require approval from both the FDA and the EPA.
• Antimicrobial wipes cannot claim to control microbes on the surfaces wiped. The required 60 second plus contact time is never achieved in real-life wiping.
• Stating an article contains an EPA registered pesticide is misleading because it implies government endorsement of the article. Such a claim must clearly refer to the pesticide and not the article.

In response to questions:

• The EPA are getting less aggressive because they have lost a few cases recently. However they will not move to change their guidelines or streamline their approval processes until pushed hard. Unfortunately there is no public pressure for liberalising the use of pesticides even if they do improve the quality of life.
• Who should regulate the antimicrobials used in detergents to control microbes on clothing? That would be a pesticide, which would have to be registered with the EPA.

Substantiating Promotional Claims

Richard Mann of Keller and Heckman LLC pointed out that while obvious “puff” such as “best product in the universe” is allowable and does not need substantiating, any more credible claim does. Substantiation must be in place before any claims are made and he suggested that R&D, Legal and Marketing personnel needed to work together during the final stages of product development to make sure that the right claim-support data was obtained. Claims have to mirror the substantiation exactly: there can be no subtle broadening of the claim as “marketing-speak” replaces the technical facts.

The Law has an armoury against misleading claims:

• The US Constitution
• Federal Trade Commission Act
• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
• Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)
• Federal Lanham Act
• Local (State) consumer protection laws

Anticipation of how the general public is likely to interpret a claim is essential, and here focus groups are a good approach.

In response to questions:

• Internet advertising is an area where foreign companies in particular appear to have scant regard for substantiation of claims. This does not mean that the Internet can be treated differently. Here the FTC is in catch-up mode, but they are chasing outrageous web-site claims and the only sensible approach is to regard your web-site as an extension of the packet label. In fact the printing of a URL on a pack can be taken to mean that the website is legally an extension of the label. As an aside, the FTC are also going after spammers and request all recipients of spam to forward it to UCE@FTC.com.
• The 30-minute TV “infommercials” are currently getting away with some outrageous claims: the FTC has them in its sights.
• “FDA Approved” is often misused as a claim. It must be made clear that the approval relates specifically to the process used to test the product and not to the product itself.

Long Term Energy Outlook

Elissa Sterry of ExxonMobil was unable to present her paper so C Dru Kephalos the moderator also from ExxonMobil did it for her. This detailed overview of the data used to arrive at ExxonMobil’s long-range view of global energy requirements contained the following highlights:

• Oil and gas will remain the primary energy sources through 2050.
• Coal is becoming more economic than natural gas for power generation.
• Auto gasoline use will continue to increase as engine efficiency gains are offset by increasing 3 rd world use of cars.
• Oil prices will increase steadily from around 2020 as more costly oil sources have to be tapped into.
• As demand rises above 2.5 trillion barrels/year(~2050), unconventional energy sources will have to be developed.
• Renewable energy use will increase dramatically to about 0.2% of total energy required.
• The growth in CO 2 emissions will continue unabated as China and India’s economies grow. (Coal use is increasing)
• The only technology likely to improve on current diesel or hybrid gasoline vehicles is the gasoline fuel cell. Hydrogen requires electricity or expensive fuel cells and will not be economically viable.

Hybrid Vehicle Energy Use compared with other technologies

Asked how polypropylene prices would move over this period, Mr Kephalos showed a slide to indicate they would depend totally on oil and gas prices, and therefore could be expected to increase over the time period considered.

High Performance Team Building

Jerry Ballas (Consultant, ex Manufacturing VP of Kimberly Clark and Scott Paper) described his experiences developing high-performance teams in the manufacturing sector.

Traditional organisations are function-focussed, with top-down goals to be achieved with limited information and a high degree of management control and direction. Their Control Paradigm involves Heirarchies, Top-down policies, Mushroom Management, and decision making by Bosses.

The High Performance organisation is customer-focussed with shared goals to be achieved with unlimited information availability and a high degree of worker commitment and empowerment. Its Commitment Paradigm is customer-driven, managed by principles, free with information, encouraging of constructive disagreement and allowing decisions to be made locally by the team.

Changing from one to the other is complicated and fraught with difficulties:

• Resistance to change: the leader needs to focus on a real external threat or opportunity, develop an inspiring vision, demonstrate confidence in the teams ability to succeed, set clear accountability for results and, above all, be the role-model for all of the above.
• Far fewer managers are required: such teams are 30-40% more efficient than traditionally managed teams.
• The team-leaders role inevitably leads to redundancy. The leader first leads, then participates in, then becomes a member of the now self-directed team, and finally moves outside it as the team becomes self-managed and hence fully empowered.

The key steps to the necessary empowerment are:

• Treating people with dignity and enhancing their self-esteem.
• Share information about the business, its goals and its customers.
• Focus on WHAT not on HOW
• Treat every mistake as a learning experience
• Create freedom by setting boundaries (“If the cliff-edge is fenced-off you go right up to it knowing you’re safe”)
• A fully empowered team is responsible for recruiting its own members.
• The leader of a fully empowered team is a boundary manager who provides feedback, resources, agreement on goals and support.

Leadership is the key to the change.

Asked how big or small these teams should be, Mr Ballas said 8-10 is ideal. However with a 4-shift system, each team covers all 4 shifts. So, much larger teams are necessary in practice – up to 18 per shift.

Failing to prepare the team-leaders for redundancy was the most common implementation mistake.

Supply Chain Management

Professor Jim Crowell, MD of the Supply Chain Management Research Centre at the Sam Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas emphasised the growing importance of supply chain management, and described the CPFR system:

• CPFR® = Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment – a collection of business practices published by VICS (Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Standards) to “facilitate collaboration between suppliers and retailers and to set standards for communication, data-flow and process on a global basis”.
• It uses the internet to “reduce inventory and expense while increasing sales and customer service”.
• They hope to halve inventory throughout the chain to around 70 days.
• E.g. HP and Compaq merger allowed Supply Chain improvements:
  • The combined company spent $37 billion on direct materials
  • Within 30 days of merger the new size was reflected in pricing.
  • Operating costs were cut by $3.5billion, $1.55bn being supply chain costs.
• SCMRC are analysing data to improve order forecasting, especially to reduce the “bull-whip” effect where small swings in consumer demand are amplified by each step in the supply chain to yield massive swings in raw material suppliers orders.
• A white paper by SCMRC and the Retail Optimisation Council proposes the use of statistical models and probability theory to forecast what happens when a consumer is faced with price change, promotions or non-availability of goods. This should improve on the current method involving analysis of sales history.

So, focussing on demand could be better than focussing on supply.

Global Nonwovens?

Etienne Ficht of Fibertex A/S was asked to consider the relevance of globalisation to nonwovens producers. His long, carefully researched and thoughtful presentation drew on numerous academic, strategic and business sources and concluded:

• Companies now considered as “Global” have turnovers in excess of $1bn, employ upwards of 10,000 people of numerous nationalities in over 100 different countries, with multiple sites and facilities per country.
• While some of their customers are clearly global, nonwoven producers to date operate on an entirely different scale.
• The bottleneck does not appear to be availability of capital. NW companies no longer create new ideas internally so have to buy growth by acquisition.

So, globalisation may be a buzzword, but it is not relevant for the nonwoven industry. Nonwoven producers need to focus on accessing information and knowledge and expertise in people and in human relationships wherever they can be found.

Creativity Workshop

Steve Grossman (Consultant) ran an extended Creativity Workshop because bad weather prevented the next speaker’s attendance.

• He defined creativity as ideation involving a change in perception and an act of recognition: seeing something others had missed.
• Classical “Brainstorming” rules hinder the creative process and if brainstorming works at all it is simply because it identifies numerous poor ideas which clear the way enabling the good one’s to be recognised later.
• Better to ask the future problem-solving participants to prepare 5 good ideas each and come to the meeting prepared to present them at the start.
• The forethought required prepares the brain, and when the prepared solutions have been dealt with, something like brainstorming can commence.
• The second sacred-cow of classical brainstorming – asking participants to suspend judgement needs to be dumped.
• The self-control required to suspend judgement inhibits creative output. People must be allowed to react to ideas as and when they wish.
• If being negative, they must identify at least one unique/useful aspect of the idea and then say what is missing: i.e. identify the opportunity that might lie within the idea.

All four corporate personality types need to be represented at creativity sessions. These are the Analyser, the Implementer, the Collaborator and the Imaginater, and they will of course need a disinterested Facilitator (a consultant perhaps) to keep order. When an idea worth funding emerges it must be sold to Management, another group comprising the four personality types. The presentations will therefore need adapting to deal with the needs of each of these types who should be approached individually to start with. Alternatively, the ultimate Decision Maker could take part in the Creativity Session if he agrees to be the most creative person present, and concentrates on finding value in the ideas of the others.

Idea Forum Project

Beth High of SAS could not give “Implementation and Results of SAS's Idea Forum Project” due to flight cancellation. However the written paper was a Company Confidential “Presentation to Sponsors”, the most informative slide quoting SAS Worldwide Marketing's Strategic Advisor: “IF is a great source of out-of-the-box ideas….Whether the team's actual ideas are implemented or not is less important than the team's unique ability to stimulate creative thinking”.

Harnessing Creativity the Weyerhaeuser Way

Under the title “Improving the Bottom Line through Innovation: How Weyerhaeuser Did It”, Weyerhaeuser's Director of Pulp Product Development, Dr Peter Balousek provided an example of how everyone's natural creativity can be harnessed to save money in a 15 person sales office. Here innovative ideas for ways of working more efficiently were continuously but unofficially generated in a “safe haven” environment where everyone had common goals and was encouraged to initiate time and cost saving improvements to their daily tasks. $500,000 was saved in a year, which as Dr Balousek calculated, would be a $2 billion improvement in the bottom line if all 60,000 employees adopted the same approach. The written paper contained puff, a definition of innovation, and nothing about the study. A company spokesman admitted embarrassment.

INDA's Visionary Awards 2004

P&G's Thermacare™ pain-relieving heat wraps were entered for the second year and this year the company was able to show new versions. In fact since Vision 2003, according to P&G presenter Andy Cipra, ThermaCare™ has become the US No1 over the counter external analgesic and is now in the top 10 products in the pain-relief category.

P&G's Thermacare Pain relief heat wraps

Karl Ronn, P&G's VP for Home Care R&D presented the Swiffer® Duster , a fluffy combination of polyolefin tow fibres and strips of lightweight nonwovens on a plastic handle, developed by Unicharm and licenced by P&G.

Kimberly Clark's Ed Leaphart passionately presented the Huggies Convertibles™ pull-up diaper, which can become a normal refastenable diaper when required.

Dr De-Sheng Tsai presented Easy-o-Fit™ face masks from Golden Phoenix Fiberwebs Inc. of Taipei , Taiwan . These all-in-one sonically-bonded die-cut laminates of gently elastic nonwovens had loops for the ears and when worn, conformed perfectly and comfortably to the contours of the face.

But the winner was… “Brillo Scrub'n'Toss”, a non-scratch, reusable nonwoven laminate intended to update and extend the old steel-wool Brillo Pad product line, presented by Dion Ross of Church and Dwight Inc. (See below)

Rory Holmes presents the Vision Award to Dion Ross

From the Table Top displays

Elastic Polyolefins

ExxonMobil showed impressively elastic spunbonds and films made from their new Vistamaxx semi-crystalline polyolefins. The plant to make these is under construction in Baton Rouge , and later this year this will be capable of producing ~100kta of pellets. The spunbond's elasticity derives from polymer crystallinity control enabled by the Exxpol metallocene catalyst and solution polymerisation reactor technology. It is not achievable using the traditional Ziegler-Natta catalyst system.

They also introduced their Achieve™ 6936G1 metallocene PP for meltblowing. With a melt flow rate of 1500, they expect improved processability into a wider range of meltblowns, with potential for better fluid barrier performance.

Flushability

Georgia Pacific claimed to be close to having a flushable wet wipe based on dispersibility achieved by binder development.

Vinamul also claimed to have flushable binders under development but were concerned that the nonwovens industry would not entertain a premium for this improvement in quality. Apparently most consumers were already flushing whatever wipes were used in the bathroom and were unlikely to pay extra for something that might only reduce the already low frequency of blockages.

Wet Wipes

Sage Products were now operating their new 5.5 metre wide Dilo needlepunch line to make the rayon/lyocell/PET substrates for their Comfortbath range of microwavable bathing towels. The line was working at 1500-1700 lbs/hour throughput and 12 m/min. Two-thirds of the capacity of this new line was available for sale, suggesting that Comfortbath currently consumes 2000 tonnes/year of majority-lyocell blend. Sales of Comfortbath continue to grow, the latest success being the contract to supply the US Army in Iraq . Retail sales were developing slowly through Walgreens and more recently Wal-Mart.

Triad Disposables announced the opening of a dedicated wipes manufacturing plant in Wisconsin , with specific areas for handling flammable liquids and gels. This is their fourth plant. Personal care, Household and Institutional wipes will be produced in separate areas. Coincidentally a new PCMC RX200C Clipper installation in an older plant increases their capacity and allows the production of a wider range of wipes types and packaging.

Barnhardt Manufacturing were promoting the 2003 Nielsen study showing that 56% of mothers believe the baby wipes they buy contain cotton. When told that no cotton was in use in US baby-wipes, 45% thought cotton would improve them, 56% would prefer to buy a cotton-containing wipe, and 66% would be prepared to pay a premium for a cotton content. With regard to the cotton content of an improved wipe, the average expectation was for 56%.

Several of the contract packers were suggesting that the way forward involved developing higher value wet-wipes, the value arising from more effective lotions or from novel constructions e.g mitts.

New abrasive wipe

Church and Dwight , along with their contract packer Pacon were showing the Brillo “Scrub and Toss” reusable multipurpose pads, said to be the first departure from steel wool in Brillo's history. Much thinner and more flexible than the sponge/abrasive cleaners of old, this rayon/pp thermalbond from BBA laminated to what looks like a singed blue polyester needlefelt targets a much wider range of cleaning jobs than the old Brillo product. Pacon, who were also showing wipes in mitt form, claimed to have co-developed 2 more of this years top 20 Vision Award finalists.

Church & Dwight Table - Scrub & Toss - Dion Ross

Elastic Face Mask

Golden Phoenix Fiberwebs Inc promoted their Bio-A-Safe™ Easy-O-Fit™ non-latex disposable facemasks. These were comfortable to wear, pleasingly-shaped masks apparently made from hydroentangled polyolefin (probably bico) fabric which had been point-bonded in a calender and with sonically bonded seams. The whole was gently elastic enough to stretch over the ears so that the mask closely fitted the whole face below the eyes. Dr De-Sheng Tsai, the inventor felt the fabric could be used in a wide range of products requiring low-modulus elasticity and within five years would be biodegradable as well. The elasticity seemed more due to the CD properties of the parallel-laid nonwoven than to any inherent elasticity in the fibers.

CRW 2/2/04

Insight - Nashville 19th – 23rd October 2003

More than 500 of the great and good of the nonwoven industry, 50 having travelled from Europe, assembled for 5 days in gloriously sunny Nashville for a conference of 27 sequential papers arranged to allow ample time for questions and networking.

It was the 25th event in this independent series of conferences organised by Marketing Technology Services of Kalamazoo Michigan, and marked a quarter of a century of top-class programmes, always up to the minute and often controversial, arranged by Jim Hanson and his team.

The Evolution of Diapers

Donald Sheldon, VP Absorbent Products of the Tyco Healthcare Retail Group Inc. reviewed the US development of diapers from the 1950’s cloth diaper services through Victor Mills development of Pampers to the present day. He argued that current diapers were too complex, the complexity arising from the limitations of the Pulp/SAP core structure which absorbed too slowly requiring ADL’s and leg cuffs to manage the unabsorbed volume until the core caught up.
He thought future diapers would have a core of SAP and filaments with built in odor management and an SMS backsheet, the whole structure allowing all-over stretch. They would prevent heat build-up and discomfort and would look and feel like textile underwear. Furthermore they would be free of surfactants, lotions and antimicrobials to avoid creating future allergy or resistance problems.
Asked if there was any patent coverage on the SAP/Filament core Mr Sheldon said there were 26 patents* with more to come. What about air-laid cores? They gave no real advantages and required a massive investment to use: maybe $1m/diaper line. Filaments would prove cost-effective compared with pulp, and a training-pant design would gain share in the main diaper market as it had done in Japan.

Absorbent Hot Melts

Pat Kellogg of H B Fuller pointed out the deficiencies of current SAP powders:

• Most diapers are discarded with some SAP unused.
• Airborne SAP is a safety hazard.
• SAP gel on baby’s skin is a concern for mothers.
• Backsheets are easily punctured by SAP.
  
  A number of ways of fixing the SAP in place had been evaluated:

• Mixing SAP with hot melt polymer.
• Coating SAP with fine hot melt powder and fusing it to the pulp.
• Adding hot-melt powder to the drum former.
• In-situ polymerisation of SAP monomers to give a SAP bonded core.

Of these simply mixing SAP with hot-melt looked best if the carrier, application and performance issues could be solved:

• Water soluble hot melts failed because they competed with the SAP for fluid.
• EVA was not good.
• Thermoplastic elastomers didn’t work.
• But, hydrophilic versions of TPE did.

The form of SAP to be added to this carrier was clearly important:

• Big particles caused problems.
• Fines seived from the process were better than normal SAP.
• Especially ground and sifted powder was best but still not right.
• So, Fuller developed a new form of SAP.

The resulting “Hydrolock®” hot-melt absorbs 30 g/gm of water in one minute and 30/gm/gm 0.9% saline in 8 minutes. Saline absorbency under load is 28.4 and the lubricity (ASTM D-2266) is <1mm so it should not wear out the nozzles. Flow-rate versus metering pump speed is linear, and when applied by the usual hot melt equipment it sticks to whatever it lands on and stays put.

The benefits: No dusting or sifting, lower waste, faster line speeds possible, lower loadings possible, can apply it where its most needed i.e. leg gathers, thinner backsheets can be used, and super thin pulp-free products become possible.

In response to questions, Mr Kellogg added:

• It’s not designed to be flushable but it would help design of flushable products.
• Results with synthetic blood have been variable, but consumer testing has been very positive.
• No special nozzle filters are needed.
• Application should be at 250 0C. The product is unstable at 300 0C.
• SAP/Adhesive ratio? The performance is not based on SAP content alone.
• Could the SAP separate out? No.
• The acquisition rate may be too slow for diaper use, except maybe as a leakage barrier
• It is not recommended as an adhesive. The cohesion is lost in water.
• %SAP? Not a valid question. It’s a 100% absorbent hot melt.

Polyester for Airlaid

Keith Carnes of Wellman Inc described how the absorbency/retention of air-laid core materials is affected by additions of polyesters of different deniers and in differing concentrations. The studies were carried out on a 12” DanWeb pilot line, the control diaper core being 40% Sumitomo Aquakeep SA55S, 50% Weyco NB416 fluff pulp and 10% KoSa T255 PE/PET bico fiber at 600 gsm and 0.12 g/cc density. An adult incontinence control had the same structure at 250 gsm.

• Replacing SAP with PET fiber whilst maintaining fabric weight improves absorbency, retention and acquisition time over a range of differing constructions and densities.
• Reducing the PET denier from 11 to 3 improved absorbency (rate and capacity). The optimum denier may be lower still.
• Hydrophilic finishes on the PET were better than hydrophobic finishes.
• If core weight is reduced by substituting PET for pulp, absorbency generally improves.

Mr Carnes concluded that further studies with finer PET fibers, different finishes and higher PET levels were now needed. He also mentioned a new absorbent polyester, a copolymer with polyethylene glycol, which had a contact angle of 54 0 compared with rayon’s 58 0 (his measurement) and regular polyester’s 76 0 . It also showed a diameter swelling of 20% on wetting and was now being patented.

Hydrogen bonded Airlaid

Krishna Kumar, Manager of R&D for Novathin at Rayonier Corp. sought to dispel concerns about the stiffness, strength and absorbent rate of their hydrogen bonded air-laid cores.

• The compression modulus of a 200 gsm core with 25% SAP could be reduced from the normal 5.5 N/mmto 2.5 by changing the process options and to 1.3 by changing the raw material options. (Gurley stiffness down from 350 to 255 gf.)
• Third insult acquisition time could be reduced from 45 to 19, 14 or 11 seconds by three separate approaches to improving on the control.
• Elongation could be increased from 3% to 11% and tenacity from 19.5 to 23.5 N/5cms while reducing density from 0.33 to 0.27 g/cc by two other approaches.
• For a 400gsm core with 55% SAP, thickness could be increased by 50%, strength by 15%, and third insult acquisition time reduced from 33 to 23 seconds.

In summing up, Mr Kumar said that Novathin was now available in weights from 80 to 700 gsm, with densities of 0.1 to 0.45 and containing 0 to 70% of SAP. Novel forms of pulp were now being investigated. What about pre-formed diaper cores? The current value proposition was better performing cores at the same cost as the on-line cores.

Bico Fibers for Airlaid

Ida Pittman, a Senior Development Engineer with Kosa showed how their Type T255 PET-Core, Co-PE sheath bico gives the highest strength bonds to woodpulp while T254 with its Co-PET sheath gives best bonding to polyester. When bico contents are below 15%, pulp-bico bonds predominate in defining the strength, whereas above 15% bico, the bonds between the bico fibers predominate. 15% is therefore the concentration of bico which in these trials gave the most variability in web strengths, so 20% or above is recommended. Interestingly, this “transition concentration” was different for different fiber types, and so needed to be determined for every web type. Other conclusions from the study:

• Tensile strength of the pulp/bico blends is affected most by basis weight, then by bico concentration and bico length; bico denier being least important.
• 20% 4mm bico gives the same strength as 10% 8mm bico.
• Reducing the bico denier from 2.8 to 1.5 increases strength by 50%
• Replacing a sixth of the bico with solid PET fibers yields a softer more resilient web without loss of tensile.
• Hollow PET gives more bulk.

In response to questions, crimp effect had not been studied, some hydrophilicity is lost as the sheath polymer melts, but Kosa use finishes designed better to stay on the surface. Asked if density had been held constant throughout the trials, Ms Pittman said it had not been deliberately varied.

Agricultural Airlaid

Annette Skyt of Dan-Web Holding’s Dan Core division argued that there may be a case for smaller air-laid lines than those that had created the global oversupply situation. Lines of 1000 to 4000 tpa output in widths from 250 to 1200 mms would be good for a variety of niche products and would be cheaper to install and more flexible in use. For instance, Kinsei ( Japan) use a narrow Dan Web line to:

• Incorporate orange-juice manufacturing waste into an air-laid web for use as an agricultural mulch.
• Incorporate green tea leaves, bean curd or bamboo into air-laid for use as cat and dog litter. (These bio-wastes all have a natural absorbency and ability to control bacterial growth and odor.)
• Make 8gsm 100% synthetic fiber nonwovens for roofing lining and tea-bags. Make 700 gsm synthetic fiber nonwoven from 72 denier fiber.

Also in Japan cheese, bread and milk packaging is being made containing natural moulds to inhibit bacterial growth, and sushi trays are made to inhibit the odor of fish.
In Denmark, wood fibers reinforced with longer natural fibers (e.g. coir or straw) are air-laid and bonded with glue and/or bico fibers to make moulded furniture components. Air-laid wallpaper is also made using 76% Weyco NB416 bonded with 10% Trevira 255 bico and 14% Airflex EP 1188 latex at 118 gsm. The same product is selling as an air-filter, and a lightweight version makes an interesting Oshibori.

Patterned wires from Cofpa allow the forming of individual meat-pads which avoid the problem of SAP in the seams.

Dan-Web’s new inverted air-former lays onto a small transfer conveyor above the main conveyor and allows air-laid to be combined with impervious layers such as film. It can also be configured to lay dry pulp ontop of wet laid pulp above the forming wire of a wet-lay machine.

Absorbing liquids, odors and gases

Steven Bullock, an R&D Section Head with Procter and Gamble’s Babycare and Femcare division , responsible for out-licensing P&G’s technology introduced the absorbent laminate structures (ALS) developed to provide ultra thin femcare cores with built in odor control. This technology, developed in Pescara Italy, sandwiches a core of SAP, odor absorbent and hot melt particles between two nonwovens or tissues, bonds the core and seals the powder-free edges. The bonding powder does not affect the functional powder’s absorbency, and the resulting pads are soft, thin, flexible and easily made at high speed. Powder-free edges are achieved by laying the powder in stripes or rectangular pouches on a nonwoven, followed by heat treatment and hot-melt gluing the top layer of nonwoven in place.

The resulting pads can be 25-1500mms wide and filled with 8-700 gsm of up to 6 different powders of 50-600 microns diameter. The strips can be festooned or reeled. Functional absorbents could be SAP’s, active carbon, zeolite, baking soda, silica gel, potassium permanganate etc. Fruit preservation was mentioned as a novel new possibility. Tomatoes and bananas stayed fresh longer on ALS sheets containing permanganate and zeolite.

Femcare aside, P&G’s consumer testing had shown that the top 5 potential applications would be in fridges, garbage cans, shoe cupboards, shoe insoles and in gym-bags, and all those whose opinions were sought expressed a wish to buy such products. P&G had however decided that such products were too “nichy” and were therefore looking to licence the technology.

In response to questions:

• BBA were already producing the material for P&G panty liners and “special negotiations” would be needed for any licences in the femcare area.
• Active carbon is not used as an odor absorbent for femcare.
• Particle size was not too critical a factor in performance.
• The products did not have FDA approval for direct food contact, but because the actives would not be in direct contact with food, this was not perceived as a problem.

Hydroentangled Spunbond

Frederic Noelle of Rieter Perfojet having recently shown how hydroentanglement could improve the bulk and softness of a fully bonded spunbond now described how hydroentanglement at a very early stage in the process could give fabrics similar to staple products. Previous attempts to HE spunlaid products had taken the consolidated (but unbonded) web from the forming conveyor into the HE bonding unit on a second conveyor. The new Spunjet system positions the HE bonder above the forming conveyor allowing the unconsolidated web to be bonded. The result is efficient bonding at much lower water pressures, and hence thicker fabrics with a better softness/strength balance.

Hydroentangling Spunbonds: Water Pressure versus Strength

Compared with conventional thermal-bonded spunlaid, degradation of fiber strength at the edges of the bond-points is eliminated and the bulk and porosity of the fabric is improved by the absence of the ~20% film-like bond area. Compared to needlebonded spunlaid, finer fibers can be bonded at much lighter weights. Compared to any carded products, spunlaying allows the production of nonwovens with square properties (MD=CD) at higher productivity.

The new process has worked on a commercial scale, i.e. 3.2 m width, running at 400 m/min to give 12,000 tpa output. The machine could spin PP or PET containing additives or colors in deniers between 1 and 6 and in weights between 15 and 600gsm. Patterning of the bonded webs with logos etc. was possible. The line will be commercially on-stream by the end of 2003.

Asked if woodpulp or rayon could be incorporated, Mr Noelle said they were working on this. The high strengths from low water pressures are possible because the web had very low cohesion when it was bonded. The bulk arose because the filaments were effectively crimped by the looping action of hydroentanglement. Water filtration was not an issue, the filaments being perfectly clean and finish free.

Global Diaper Survey

Blake Kuster of Absorbent Technologies Inc reported results from a Sumitomo Seika Chemical Co. study of 110 diaper types from around the world. In addition to core structure, static absorbency/rewet testing of the products had been carried out:

• % SAP ranged from 42% in Japan down to 23% in the Middle East with North America (36.5%), Europe (29.3%), South America (26.8) and the rest of Asia (26%) in between.
• US diapers are the fastest absorbers, the Japanese products appearing to have been designed to give a slower uptake.
• US diapers have the lowest rewet on average, but a UK private label product was best of all in this regard. Asia-Pacific products had the highest average rewet on these lab. assessments.
• The newer perforated film ADL’s look good especially with lower SAP levels.
• SAP containment is still an issue with dusting and pinhole problems especially in private label products containing more than 35% SAP.
• Best performers are not necessarily those with most SAP. 25% SAP efficiently blended and positioned can more than satisfy absorbency demand.
• From a briefly shown master chart of Rewet v %SAP, a Japanese sandwich-type diaper coded DSG4 with 3gms rewet at 16% SAP looked the most remarkable. At the other end of the scale a product coded KC2 with 25% SAP gave a 39 gm rewet. Heavier (>30gsm) ADL’s are needed to get the best out of ultrathin or low SAP cores.
• >70% SAP Possibilities? Only if the current SAP structure changes. Current SAP’s are too coarse and harsh for comfort.

Hygiene Products Material Changes

Pricie Hanna of John R Starr Inc reviewed recent changes in the construction of selected hygienic absorbents:

• K-C’s “Convertibles” used wide-stretch side tabs sonically bonded, and a stretch laminate waistband on a product which could be used either as a pant or as an open diaper.
• K-C’s “GoodNites” with “Trimfit” discreet youth incontinence underpants used a highly densified core with increased SAP and a lofty carded, through air-bonded ADL.
• P&G’s “Pampers Easy-Ups” now had wetness indicators to facilitate potty training and the child’s awareness of wetting.
• Kao’s “Merries” had a versatile mechanical fastening system which could be fastened at the front or the back.
• P&G’s “Always Maxi Pad” now had an extra absorbent layer, an airlaid ADL which reduced leakage.
• SCA Hygiene’s “Libresse Goodnight” pad has an elastic band extended lengthways under the core for better body fit. The core is wide in front, narrow at the crotch and split in half at the (wide) back.
• SCA’s “Libresse with Invisible Wings” is an ultra-thin pad with transparent film barrier, backing and wings for maximum discretion.
• SCA’s “Libresse 2 in 1” is an ultrathin panty liner with the absorbency of a napkin.
• SCA’s “Libresse So Slim” is an ultrathin panty liner daily alternative to extra panties when travelling.
• SCA’s “Libresse Micro” is a very small oval liner in a hard plastic container for everyday use in most panty styles.
• Walmart’s “Assurance Refastenable Underwear” can be pulled up like underwear or changed like an open diaper without removing clothes. It uses an apertured film ADL.

For improved leakage prevention, fluid transport and absorbtion systems are being optimised, extra leg cuffs are being added and improved elastics and elastic fabrics are being developed.

For increased convenience and ease of use, look out for pull-ups with openable sides, adjustable side panels, and easy-to-grip tabs.

For increased comfort, softer spunmelts and lighter nonwoven/film laminates are being used, elastics are getting gentler and cores are getting thinner and hence better fitting due to >50% SAP and improved ADL’s. New film/nonwoven laminates are being used to improve air-flow and hence skin health. For discretion, quietness (softer films) and odor absorbency (modified SAP’s) are being added to the above material changes.

Asked if the pharmaceutical companies would win over disposables, Ms Hanna said that John Starr Inc had helped them understand the market. Pharma solutions appeared to very specific to each of the many causes of incontinence, whereas the disposable products could be applied to all.

She felt that the 8-hour, $5 diaper proposed by Ms Ericksen would be too specialised for the major producers but may be developed by an entrepreneur.

The average SAP content in diapers was now 48%. Next year premium products with 70% SAP would appear.

The wipes market continues to grow as fabric qualities are upgraded. Some of the newer household wipes are showing impressive staying power.

Pharmaceuticals threaten Disposables?

Helena Engqvist (Consultant) warned that the pharmaceutical industry with its massive R&D capability and desire for double-digit growth was beginning to develop products which could reduce the need for hygienic absorbents.

• The Seasonale® drug now on the market reduced the number of periods a woman had per year from 13 to 4. If generally used this would have a dramatic effect on the $18bn disposable femcare industry.
• Adult incontinence, a $6.3bn market in 2002 is being targeted with oxybutylene patches which now have approval for over-the-counter sales.

The pharmaceutical industry has been successful in redirecting its marketing effort from healthcare professionals to consumers and this will continue.

No child left behind - given 8 hour diapers

SusanEricksen, a Special Needs Educational Co-ordinator highlighted the problems of coping with the incontinence of handicapped children in schools in the USA. The time and costs of diapering were significant. Handicapped children attended either Center Based Programs or Public Schools:

• For the Center Based Programs she had calculated that it costs about $7000 to equip one room with the tables, lifts and bolster to allow 2 assistants to change the diapers of the 12 children in the class. Monthly cost of disposables amount to $256 (paid by the parents of each child) and staff time required amounts to one full-time person, or $2120/month. Furthermore, each child loses 40 minutes of education per day to diaper changing.

• The 30,000 multiply-handicapped incontinent students in mainstream US schools change their own diapers, but this takes longer, so they lose 80 minutes per day of educational time or 40 days/year. With each change costing $3.18, the cost per day amounts to $763,200 in the US.

Ms Ericksen made a case for diapers specially designed for these students, a key target being a product which would keep them dry and odor free for the full 8-hour school day. Such a product would be worth at least $5 per diaper, and would, as a much-improved training pant, command a larger market than she had calculated for this paper.

In response to questions: Yes, reusable products would be acceptable. They would have to be sized to fit students up to the age of 26. They could be distributed with the other “special care” needs of the educational system or over the internet.

Chlorox Wipes Case Study

Andrew Kilkenny and Garry Embleton of Chlorox Services Co. pointed out that the early antimicrobial wipes, Dow “Spiffits” and Chlorox “Spruce-Ups” failed because they overpromised and underperformed at a time when consumers were not so aware of the benefits of disinfection and convenience as they are now. So Chlorox reformulated and relaunched in Jan 2000, a week ahead of the competition, the resulting demand exceeding all expectations. The key to their success was collaboration with suppliers:

• They ran 32 wipe constructions in consumer tests to ascertain aesthetic and performance preferences.
• Nonwoven type, Embossing and Binder levels were among the variables studied.
• Cleaning, Disinfection, Absorbency and Dispensability were among the attributes monitored.
• The suppliers who provided the fabrics were allowed direct access to the consumers used for the panel testing.

Contract packers are used for their speed and flexibility compared with in-house converting. These were most helpful in dealing with early complaints related to roping, excess wipe left out of the canister, and fallback into the canister. They reoptimised the perforation pattern and developed a new closure system which allowed storage of excess wipe. Problems with the “logs” collapsing in transit and storage were dealt with by a move to a stiffer substrate.

The success of the relaunch was sustained by introduction of new varieties:

• Thicker/larger wipes
• New Fragrances
• Flushability (for toilet wipes)

Chlorox are looking for new partnerships with suppliers and this appeared to be the main motivation behind the presentation. They feel their “both parties win” approach gives the supplier a proper return for providing a “total value package”, i.e. innovation, low costs, service and high quality. They look for two types of supplier:

• Cost and service driven (Low R&D%)
• Innovative suppliers (High R&D%)

Most suppliers are somewhere between these extremes.

Their “Technology Brokerage” manages the R&D relationship with suppliers, and R&D pervades all aspects of the collaboration. An “R&D relationship owner” works with procurement and the supplier to ensure Chlorox is exposed the suppliers full capabilities. They have also developed a quantitative supplier performance assessment and use this to push opportunities towards the high performing suppliers.

In response to questions:

• Should these relationships with suppliers be exclusive? Yes, and furthermore Chlorox would like a share in any intellectual property they develop.
• Their flushable product is pulp based, and the flushability claims are based on a dispersion test.
• Wipes account for 10% of Chlorox turnover, but Chlorox now have 16-17% of the wipes market.
• They have developed their own wiping tests and “soils”.

The Wipes Market

Susan Stansbury of Arketype Inc provided the latest data on the wipes market:

• INDA put the 2002 North American market at $2.2bn whereas Paperloop estimated a $1.5bn demand.
• Baby wipes were 55% of the total, the rest being 14% Personal and skin care wipes and 31% household wipes.
• North American demand for spunlace was now 100 – 120,000 tonnes/year. Half of this was for wipes, and ~35% for medical.
• The key US producers of spunlace were Dupont, BBA, Green Bay Nonwovens, PGI and Ahlstrom. K-C made it primarily for their own use.
• Airlaid capacity in North America was ~250,000 tonnes, some of this underutilised.
• 60% of the airlaid is in wipes, with Georgia Pacific Nonwovens having the strongest position.
• The wiping sector is set to grow at 6-7% pa for the next 5 years, with 15% pa growth in some niches.
• New wipes continue to emerge, e.g. pet-care, body wipes, antibacterial wipes, and insect repellents.
• Dry wipes typically compete in Food service and in the $1.5bn industrial sector, 32% of which is now disposable rather than reusable products. Most growth is expected for spunlace replacing the reusable shop towels.
• Dry wipes have about 30% of the total nonwoven wiping market and do not grow as quickly as wet wipes.
• Chemically treated versions (delivered dry for wet use) are set for above average growth and could take share from their wet counterparts. (Easier to make and cheaper to deliver. No bioburden issues)

Asked to name some fast-growing niches, Ms Stansbury said many were auto-related. New players , probably contract manufacturers teaming up with marketing companies to make private label products, would enter the field.

PP for Wipes

John Wolhar, Americas Sales Manager for Fibervisions made a case for replacing the viscose in wet-wipes with their newly developed HyEntangle WA fiber. PP has the inherent benefits of low density (more fibers/gm), low melting point (easy embossing), whiteness c.f viscose, cheapness, softness, and excellent chemical resistance. Their older HyEntangle fiber had a specially low dtex, higher tenacity and a low-foam finish and has now been optimised to improve production economy and wiping performance.

Because PP fabrics do not collapse when wet, the 100% PP wipe stays bulkier and maintains a higher wet CD strength. Absorbency and wettability tests carried out with 0.5% detergent solutions looked good. Furthermore because the absorbtion was entirely inter-fiber, 100% PP gave better lotion release than viscose containing wipes.

Does the finish survive hydroentanglement? Yes, for the newer WA fiber.

Is the wiping efficiency as good as the rayon containing products? “It should be OK in wet-wipes”.

IR, RF and Hot Air

Ben Wilson, Sales Manager of PSC Inc pointed out that both radio frequency and infra-red drying needed air-flow to carry the evaporated water away from the drying zone, so combination dryers would be the best solution to most drying problems.

• Hot air dryers were best for holding a product at a temperature for a long time without overheating.
• IR was best for rapid heating of the whole web.
• RF heats the center of a fabric before the outside, while IR does the opposite.
• RF also heats the water preferrentially and dries the wettest parts of a web or fabric first. It therefore removes damp spots and can be used to reduce the variations in moisture content at the end of a hot air or IR system.

RF heating depends on the loss factor of the material in the dryer, but loss factors change on heating. So PP is not sensitive to RF until its temperature goes above 250 0F and then runaway heating leads to meltdown. RF with cool through air drying would be best for such products.

Ultrasonic bonding revisited

Torsten Brieger of Hermann Ultrasonics Inc described how their micro-gap control system is making sonic bonding consistent enough for the most demanding welding and bonding applications. Stepper motors are now used to change the weld-horn position in 0.4 microns steps to compensate for thermal expansion of the titanium horn or variations in thickness of the webs or fabrics. The stepper motors respond to signals from load cells in the actuators allowing constant welding force to be maintained over widths up to 3m and at speeds up to 500m/min. Compared with calendering the ultrasonic approach is a low energy cold process which gives full bond strength instantly, allowing webs or multiple layers of prebonded fabrics to be welded with precise bond points.

Speciality Meltblowns

Mr Soichi Obata of Kuraray Saijo Co Ltd said that his company makes meltblowns from PP, elastics, adhesives, PBT, nylon and composites in the form of a spunlace/meltblown/spunlace laminate. They have now added two new polymers, a polyarylate and a novel polyamide to their range.

The polyarylate is a liquid crystal aromatic polyester (“Beltron®”) made from 2-hydroxy-6-naphthoic acid and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid. A filament version has been used to make the airbags of the Mars Lander, but the meltblown version comprises 4 to 7 micron continuous filaments with a melting point of 300 0C, or 340 0C - for a “heated” version. Other properties to note:

• 100% strength retention over 72 hours at 200 0C
• Better than 84-94% strength retention in Normal solutions of hydrochloric, nitric and sulphuric acids over 100 hours at 90 0C.
• Uniform 15gsm fabrics are possible c.f. a 22 gsm minimum for aramid papers. 10 gsm is targetted.
• Fabric water absorbtion of 0.1% after 170 hours at 90%RH c.f. 2.5% for aramid papers.

The second new polymer was a polyamide based on nonanediamine and terephthalic acid. Standard meltblown from this had 2-5 micron fibers and a soft handle, whereas a high density version used 9-11 micron fibers calendered into a paper-like sheet. It had a high resistance to caustic, the tensile strength increasing by 20% after 50 hours in N NaOH at 90 0C.

In response to questions:

• They expected applications in heat and chemical resistant filters.
• They would not sell the polymer pellets for others to convert.
• Polyarylate meltblown would cost ~$90/kg, the cost of the polyamide was not available.

Hygiene Market in Eastern Europe

Krystyna Jozefowicz, Manager of the Foreign Trade Dept. of Poland’s TZMO SA described how the company had evolved from a state-owned surgical dressing manufacturer into the leading producers of hygiene products in Poland. In 1991 the 800 employees bought the company and have since grown to employ 4000 people today. They have 67% of the Polish market (P&G ~20%) and have successfully expanded into the Ukraine and Russia. She was concerned that European Integration would leave Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus out and predicted that these countries would form a new economic block of 205 million people because they would not accept “waiting list” status.

Surprisingly, she claimed that the hygiene markets in Eastern Europe were now mature and saturated.

Cytotoxicity Testing

Eleanor Sun (Consultant, recently retired from PGI) explained the test methods and their current importance.

• Cytotoxicity arises from biologically harmful extractibles in the materials.
• The test is suitable for detecting subtle changes in raw materials, vendor differences or process deviations.
• It correlates well with animal testing and reduces the need for such testing.
• It is now mandated for all medical devices such as menstrual pads, tampons and incontinence products.

The most commonly used version of the test is the MEM (Minimum Essential Medium) Elution test where the the medium contacts the material for 24 hours and the any change in the mediums ability to culture cells is visually assessed. Mammalian cell culture medium is preferred as this extracts substances which are not soluble in water. Antibiotics can be added to suppress the effects of microbes.

L929 mouse fibroblast, rabbit cornea or human embryonic lung cells are grown in a flask and challenged with the extract. Changes in the layer of cells are observed over three days and damage rated on a 0-4 scale. Dyes such as tryphan blue stain dead cells blue and live cells yellow to help the rating process.

0 – no visible effects
1 – Slight changes, <20% of rounded cells and some lysis (cell walls destroyed)
2 - Mild effect, <50% rounded but no holes in the layer
3 - strong effect <70% rounded or lysed: holes appearing in the layer
4 – Severe effect >70% destruction of the layer.

0 and 1 would pass, and the product would be worth more thorough safety testing using more costly techniques. 2 would be borderline and require further cytoxicity study. A result of 4 would be followed by repeating the test with progessively diluted extract to define the “no-effect” level.

Hydrophilic finishes, lubricants, antistats, wetting agents, colorants and antimicrobials can all cause cytotoxicity.

A cytotoxicity test costs about $100 (24hr) to $300 (72hr)

New Airlaid Pilot Line

Jim Hanson of MTS Inc has a new air-laid pilot line under construction:

• It is 0.6m wide with 5 DanWeb heads and space for other formers.
• The 5 forming zones each have their own hammermill, fiber and SAP feeders.
• One of the spaces could take a head capable of laying 30mm fibers at high throughput.
• Latex (one side only) and thermal bonding options will be available from the start.
• Calender lamination of film to the airlaid will be possible.

Clearly a very wide variety of multi-component multi-layer composites will be possible on this machine which will be available for hire in the new year.