INDA Vision Orlando - Day 2

Here are a few snaps from the second day including most of the Visionary Award candidates...

 Rich Chapas describes the Nonwoven scene in India

Rick Jezzi covered nonwovens in South America

Ian Bell deals with nonwovens in the EU and Asia

Tim van Himbergen of Kimberly Clark introduces Poise Panty Fresheners

Sean Riley, Chief Operating Dude of Dude Products introdudes wet wipes for blokes

Keith Platt of Diversitech shows off the 100% PP pleated filter

Nancy Muller of the National Association for Continence Care talks absorbents in the home

Rory Holmes again, this time on Nonwovens in North America 

 Walter Chappas introduces the Winged Fibre mask

INDA Vision opens in Orlando

INDA's Vision Conference opened today at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando with over 300 delegates in attendance

 Carlos Richer opens the conference with a 3 hour tour-de-force on diaper design

  A delegate from SCA takes issue with a point of detail

 David Rousse the new INDA President welcomes the delegates and presents the State of the Industry address

 Dick Kimberly (ex Kimberly Clark), now President of Kimberly Consulting analyses the effect of the US Presidential election on the industry

 Rob Wallace of Wallace Church anticipates his talk...

...on Design Thinking Driven Innovation

(Summaries of these papers will appear in Nonwovens Report International magazine and on this site in due course.)

EDANA Outlook Barcelona 2012: Summary of Summaries

Summaries of all the papers  given at EDANA's 2012 Outlook Conference in Barcelona have been posted here over the last few weeks, so here is the summary of the key points:

The 11^th annual Outlook Conference was the biggest ever with over 450 pre-registered delegates. 

·         The era of Cheap-China is over.  Cost and wage inflation in the industrial regions cannot be corrected by opening up the interior.

·         Chinese diaper consumption and production is surging and a baby-boom is expected.  Exports are increasing.

·         Per Capita spend on diapers in the developed economies will be static or even decline though 2016.

·         Adult Incontinence products are set to grow rapidly and spunbond nonwoven production for their core-wrap, topsheet and backsheet will benefit.

·         Cloth diapers are growing from a tiny base for the wrong reason: babies are keen to get out of them so they’re good for potty training.

·         Super-soft topsheets are available in non-bico form in Asia.

·         Numerous sustainability initiatives are underway and there is a growing belief that sustainability and efficiency are one and the same.

·         EU regulation of nanomaterials appears to be getting bogged down by lack of definition and in product safety and product liability issues.

·         The new EU Biocidal Products Regulations are “a cow to be milked by lawyers”.

·         Eastern Europe and Latin America will see rapid growth in wet-wipes and incontinence products through 2020.

Nanomaterials Regulatory Framework: Implementing the new definition

Anna Gergely, Director EHS Regulatory, Steptoe & Johnson LLP (Belgium) said the EU has identified nanotechnology as a Key Enabling Technology with great opportunities is personal care products but the EU Commission has now “locked horns” with the EU Parliament over the details of the regulatory framework.  The EUC feel consumer protection needs to be enhanced by improving the implementation of the current legislation and their 2^nd review addressing the risks of nanomaterials is now due.  However in 2009 the EUP called for the review to be complete by end 2011, to include a comprehensive definition of nano and a publicly available database of the different types and uses of nano in the EU, along with labelling recommendations and testing protocols.

Current legislation on Product Safety, Product Liability, Environmental Protection, REACH and CLP is applicable to nano, but being drafted pre-nano is general rather than application specific (i.e. Horizontal).  The product liability legislation issue is important because it would not cover problems which arise from science discovered after product launch.  Vertical or application specific legislation is needed.

REACH covers all chemical substances including nano forms, but there is no specific mention of new nano materials.  A draft nano definition is evolving with

Pampers Cruisers Dry Max: High SAP, Low Pulp diapers

Mark Bolyen, Manager, Nonwovens, Marketing Technology Service, Inc. (USA) has looked in detail at Pampers Cruisers Dry Max and described the construction and his test results:

·         It is not a pulpless diaper.  The curly pulp acquisition layer contributes to the total absorbency.

·         It weighs ~34 gms and is 0.76 cms thick.

·         Much of the high performance comes from the permeability of the SAP, and the wicking in the curly pulp layer.

·         Mannequin testing in comparison with other Pampers and Huggies diapers showed:

o    Absorbency before leakage – stomach position – Dry Max came second to Huggies Overnights.

o    Absorbency before leakage – back position – Dry Max came 10^th,  Huggies Overnights came 9^th.

o    Rewet: Dry Max came 5^th.

Other constructions (than Dry Max) which work well at high SAP loadings were tissue/SAP sandwiches with ADL, synthetic fibre/SAP sandwiches with ADL, air-laid SAP composites with ADL, and CoForm cores with ADL.  SAP selection was key: chemistry, X-linking, size, permeability and whether layered or blended all being important construction variables.

For homogeneous blends of pulp and SAP, 37% SAP works best for absorbency; more SAP giving less total absorbency.  Traditional SAP’s work better than high permeability SAPs.

Green Polyethylene from Trioplanex International

Anders Spetz, Managing Director, Trioplanex International AB (Sweden) said PP and PE were the best available polymers for absorbent hygiene products and they can now be made from biomass via ethanol.  Of course it will be 30 years before there will be serious shortages of fossil fuels, but these are now getting increasingly expensive and Trioplanex want to establish products using the best alternatives.  

Bio-PP and Bio-PE are carbon neutral when incinerated and this would be the preferred end-of-life option.  Biodegradable plastics are a problem because they can contaminate the polyolefins and ruin their recycling.  They can also result in increased littering because the biodegradable label makes users more likely to discard them carelessly.  ( Wouldn’t consumers seeing bioplastics labels assume these non-biodegradable plastics are biodegradable and create a similar problem? Ed.) Brazilian ethanol from sugar cane is now the best source of PE but in future biomass ethanol from biorefineries using agricultural or forestry waste or algae will take over.

Carrefour Commitment on Sustainability

Aurelie Palomba, HPC Quality Manager, Carrefour (France) is targeting zero deforestation of non-farmed wood so Carrefour will only buy products which use no materials from high conservation value forests or species listed by either the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.  Suppliers must also respect the rights of the forest dwellers.  Problem countries were listed as China, Russia, USA, Canada and Brazil.

Carrefour will avoid any untraceable tropical hardwood furniture, use only recycled paper and packaging and by 2015 will buy no palm oil which is not certified 100% sustainable.  It is working with suppliers to comply with its legal obligations under EU995 which come into effect in March 2013.  Suppliers are expected to “self diagnose” using an on-line questionnaire with 49 sustainability criteria.  Medals will be awarded to the best performers, and an external auditor will visit suppliers to ensure best practices and recommend improvements.  Last year the best tissue products supplier was SCA Hygiene Products because 100% of its wood supplies are FSC or PEFC certified.

P&G: Parameters in Patent specifications

Veronique Kremer, Associate Director Legal - Innovation, Baby, Feminine & Family Care EMEA, Procter & Gamble (Germany) defined parameter patent claims as those claims requiring special test results to quantify a performance parameter.  These claims are not an easy way to get broad protection and they are generally disliked by examiners unless there is no other way of claiming a new benefit.  New test methods for new benefits will not show up in prior art searches so unusual parameters coupled with unusual test methods can be a prima facie reason for disallowing a patent on the grounds of lack of clarity because no meaningful comparison with prior art can be made.  The situation is better if unambiguous standard tests such as EDANA’s recommended methods are used and the details of the procedure provided in the patent are sufficiently detailed for another skilled person to repeat them.

2 cases were described.  In the first, nonwoven strength claims made without specifying the method resulted in rejection of the patent, and an appeal based on the fact that it was obvious to the skilled person that EDANA methods would be used for a nonwoven was thrown out.  In a similar situation a different patent appeal board granted a similarly unclear patent.  The recommendation – if you must use parameter claims, do your homework and remember that different boards have different views!

Also on Patents:
Krzysztof-Daniel Malowaniec Senior Vice President, Paul Hartmann (Germany) observed that of the 1000 patents per year on absorbent hygienic products, only ~6 per year covered male incontinence.  Nearly all male products cover light incontinence only and patents focus on their geometry and chassis construction.  Pouches, penis bags, tubes, shaped pads, clamps, catheters and condoms all appear in the literature and there appear to be many more products than necessary.  However the ageing of the population and increasing demand from developing countries is likely to change that, and male incontinence could once again become an area for innovation.

Suominen-Codi Disinfecting Wipes: Ready for Take Off?

Marines Lagemaat, Manager QRS, Suominen Codi Wipes (The Netherlands) said that before 2009 their were no claims for disinfection on wipes packs, but the H1N1 scare had changed that. Cleansing with disinfection was a definite market need, but the Biocidal Products Directive stood in the way. So Codi teamed up with Lonza, a life sciences company from Switzerland who came up with 3 Lonzagard concentrates usable in wipes. The efficacy (log reduction) of each concentrate was evaluated using 3, 5, 7, 9% concentrations on the wipe, and cleaning efficiency determined by cleaning mirrors contaminated with dried-on milk powder. Effective 100% PET wipes emerged from all 3 concentrates and one product was chosen for hard-surface market testing. Claims were:

•        Cleans and disinfects in one step
•         Non-corrosive and free from quats , aldehydes, alcohol.
•        Kills 99.9999% of bacteria and effective against yeasts and viruses
•        Non-chlorine base.

Consumer testing suggested a volatile market, and the absence of H1N1 in 2011 meant little interest in the disinfection claim. In fact disinfection was disliked in the baby market. In the Industrial and Institutional market where the cleaning industry is well established and large chemical companies dominate, wipes have to be introduced as the standard tool for cleaning small surfaces. The medical market feels no need to change.

In response to questions, the test methods used are the same as those for liquid disinfectants. The liquid is squeezed out after use and if still active it’s OK. Measuring surface residues would perhaps be better and maybe new methods are needed. Both EPA and ASTM have relevant protocols.

Lenzing Promote Tencel for Home Furnishings

For the first time, TENCEL® fibers are being used in upholstery fabrics

At Heimtextil in Frankfurt from 9 to 12 of January 2013, Lenzing is presenting a new textile concept for the TENCEL® fiber: “Botanic Lounge” expands upon the “Botanic Bed” concept.

For the first time, TENCEL® fibers are being used in upholstery fabrics. Thus conventional upholstery fabric fibers face botanic competition. The use of TENCEL® in sofas represents an additional component in the Botanic Home concept. Following bed wear and carpets, TENCEL® is now taking living rooms by storm. The properties of TENCEL® are also shown off to perfection in this application. The sheen and color of the upholstery fabrics of TENCEL® are distinct and persuasive. The silkiness and intensive colors of these upholstery fabrics are breathtaking.

However, it is not just the beautiful appearance of upholstery fabrics of TENCEL® that is so important. They offer important functional benefits as well. You can thoroughly relax on the couch without annoying electrical charging. When material surfaces rub against each other, electrostatic charging occurs. To what extent the textiles become charged depends on the moisture level of the materials. Higher moisture levels prevent charging. With TENCEL®, the moisture level is approximately 13% while polyester has a fiber moisture level of only 1%. It is clear which upholstery material is more relaxing.

Another advantage of TENCEL® in upholstery fabrics is that the slip covers can be laundered at home. Due to the fiber’s good dimensional stability and high abrasion resistance, the easy care properties are very good. Removable covers can be washed in the washing machine without any difficulty and are therefore always hygienic and clean.

“With TENCEL® in upholstery fabrics, we have gone one step further with our ‘Botanic Living’ concept. As a result of the increasing use of TENCEL® in interiors, the room climate can be considerably improved,” says Susanne Jary, marketing manager for home textiles. “The higher the amount of botanic fibers used, the better the interior environment. Our team is also working on wall paints with TENCEL® powder. Botanic living with TENCEL® will soon be a reality,” Jary promises.

For questions, please contact: 

Mag. Christina Kreuzwieser
Head of Global Marketing Communication
Business Unit Textile Fibers
Telephone: +43 (0) 7672 701-2331
E-mail: press@lenzing.com