Aurizon Ultrasonics has entered into an exclusive license agreement with CERA France to enable the manufacture and sale of its patented rotary ultrasonic bonding technology to secure elastic strands into nonwoven structures used in articles such as diapers and adult incontinence undergarments.

Personal care and hygiene products often use elastic strands secured in nonwovens to prevent leakage or improve fit. Most manufacturers secure these elastics with adhesives; however, adhesives have several drawbacks including being expensive, messy and creating a stiffness that can make the garments uncomfortable to wear. Adhesives are also under increasing scrutiny as being environmentally unfriendly.

“Rotary ultrasonic bonding systems can be a great solution for improving the products in this category,” says Bob Cool, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Aurizon. “The challenge has always been in securing the elastics so they don’t detach from the nonwoven and cause the product to lose its stretch. Aurizon’s rotary ultrasonic systems can solve this challenge and enable high speed entrapment of the elastics in a variety of product executions.”

According to Aurizon’s president, Greg Benrud, the company is completing an upgrade to its pilot line that will enable demonstration of multi-strand elastic processing in nonwovens at speeds of up to 2000 feet per minute (610 meters per minute). The license agreement with CERA paves the way for Aurizon to work with OEMs and end users to enable faster commercial implementation of the technology.

“We’re very excited to partner with CERA France through this agreement. The industry today is motivated to reduce or eliminate the need for costly adhesives. We feel we can leverage our expertise in ultrasonic bonding of nonwoven structures to enhance both the process speed and the quality of the elastic articles being produced,” says Benrud.

The agreement gives Aurizon access to customers in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, the U.K., Liechtenstein, Sweden, France and Italy.