A licensing agreement has been signed between Filtration 2008 exhibitors NonWoven Technologies, Inc. (NTI), Oyster Bay, NY, and Arthur G. Russell (AGR), Bristol, CT. AGR was given sole exclusivity for the use of NTI’s patented high speed meltblown nanofiber technology.

Tony Fabbricante, president of NTI, was at the show promoting the companies’ new technology. “The agreement between us is an excellent match of partnering.  NTI’s breakthrough in high speed meltblown nanofiber technology and AGR’s 60-plus years of building automated equipment puts us in a unique position in the industry. Since 83% of finished products are less than 15 inches wide, our three-row, 15-inch line will out-produce a one-meter line by a 40% output. One of our goals is to sell these narrow lines at affordable prices for companies to develop and make their own roll goods.”

The new technology makes nonwovens with 20% more throughputs per commercial orifice size. The fabrics contain more orifices per linear inch than competing fabrics and these orifices are as small as 0.002 inches. Executives expect to create a one- to three-meter, 500 m/min line to make this material, which will target insulation, geotextile and hotmelt applications. Other capabilities will include bicomponent fibers, binano fibers, spunbonding and hydro/air entanglement.