Oerlikon Neumag will be providing nonwovens manufacturers with ways to produce nonwovens efficiently at this year’s IDEA conference. Once again, Oerlikon Neumag will present its comprehensive product portfolio for manufacturing nonwovens from PET, PP and other raw materials. The competencies of the Neumünster, Germany-based machinery specialist lie in the development and implementation of engineering solutions for the production of industrial nonwovens. We spoke with Georg Stausberg, CEO of the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment, about the latest developments in this sector.

Nonwovens Industry (NWI): Oerlikon Neumag focuses its spunbond technology on industrial applications. What market potential do you see for this in the future?
Stausberg: Today, almost 50% of nonwovens are already produced directly from polymer chips–and this share is growing. Although the majority is used in hygiene, medical and wipe products, spunbond and meltblown products are on the rise in industrial applications, replacing classical materials such as wovens and films, but also carded nonwovens as a result of their technical and commercial benefits. In building construction, for example, the share of spunbond products is already more than 80% and it is more than 50% in filter nonwovens. Geotextiles applications are also growing in significance.

NWI: Polyester is increasingly gaining significance as a raw material for industrial spunbonds. What benefits does polyester offer over other polymers?
Stausberg: Raw material and manufacturing costs and the actual material properties play important roles in manufacturing nonwovens. Polyester has clear advantages. The global market
price of polypropylene, frequently used as the raw material to date, has been consistently higher than that of PET. Also, sustainability, heat protection, energy consumption and insulation
are hugely important to users in the construction industry, for instance. And polyester nonwovens often satisfy the corresponding requirements with the minimal use of materials and without
additives. They protect against cooling, absorb only minimum moisture and can be used as insulating materials.

NWI: You mentioned minimal use of materials and no additives. What does that mean?
Stausberg: The strength of the nonwovens is frequently hugely important in industrial applications. They need to be extremely tear-resistant and simultaneously very extensible. These properties must be achieved with the lowest possible weight and optimized raw material usage, as the raw material costs make up around 75-85% of the manufacturing costs in the case of spunbonds. Here, benchmark comparisons with conventional products in Europe have shown that considerably higher nonwoven strengths can be achieved with comparable weights using our innovative spunbond technology.

Thanks to the process-optimized solutions of our engineers – make raw material savings of more than 5%possible.

NWI: What other benefits can be achieved by deploying Oerlikon Neumag technology?
Stausberg: In addition to the quality of the end product, low operating costs play an important role in the decision to invest in modern spunbond systems. We have comprehensive developments in our portfolio aimed at keeping these operating costs as low as possible. Our focus has been on reducing energy consumption, the second largest operating cost. In this way, our new generation of spunbond systems saves almost 20% in terms of energy requirements. This optimization can make a difference of around 30% compared to conventional PET spunbond processes.

Together with raw materials savings and further optimizations in our technology, the conversion costs are up to 30% below those of conventional spunbond systems.

NWI: With what measures have you achieved this?
Stausberg: By focusing on industrial applications for our spunbond technology, we have built up comprehensive know-how covering the overall process, including the necessary in-line further processing. In collaboration with well-known companies, we have been able to expand our processing knowledge and expertise and draw conclusions for both the spinning and overall process. Within this context, we have considerably expanded our applications R&D center in Neumünster.

NWI: As part of Oerlikon Manmade Fiber, Oerlikon Neumag is a company offering a range of technologies for diverse applications. Do these technologies profit from each other?
Stausberg: The three Oerlikon Neumag technology divisions – BCF, staple fiber and nonwovens – benefit heavily from each other. Add to this the experience from PET, PP and PA filament spinning systems at Oerlikon Barmag, and we have for example adapted our know-how in manufacturing bicomponent staple fibers to the spunbond process, which has considerably simplified optimizing the bicomponent nonwovens process. To this end, we can today also offer our customers requirements-oriented production solutions for these applications. The process know-how acquired from spinning high-tenacity fibers has enabled us to offer solutions for demanding products.