ANEX product news: exhibitors reveal what they plan to bring to the exposition.

Anpap Qy, Valkakoski, Finland, will present nonwovens production lines as well as consulting and engineering information at ANEX. Anpap was founded in July 2002, but its staff has worked in the nonwovens and paper industries since the 1970s. To date, Anpap has set up six complete airlaid lines on three continents: Europe, North America and South East Asia.

A one-meter wide draw slot will be among the machines components on display from Ason Neumag, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Ason Neumag's technology portfolio centers around machinery capable of producing spunbond nonwovens.

BHT Bicma Hygienetechnologies, Mayen, Germany, and SSP Technology, Garlasco, Italy, will present the latest information on their jointly developed special ultrathin core technology. Additionally at SSP and BHTs booth will be information about the companies, joint partnership activities in baby diaper, adult incontinence item and training pant equipment manufacturing. On hand will be a wide choice of samples for light and heavy incontinence products.

Birla Viscose, a global viscose staple fiber brand, will be introduced to Chinese nonwovens manufacturers by Birla Viscose International, Bangkok, Thailand, at ANEX. The Birla Viscose range includes regular and specialty viscose staple fibers in antibacterial, chlorine-free and zinc-free varieties. These fibers are manufactured in India, Thailand and Indonesia and sold to textile markets in Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe. Existing nonwovens clients include medical and hygiene suppliers and geotextile companies.

Buckeye Technologies, Memphis, TN, will be displaying airlaid nonwovens through its Singapore representatives. The company's brands include Vicell, Vizorb, Unicore, Walkisoft and Airspun and can be used as fluid management systems in disposable diapers, feminine hygiene and adult incontinence items. Buckeye also produces specialty nonwovens with cloth-like characteristics for tabletop and wiping applications such as disposable napkins, baby wipes and pre-moistened towelettes.

A well-established producer of slitters, rewinders, spooling lines and rerolling machines adapted to the requirements of technical textiles and nonwovens, Calemard, Roche la Moliere, France, will exhibit at ANEX. The company's wide range of equipment with multislitting expertise, combined with its know-how for high productivity spooling lines for hygiene components enables Calemard to be a worldwide reference for offline machines. Markets served by Calemard include hygiene, healthcare, home furnishing, clothing, automotives and transportation.

At ANEX, Caligen Foam, Accrington, U.K., will introduce SoftSeal leg elastic material to the Far Eastern market. This soft yet strong material can be used in baby and adult diapers as well as adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products. Following successful trials at Fameccanica, sample diapers and indications on runnability will be available showing SoftSeal leg elastic foam used in conjunction with the foam elastic waistband material.

Cico Engineering, Beijing, China, is a specialized trading company, which will represent several European machinery suppliers at ANEX. Clients include hygiene product machinery Winkler + Dunnebier, Neuweid, Germany, and Dan-Webforming International, Risskov, Denmark. W+D will exhibit machinery and equipment for hygiene item production while, Dan-Web will present forming equipment for the airlaid market.

Eurotherm Gauging Systems, Billerica, MA, will feature System 21 with FSIr technology at ANEX 2003. This system provides a powerful yet user-friendly arsenal of product measurement and control capabilities that are unmatched in the industry. It is based on a network-distributed architecture with Windows 2000 Professional and Wonderware. The use of Wonder ware products provides access to more than 1000 standard links to third-party devices such as temperature controllers, drives and programmable logic controllers and includes comprehensive supervisory and data management systems.

At ANEX, Fehrer AG, Linz, Austria, will display its latest developments in machinery. These include needle-punch machines, webforming and random carding machines and paper machine clothing equipment.

On display from Fleissner, Egelsbach, Germany, will be the new AquaJet Spunlace Systems for composite nonwovens and woven structures with carded, airlaid, spunbond and wetlaid nonwoven webs. Fleissner's hydroentanglement technology has been developed into an advanced technique for bonding high-quality nonwovens at high production speeds and at different weights.

Guandoong Jofo Enterprises, Guangzhou, China, is a producer of polypropylene spuabonded nonwovens. The company also produces bicomponent microfibers, polyester hollow conjugate fibers and spares for nonwoven padding.

Hong Kong Nonwovens, Shenzhen, China, will present filtration media for automotives, wipes, through-air bonded fabrics and mattress pads. The company also produces geotextiles, stitch bonded fabrics, spray pads, quilting products and shoulder pads.

The largest Japanese nonwovens manufacturer, Japan Vilene, of Tokyo, will focus on the following businesses: apparel, automotives, air filters, medical and consumer, industrial and electronics. The company will also introduce its global operation in Asia and North America as well as its joint business with Freudenberg Nonwovens, called Freudenberg Vilene.

Jeonsan Textile Co., Seoul, Korea, produces polypropylene staple fibers and nonwoven fabrics. The bulk of these products are sold outside of Korea.

J-Soft Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, will show samples of its airlaid nonwovens. The company also produces airlaid materials suited to customers' individual needs.

Lenzing, Lenzing, Austria, will present white and spun dyed viscose staple fibers for spunlaced, chemical, mechanical and thermal bonded nonwovens. Also available will be Lenzing FR flame resistant fibers.

Release papers for sanitary products, wound care and bandages will be shown by Loparex, Lohja, Finland. The company's Release ESP is emulsion siliconized paper where the production combines traditional skills in both papermaking and siliconizing. This release paper grade has been developed specially for use in sanitary products and in self-sealing mailing envelopes and can be printed in up to four colors.

Karl Mayer, Chemnitz, Germany, will provide information on stitch bonding and warp knitting machines for nonwovens manufacturing. Additionally, the company will present samples of nonwovens produced on its machinery.

McAirlaids, Steinfurt, Germany, is presenting a binder-and glue-free airlaid material for absorbent products. Applications include hygiene products, food packaging and medical applications.

The Honeycomb Roll from Metso Paper, Biddeford, ME, revolutionized the tissue industry more than 40 years ago. Since then, Metso has become a leading supplier of ThruAir Dryers, Thru-Air thermal bonders and thru-air dry/cure systems for a wide variety of tissue and nonwovens applications. These technologies will be on display at ANEX.

M&J Fibretech, Horsens, Denmark, will present airlaid machinery for multi, thermal, latex and crossbonding as well as airlaid forming systems that can be combined with other types of processes. The company offers defibration systems, pilot lines, know-how and product development as well as traditional bonding methods.

Mytrex Industries Inc., Taoyuan Country, Taiwan, will display low pressure drop filtration media for respirators at ANEX. Other important products include ASHRAE pocket filter media and pleatable filter media for heating ventilation and air conditioning applications; pleatable synthetic HEPA filter media for air cleaners and Micozy thermal insulation for apparel, gloves and boots.

NDC Infrared Engineering, Irwindale, CA, specializes in design and manufacture of sensors and systems for online continuous measurements of nonwovens, plastic products, coating products, rubber tires, paper, tobacco, food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The company supplies a complete range of sensors including gamma, beta, infrared, X-ray, caliber and microwave.

Optima Filling and Packaging Machines GmbH, Schwabisch Hall, Germany, will show its complete program for paper sanitary products-from stackers to multipack and final packaging equipment-at ANEX. What makes this German machine manufacturer stand out, is its extraordinarily large spectrum for the most different requirements, according to executives. Optima offers anything from low-cost starter models to high-speed and high-tech equipment.

Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC), Green Bay, WI, is featuring the Calypso Crossfolder wipes machine, which is capable of running multiple width configurations with the broadest width range available and numerous longitudinal fold formats to meet today's wipe markets. PCMC's Clipper Wet wipes Systems are modular, flexible and affordable and can be used with interfolded or non-interfolded wipe products. PCMC assists with nonwovens production in a wide variety of markets such as cosmetics and cleaning wipes in wet or dry applications.

Woonsocket, RI-based Parkinson Technologies' Mark 111 Surface Winder, with continuous and automatic operation was specifically designed for demanding nonwoveas operations. The winder is ideal for meitbiown, spunbond, SMS, airlaid, hydroentangled and numerous other industrial and commercial nonwovens processes. Features of the Mark 111 Winder include high speed continuous winding, inline slitting capabilities and automatic tension control and adjustment.

Sateri Oy, Valkakoski, Finland, will present viscose fibers for drylaid nonwovens in raw white and for wetlaid nonwovens in raw white and spun-died varieties. Additionally, the company's flame retardant visil fibers are applicable for all types of fire barriers and insulation.

Suominen Nonwovens, Nakkila, Finland, will present carded thermal bonded nonwovens for babycare, feminine care and adult care applications. The company also manufactures spunlaced nonwovens for healthcare products and wiping applications including baby, personal care, household and industrial.

Tech Adhesion Systems, Shenzhea, China, will display TAF (TA Fiber Head), which reduces the amount of adhesives needed, Additionally, TechAdhesion's TPB (TA Pull Back Head) is one of the best slot die heads in the world, giving improved intermittent slot dies or beads. The company also offers a series of hot melt application systems.

Thibeau NSC Nonwoven, Turcoing Cedex, France. designs and manufactures integrated lines that produce drylaid and airlaid nonwovens in a continuous process. The company's ProDyn comprehensive, self-regulation control system has become the world's benchmark in the nonwovens industry. ProDyn will be the highlight of Thibeau NSC nonwoven's ANEX booth.

RELATED ARTICLE: ANEX Conference Schedule

speaker line up showcases growth of nonwovens

More than 300 companies are set to exhibit at the largest ever trade show in Asia, ANEX 2003. The show will highlight the growing importance of the Asian region to the worldwide nonwovens industry.

The growth rate of the China nonwovens industry surpassed 10% during the past decade. Other countries and areas included in the Asian nonwovens industry are Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines and Taiwan. They have expanded 4.5% a year from 856,000 in 1997 to slightly more than one million tons in 2002.

These eight countries now produce more than a quarter of all nonwoven materials worldwide, up from less than a fifth in 1997. With the average annual growth rates expected to rise nearly 7% during the next five years, the eight countries in this area are likely to account for well more than a third of worldwide nonwovens output by 2007.

Thursday, May 22

8:30-9 a.m.: Keynote, Asia Nonwovens Industry--Present & Future, J. C. Tai, ANFA

9:10-9:50 a.m: Nonwovens--Its Position in the Industries and the Future Survey, Shozo Iwakuma, Asian Nonwoven Fabrics Association (ANFA).

9:50-10:50 a.m: Marketing and Technical Support from EDANA, Paul Dewingaerden and Jean-Luc Wertz, European Disposables and Nonwovens Association (EDANA)

10:50-11:30 a.m: The Current and Future Trends in the North American Nonwovens Market, Ted Wirtz, INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry

Lunch break

1:30-2:05 p.m: The Development of Nano-fibers in Nonwovens Applications, Peter Tsai, TANDEC

2:05-2:40 p.m: Nonwovens in Agriculture, The Road to Healthier Food and Life, Rolando Dominguez, PGI Nonwovens

2:40-3:15 p.m: Breakthrough Competitive Edge with AFFINITY Polyolefin Plastrome In Hygiene Products. Simon Lee & Liang Tung, The Dow Chemical Company 

3:15-3:50 p.m: Elasticzed Structures--Advancements in Adhesive Application Techniques for Nonwoven Disposables, Alan Ramspeck, Nordson Corporation

3:50-4:25 p.m: Chemical Resistance Of Nonwoven Geotextiles For Protection and Drainage in Waste Landfills, Han-Yong Jeon, Chonnam National University 

4:25-5 p.m: Application of Nonwovens in MBR Waste-water Treatment, Alvin Y.J. Hu, KNH Enterprises

Friday, May 23

8:30-9:10 a.m: Reicofil Technology by Reifenhaeuser--The Unique Process and New Product Characteristics & Process Developments, Michael Baumeister, Reifenhaeuser GmbH & Co

9:10-9:50 a.m: Innovative Solutions Providing Aqueous Barrier and Flame Retardant Properties for Nonwovens, Holger Poths, Air Products Polymers GmbH & Co KG

9:50-10:30 a.m: The Disposable Production Lines Revolution--The New Generation Is Ready, Thilo Konig, GDM SpA

10:30-11:10 a.m: Nonwoven Oil Sorbents in Oil Spill Recovery, Q.F. Wei & R.R. Mather, Heriot-Watt University

11:10-11:50 a.m. The Application and Development of Nonwovens Made from Natural Fibers in China, Xiang-Yu Jing; Zheng-Huang