Web Processing Ltd.: www.webprocessing.co.uk.

Web Processing has delivered 887 machines to clients in 52 countries over the past 38 years for the coating, lamination and electrostatic flocking primarily of textiles. In the early days, the substrates were almost exclusively dimensionally stable woven fabrics. Product development in the construction of newer and better and more cost-effective substrates resulted in the introduction of a wide range of knitted and nonwoven fabrics progressively entering the market, swelling the overall volumes of coated and laminated materials.

Web Processing offers standard hot melt laminators in widths from 20 inches to 14 feet, with a range of optional extras and special options as appropriate to the products being processed and the type of adhesive used.

In the field of multi-component composite laminates, nonwovens are finding their greatest application. Lamination has been traditionally done by the application of wet adhesives onto one or both substrates followed by drying and curing as appropriate. The machines for these processes are generally large, expensive and high-energy consumers with considerable associated pollution problems. As a result and with the development of newer technologies, these systems are being replaced by thermoplastic hot melt and thermosetting resins such as PURs (moisture cured reactive hot melt polyurethanes), which cure to create very high performance with minimal adhesive weights and no pollution.

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Furthermore, and most importantly, the machinery is very small and compact, easy to operate, offering low energy utilization but with speeds comparable to any other system. The result is that the final product performance is generally better, more durable, and at lower cost per square yard than any of the older systems that it is replacing.

Typical examples include: a low weight nonwoven spunbond is laminated to a water vapor-permeable membrane with .25 opsy of PUR adhesive at 100 feet/minute to make a waterproof, water vapor-permeable roofing membrane; a high performance foil is laminated between two nonwovens to create a soft flexible composite with exceptional performance; a low-cost, heavy weight nonwoven is laminated to an oil resistant membrane at 130 feet/minute for use as thermal and acoustic barrier in automotive engine compartments.