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Leading Textile Machinery Manufacturers Present Partnerships At Techtextil Frankfurt

Leading French textile machinery manufacturers elaborated at length about their partnerships with their customers during the recent Techtextil trade fair at Frankfurt in Germany.

N Schlumberger’s Sales Director Patrick Strehle spoke about a partnership with a Taiwanese company which produces clothes, sleeves, ropes and tapes from metal fibres. The objective was to produce sliver of 100% stainless fibres from tow of 8 ktex finesses from 8 to 12 microns, in order to process yarn count Nm 6 to 16.

He also announced a collaborative venture to process para-aramid fibres and carbon fibres with a German company, using the FB20. He described how a special line dedicated to mohair fibre was specially designed for a specialty spinner in carding process. He said that Schlumberger collaborates with a European spinner for processing meta-aramid, using the crush cutting process.

At the event, Laroche’s Area Sales Manager Elias Junker described how a recycling and nonwoven eco-friendly solution was tailor made for NovaFibers (Grupo de Todos) in Guatemala.

After the partnership, NovaFibers imports second hand clothes from the US to Guatemala, resells part of them and recycles the rest into regenerated fibres which become new materials to produce airlay nonwovens for such applications as building insulation, car insulation, felt for bedding, furniture, carpet underfelt, etc.

Speaking at the expo, Superba’s Marketing Manager Hubert Tretsch explained how a new yarn style was developed in collaboration with a leading Turkish carpet manufacturer. A new textured yarn style, required by fashion trends, was aimed by this major Turkish producer.

Demand was developing for textured (frieze) yarns, but yarns produced with existing machines showed too high frieze effect, too randomly curved. A light and even frieze effect was sought by the customer and the end user.

The collaboration between Superba and the Turkish customer started in 2013. A prototype was developed with which the customer produced sample yarns and carpets which were tested both from a technical as well as a marketing point of view.

At the expo, textile machinery spare parts supplier Dollfus & Muller’s Sales Director David Fauconnier presented 3 key belts and felts developed in close partnerships with European textile machinery manufacturers. He also presented a non-marking and non-sticking dryer belt for digital printed fabrics ideal for all ink types, including reactive ones.