Our editors visited ANDRITZ Küsters GmbH, based in Krefeld, Germany, one of the three competence centers of ANDRITZ Nonwoven in Europe, and met Area Sales Manager Bernd Can and Marketing Manager Helga Kenis, who introduced the company and its technologies to our readers. Helga Kenis gave a short overview on ANDRITZ Küsters' history: “ANDRITZ Küsters was a family-owned business for a very long time, starting in the early 50’s of the last century. In 2006, Küsters became a member of the ANDRITZ Group and since then especially the nonwoven business has expanded. ANDRITZ has united three nonwovens technology leaders under one roof: In 2010, ANDRITZ Perfojet, system supplier for hydroentanglement, and in 2011 ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau with the broad field of drylaid and needlepunched nonwovens joined ANDRITZ Nonwoven. ANDRITZ Küsters has always been a leading company in textile, nonwovens, and paper calendering.” ANDRITZ is a globally leading supplier of many business areas, such as plants, equipment, and services for hydropower stations, the pulp and paper industry, the metalworking and steel industries, and for solid/liquid separation in the municipal and industrial sectors. The publicly listed technology Group is headquartered in Graz, Austria, and has a staff of almost 25,000 employees. ANDRITZ operates over 250 sites worldwide.
New neXcal quadriga thermobonding calender raises productivity
The latest calender innovation by ANDRITZ Küsters takes nonwovens producers far beyond today’s standards. Bernd Can emphasized that client demands have a significant impact on ANDRITZ Küsters’ research and product development. In a continuously changing hygiene market, a multitude of new engraving patterns as a result of advanced demands on surface structures or fabric properties is a big challenge to nonwovens producers’ flexibility. The new 5-roll outstanding calender concept is a milestone in productivity, process stability and supreme product quality. neXcal quadriga is equipped with the proven Hot S-Roll and four embossing rolls with a fully automated production change. As the neXcal twin concept with two turnable embossing rolls has already become the benchmark in high-performance spunbond lines, neXcal quadriga excels this innovation and will set the next standard in first-class spunbond production.
New solutions for high-capacity and sustainable production of ultralight fabrics
As the hygiene market today requires lighter spunlace fabrics with perfect uniformity, the French sister company ANDRITZ Perfojet has developed new solutions for the production of ultralight fabrics. Thanks to its broad in-house expertise in the drylaid and hydroentanglement processes, ANDRITZ can offer the perfect combination of the Isoweb TT card and the Jetlace hydroentanglement unit as a currently leading technical solution to process ultralight spunlace products at very high speed. Nonwovens producers are now able to achieve weights of 20 gsm and even less for their ultralight spunlace fabrics.
Along with highest productivity, sustainability is also a constant stimulus for development at ANDRITZ Nonwoven. As experts in full line engineering, ANDRITZ has developed technologies that contribute remarkably to reducing energy consumption and waste while keeping spunlace productivity at the highest level. Pre-wetting configuration, design of the injectors, neXecodry system for drying, water filtration recycling, or compact machine design are all unique advantages of ANDRITZ neXline spunlace.
Cost-efficient, flexible, reliable, and robust turnkey needlepunch lines
ANDRITZ offers cost-efficient, flexible, reliable, and robust turnkey needlepunch lines from opening and blending as far as the winder. The neXline needlepunch range covers technologies for a wide spectrum of nonwoven end-uses, such as geotextiles, automotive, filtration, roofing felts, and coating substrates.
The neXline needlepunch eXcelle range provides individual solutions to meet producers’ requirements in terms of fabric characteristics, such as weight evenness, tensile strength, and homogeneity at high production capacity, which can amount to between 4,500 and 9,000 tons per year. ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau supports its customers with technical line configuration and provides associated services to optimize their lines’ performance.
Turkish market is still very active and interesting for ANDRITZ
Bernd Can, who we asked his evaluation of ANDRITZ's place in the Turkish market and their 2016 targets, emphasized that Turkey is a hotspot for ANDRITZ. "Particularly ANDRITZ Perfojet was very successful in Turkey and still is. They have really generated very good business there recently, as also did ANDRITZ Asselin-Thibeau. And from ANDRITZ Küsters’ side we are also satisfied. For 2016, we have many promising projects, also coming from ITMA Milan and we are currently working on these, still running trials. The evaluation of the demands that come from the Turkish nonwovens and textile industries is an important issue. So of course we can say that the Turkish market is still very active and interesting for us."
