Production Line from Andritz to 4 Companies from Latin America and Europe
Colombian tissue converting company Quimicolor, Rome-based Foss Floors, well-known for its needled felt products, French Naturopera, which produces baby care, feminine care and household products, and Guatemalan pioneer Novafiber, which produces nonwovens from textile waste, have all purchased production lines from Andritz.
Andritz has received an order from the Quimicolor, which has been producing skincare and household products for the Latin American market for more than 18 years now. to deliver a complete neXline spunlace line for nonwovens production to its Medellín plant. The start-up is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023.
This will be the first spunlace line in South America outside of Brazil, and it will include the 130th TT card sold by Andritz. The line will process viscose and polyester fibers to produce over 10,000 tons of nonwoven roll-goods per year for conversion to wipes.
It will thus be able to control the quality of the products over the whole supply chain
With this investment, Quimicolor is adding its own roll-goods production line to its existing converting plant for the production of wipes. It will thus be able to control the quality of the products over the whole supply chain and make production more efficient as well as flexible. On-site production of roll-goods will have the added benefit of avoiding the intercontinental shipments needed before and thus substantially reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
Thanks to Andritz’s support in accessing financing solutions, Quimicolor has obtained attractive financing for this investment through a buyer’s credit under the French export promotion scheme.
Antonio Mandìvil, CEO of Quimicolor, says: “This investment will allow us to take our business to the next level. It will enable us to better serve the growing Latin American market and open new business opportunities. Andritz has supported us in every single step of this challenging project that will make us pioneers in spunlace production in our region while continuing to offer hygiene and household products with an excellent quality-price ratio for all market segments.
New Andritz Successfully Starts Up New Needleloom at Foss Floors
Andritz has successfully started up the new velour loom it delivered to Foss Floors. The loom produces flooring from recycled plastic for a wide range of applications.
This new 5.3 m loom, type SDV, will enable Foss Floors to meet the growing customer demand for high-quality products. Every year Foss reuses over 18 million kg (40 million pounds) of plastic to make its floor coverings, which translates into 2 billion plastic bottles recycled into carpet.
“We are more than satisfied with the performance of our new SDV loom
This is the second velour loom supplied by Andritz to Foss Floors in four years. Kevin Nasser, General Manager Operations at Foss Floors, says: “We bought our first velour loom from Andritz in 2019 and have been very satisfied with the operation and performance of the machine as well as the quality of products. This was, of course, an important consideration in the choice of supplier for our new investment. We relied on Andritz during a supply chain crisis to deliver a necessary machine on time to fulfill the growing demand for our velour product line. The Andritz team fulfilled their promise, and we are more than satisfied with the performance of our new SDV loom!
Naturopera has Received Andritz Converting Line for Baby Diapers
Andritz has successfully delivered, installed, and commissioned a converting line for manufacturing baby diapers at Naturopera’s new plant in Bully Les Mines, France.
The eXcelle converting line from Andritz Diatec features special technology to produce both traditional and bio-based baby diapers, supporting Naturopera in its efforts to become a leading producer of a new generation of sustainable diapers.
While most diapers available on the market consist of 70% fossil-based plastic, Naturopera is preparing to produce diapers made of 90% bio-based raw materials. This groundbreaking diaper concept was developed in a close collaboration between Naturopera and Andritz. It replaces the traditional spunbond and meltblown nonwoven layers with spunlace nonwovens mostly made of natural fibers. A prototype of the 90% bio-based diaper was recently produced at Bully Les Mines.
Claire Stévignon, Babycare Marketing manager at Naturopera says: “Thanks to the support of Andritz Perfojet for the spunlace fabrics and Andritz Diatec for converting, we are moving in the direction of producing bio-based diapers. We will soon start offering green premium diapers using the jointly developed concept. This initiative will make an important contribution towards more sustainability in diaper production.”
The Andritz converting machine operating at Naturopera is highly flexible, taking just a few settings to switch to the production of bio-based diapers. It is designed for a multiple-size process, features an operator-friendly interface, and guarantees a production speed of 800 ppm.
Naturopera is a French company producing baby care, femcare and household products with a strong focus on local production and sustainability.
Novafiber Turn Textile Waste to Value with Andritz Technologies
Andritz has delivered, installed, and commissioned a mechanical textile recycling line and an airlay line at Novafiber’s nonwovens production mill in Palín, Guatemala. Both lines have been successfully operating since December 2022.
Based in Palín, Novafiber is a leading company in Guatemala for producing nonwovens from post-industrial textile waste for both the local market and export. The production process ensures complete material use as a state-of-the-art edge trim recycling system returns any waste directly to the tearing and/or airlay line.
This combination of Andritz tearing and airlay lines allows Novafiber to process large amounts of post-industrial garments, controlling the supply chain from raw material to final product. In addition, it enables energy savings and a reduced carbon footprint due to the reduction of shipments.
Thanks to the excellent cooperation between Novafiber and Andritz Laroche, commissioning was completed within a very short time. Jean Philippe Bernard, CEO at Novafiber comments: “It has been a great pleasure to collaborate with Andritz again on a waste-to-value project. Seven years ago, we launched our first textile recycling and nonwovens production project together with Andritz Laroche. Our new project has also been a perfect opportunity to take advantage of Andritz’s technological innovations to achieve an even better fiber opening quality along with higher capacity.”
