Needlepunch carpet success

Following its major restructuring and investment programme, Gaskell Textiles has announced a major assault on the fibre-bonded sector of the contract market with its Gaskell FB range of broadloom carpet and tiles.

While no newcomer to the needlepunch sector, having steadily built-up market share with products such as Forgemaster and Forum, the Accrington, UK-based manufacturer will intensify its emphasis on this market.

The company has gained considerable expertise in the high-tech and automotive sectors, and in addition, an advanced polymeric binder is designed to give the Gaskell FB range extra vibrancy and long lasting colour which will resist chalking.

The range will be available in five constructions – fine rib, broad rib, flat, velour and barrier – and a full spectrum of colourways.

Gaskell is working with a sole supplier on the range to guarantee quality throughout every batch.

Rawson’s in Ayr

Jeden of Glasgow, Scotland, recently supplied over 5,000 square metres of carpet, carpet tiles and Tarkett Sommer vinyl for an installation at Ayr College.

Over half of the order comprised of Centure, Jubilee and Consul needlepunched brands manufactured by Rawson’s of Wakefield and containing Drake Extrusion’s Permafresh antibacterial fibre.

Sales director at Jeden Colin MacGregor said that the college was a new build project and looking for a floorcovering which would minimise running costs and help improve the working environment for its students.

Drake Extrusion’s Permafresh sales manager presented the college with a special certificate at the opening of the new facility.

May 9th

Lantor MBO

Lantor has been acquired by its management from holding company IPT.

The acquisition includes Lantor (UK) Ltd. in Bolton, Lancashire, Lantor Universal Carbon Fibres in Gomersal, Yorkshire, Novapipe, in Ashland and Lantor Inc. in the USA. The move will provide increased capital to support further investment and acquisitions, according to company executives.

Lantor manufactures specialty nonwoven roll goods and high performance woven materials used in automotive, aviation, medical, microelectronics, military and telecommunications applications. Lantor Inc. also supplies nonwoven filtration media for the environmental dust control, automotive and liquid filtration markets.

May 7th

Underpinning science explored

A very full programme has been arranged for the 2001 World Conference which takes place on Wednesday July 4th and Thursday July 5th at the UK’s Bolton Institute.

It begins on the Wednesday with forward-looking papers from Colin Purvis, director general of EATP, and David Rigby, on synthetic markets for technical textiles and the "market push and technology pull" of that sector respectively.

A paper by AP Aneja of DuPont will then explore the frontiers of fibre and textile science and JWS Hearle of UMIST will provide his take on advancing textile technology for the 21st Century.

Novel, more cost effective technologies under the spotlight will be 3D structures for functional applications and single process technology for their manufacture, structural textile composites, a computerised design system for the weaving of multilayer fabrics, plasma treatment, precision yarn delivery systems for engineered knitted structures and much more.

On Thursday the day will begin with a talk on the challenges of product development of medical applications, jointly presented by teams from the Bolton Institute and Alcare, of Tokyo, Japan, before the programme is split into two parallel sessions.

The first of these will focus on new technologies and the science underpinning them.

R Hartert of Twaron will present a paper on the functions of fabrics for ballistic end-use, a joint paper from universities in Portugal and Czech republic will detail high performance functional knit structures and K Alderson of Bolton Institute will examine the potential for the use of auxetic fibres inhigh performance textiles.

A flying and survival suit for marine use will be the subject of a paper from Bucharest’s National Institute for Textile and Leather, while Ciba of switzerland will outline its development of novel effect additives for enhancing value and performance of synthetic fibres and textiles.

Other papers will explore new capillary surface fibres, tissue engineering and water vapour transfer.

Separate sessions will look at specific products in more detail, including new developments in technical textiles for brake parachutes, protective textiles, geotextiles, lifestyle functional fibres, braiding/epoxy composite tubes and the replacement of latex in carpets.

A design and manufacture session in the afternoon will feature papers on plasma technology, coating technologies for fuel cells and strategies for biomedical textiles development, among others.

Contact: Trevor Rowe or Mrs Bilkis Yusuf, Bolton Institute. Tel: 44 (0) 1204 903105. Fax: +44(0)1204 399074. e-mail: world-congress@bolton.ac.uk

May 1st

Seeking partnerships

Acordis Speciality Fibres exhibited at last week’s Techtextil in Frankfurt for the first time this year, since, having led the field in specific woundcare products for a number of years, the Coventry-based operation is now using its "extensive R & D background to create unique partnerships with a range of organisations which identify a need for customised solutions for their technical textiles and nonwovens."

Currently, the company has four specialist ranges including Micropake, and X-ray detectable yarn, alginate fibres and fabrics which are gel forming products derived from seaweed, and carbooxymethyl cellulosic fibres and fabrics. Hydrocel, the fourth product is exclusively supplied to ConvaTech for the production of wond dressings, and the company also has established partnerships with Hartmann and Maersk.

April 29th

Struto addition

Cosmopolitan is now manufacturing Struto vertical pile nonwovens under the brand name Crimptec.

Said to possess outstanding compressional rigidity and high recovery properties, the new product joins a range that includes Softback carpet backings and Strobel insole material.

Softback is characterised by high dimensional stability, with no latex strike through and no underlay required.

Cosmopolitan’s range of technologies includes stitchbonding, reinforced fabrics, needlepunching, random velouring, rotary screen printing and the aforementioned Struto. Fabrics are manufactured in the weight range of 100 to 1,000 gsm in widths of up to 4.42 metres. In addition, a variety of finishes includes FR, antimicrobial, Scotchgard, aantistatic, dilouring, latex backcoating, adhesive application and thermo adhesive film.

April 22nd

Total control

Building on its recent success in the USA, William Tatham of Oldham has secured three significant orders for carding and crosslapper installations as part of complete needling lines in Europe.

In co-operation with Fehrer, the company has installed a new complete line at needlepunched floorcoverings producer Burmatex, part of Sirdar Group, in addition to adding a TMC crosslapper to an existing Tatham card line at Vitabond, part of the Vita Group, based in Athlone, Ireland.

The third significant installation, which TM hopes to provide further details of later in the year, is at John Holden & Sons of Bolton, which recently acquired the nonwovens division of Highams. Tatham carding and crosslapping is due for delivery in September in co-operation with Germany’s Dilo, which will supply the needle loom.

Tatham, in a co-operation with Quin Systems, of Wokingham, UK, have developed a unique ‘touch screen’ display monitor for the latest generation of the TMC lappers.

The touch sensitive display monitor has been developed to ensure operators are in total control of the manufacturing process, giving vital site production information in real time at the touch of a button.

The system is equipped with an Ethernet connection allowing information to be downloaded to other computers or networks within the loop.

April 6th

New ownership for Vitaweb

Hanes International of Stockport, formerly known as Marsh Fern, has acquired Rochdale-based Vitaweb.

Vitaweb, part of British Vita, is a major supplier of spunbonded nonwoven interlinings and components primarily to the upholstery and mattress markets.

To coincide with the acquisition, some £500,000 is to be invested in new plant and equipment to increase slitting and converting capacity.

"This is our third acquisition in eight months and places us in a very strong position in the markets in which we operate," said Hanes vice-president John Mitchell (pictured above).

Peter Sturgess, formerly general manager of Vitaweb, is to be the managing director of the newly structured Hanes International UK.

April 4th

Papex dates set

Reed Exhibitions, organiser of Papex, has announced the dates for Papex 2001.

The paper, board making and tissue exhibition will run from October 2-4, 2001 and is to be held as usual at G-Mex, Manchester, UK.

The PITA Conference will once again take place alongside the exhibition and the 2001 Papex Awards, categories to be announced in the near future, are to be presented at the Papex Awards Dinner on the first evening.

Contact: John Gregory. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8910 7950. Fax +44 (0) 20 8910 7769. email john.gregory@reedexpo.co.uk

April 3rd

Tomorrow's World

The Department of Textiles at UMIST in Manchester, UK, supported by the Worshipful Company of Weavers, is organising a one day international conference entitled ‘Tomorrow’s Textiles’, on Wednesday May 25 2001.

Among speakers are Dr Richard Scott on fibres and textiles for military uses, Dr J A Barnes of DuPont Airbag, jean-March Sitar of Rhodia on performance and innovation in protective clothing and Robert Rix of Gorix on conductive material applications.

The R & D Institute of Textile and Leather in Bucharest, Romania will present its findings on both new technology for inflatable systems and the development of light and water proof woven structures for portable burner systems, while Sulzer Textil and Stoll will give a paper on tomorrow’s woven and knitted textiles.

Newly Developed foam-like nonwovens for upholstry in vehicle interiors will be the subject of a presentation from the STFI in Chemnitz, Dr Y Li of Hong Kong University will speak on the advanced engineering design of functional textiles and UV protection of textiles will be the subject of a paper from the Hohenstein Institute.

Contact: Dr Prasad Potluri. Tel: +44 161 200 4128. Fax: + 44 161 955 8128 e-mail: prasad.potluri@umist.ac.uk