Resinfelt success for Laroche

Nonwovens technology specialist Laroche, headquartered in Cours La Ville, France, reports that it has has just sold two of its latest Resinfelt systems to companies in China. 

Speaking at the recent International Nonwovens Symposium held by industry body EDANA in Prague, Czech Republic, Laroche sales manager Thierry Masi said the technology had been developed in response to market demand for the production of automotive and construction panels. 

The Resinfelt system combines the company’s Flexiloft airlaid web forming technology with a unit for the impregnation of resins such as epoxies or phenolics. Following the feeding in of the fibres, which pass through a dedusting and air removal chamber, a scattering unit feeds the resin powder across the working width before passing through a mixing chamber and the web forming unit. A perforated suction drum is employed prior to the web being fed into a steam oven for bonding, since air bonding is not possible with these webs.

Laroche introduced its first Flexiloft airlay unit for turning recycled fibres, as well as a wide range of natural fibres, into new materials in 1995, and over the past 20 years the company has installed over 100 Flexiloft lines at plants worldwide.

The Flexiloft airlaid system is capable of manufacturing webs in a weight range of between 300 and 10,000 gsm and material thicknesses up to 600mm before bonding. It can accommodate a wide range of natural and recycled fibres in lengths of between 2 and 70mm, as well as short pieces of foam or other materials blended in with the fibres.

With a working width of up to four metres and a speed of up to 15 metres a minute, the line is capable of producing a tonne of fabric per working width of machine each hour.

A Flexiloft line has recently been installed in France and is manufacturing flax, kenaf and polypropylene webs that are employed as moulded components in the automotive industry. A second recent installation is a line in Thailand that is processing jute fibres into reinforced panels used as building insulation, as automotive parts and as under layers for floorcoverings.