Global Nonwoven Enterprises Continue To Expand Investment

The latest round of global nonwoven investment is to meet the demand for protective clothing for clothing and curtain during the Covid-19 crisis. According to a recent study published by Research Dive, from now until 2026, the annual growth rate of COVID-19 will reach 10%. This growth will be driven by current demand, and will also be pushed by the government to store these materials in response to future health crises.

Last week, Switzerland's Jacob Holm was the latest company to announce the addition of personal protective materials (PPE), which produces Sontara fabrics and other non-woven fabrics for medical treatment and wipes. The company will implement a company wide investment plan, which will expand the capacity of 500 million square meters per year. The project, called Project Boost, will be completed in the third quarter of 2022, starting last month.

Martin Mikkelsen, chief executive officer, said: "the promotion of Project Boost project is a response to our demand for global partners to increase production capacity, provide more sustainable substrate selection, and continue to maintain the leading position of non-woven innovation."

Last month, the company reported that its Sotnara medical fabric increased by 65% during the pandemic of the coronavirus. The company announced a record production of two plants in five factories in April.

"This is unprecedented," Mikkelsen said. However, for Jacob Holm, the only way out is to rely on what we know and make full use of our experience to help curb the spread of COVID-19 and have a positive impact on the health and well-being of our society.

In its efforts to fight Covic-19, Jacob Holm also collaborated with sports brand Under Armour to produce masks and isolation clothing.

Other non-woven manufacturers also participate in investment to meet the demand for medical clothing materials, including building experts Johns Manville, in May, announced that it had produced disposable medical clothing and Hollingsworth&Vose company in its factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which has shifted its focus from traditional medical, automotive and filtration markets to making a material for non surgical clothing.

Jeff Crane, head of H&V department, said: "H&V is already producing key materials for the fight against Covid-19, including N95 respirator filter media, ventilator filtration media and materials used in surgical masks, which is meaningful for us. We can see how we can meet the needs of front-line medical staff."

The spunbond material of Johns Manville is made of polyester and is specially designed for the production of grade 3 medical clothing. Souvik Nandi, technical director of Johns Manville engineering nonwovens, said: "compared with materials used for class 1 and class 2 medical clothing, the fabric provides superior liquid barrier properties, as well as comfort and stitching strength."

"This investment is designed to meet the urgent demand for medical clothing in North America and Europe," said John Vasuta, President of Johns Manville engineering products business. Our team is rapidly developing solutions and creating a new coating polyester spunbonded fabric.

DuPont is a veteran enterprise in the production of medical clothing materials. Earlier this year, the production of Tyvek was greatly increased to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect health care workers. The "TyvekTogether" plan includes expanding production capacity in Richmond, Virginia. By adding other people to protect more front-line responders, we will provide 6 million additional non surgical isolation clothing a month.

John Richard, vice president and general manager of DuPont security solutions, said: "we are in urgent need of protective clothing. We believe that it is the fastest way to protect more people by working with existing companies to transform existing tailoring and sewing production capabilities into protective clothing manufacturing. Our dedicated employees around the world are working 24 hours a day to provide more Tyvek materials and patterns for more organizations to protect those who protect us.

In addition to increasing production capacity, the TyvekTogether program also introduced a new special Tyvek fabric to increase the production of COVID-19 responsive clothing to 15 million pieces per month.

Tyvek style 1222A has a barrier performance similar to the core DuPont TM Tyvek 400 clothing product. It optimizes the use of materials by adjusting drapability and handle of fabrics and provides them with good volume to existing and new customers. For customers who are not familiar with the structure of medical clothing, DuPont provides tailoring and stitching functions to improve garment production as soon as possible.

David Dominique David Dominisch, global business director, said: "we are providing design, design and support so that small sewing shops and processors can join in as soon as possible to help create these garments. We are striving to secure as many partners as possible to meet local needs, and this plan is in progress. "