The exhibition brought together over 100 expert speakers, leading innovators, and global stakeholders for a focused programme of events.
Fibre Extrusion Technology (FET) took a major role at the The Dornbirn Global Fiber Congress in Austria in September, with Dr Jonny Hunter giving a presentation entitled “Spinning a good yarn.” The exhibition brought together over 100 expert speakers, leading innovators, and global stakeholders for a focused programme of events. There were over 400 attendees from a range of industrial and academic organisations. Industrial examples included Barmag, Sembis and Fraunhofer, whilst from the academic world CETI (France), Aachen (Germany) Fibernamics (Portugal) and many others were present. As global challenges mount – from decarbonisation pressures to shifting markets – this year’s congress reaffirmed its role as a key platform for forward-looking solutions and collaborative progress.
Hunter’s presentation took a broad view of the immense challenges and innovations that have developed in the fibre industry in general over recent years. FET has been at the forefront of many of these innovations – designing, developing and manufacturing bespoke fibre equipment, thus enabling customers in a wide range of industries to find solutions to their individual challenges. FET’s reputation has been founded predominantly on melt spinning solutions – in multifilament, monofilament and nonwoven formats – and the first part of the presentation highlighted this aspect.
However, FET’s more recent success has been grounded in further niche developments and technological variations:
• Meltblown systems for non-continuous nonwoven fibres.
• Spunbond equipment for continuous nonwovens.
• Wet spinning systems, where melt spinning solutions are not possible.
The most recent FET innovation, and potentially the most significant development for many years, is the FET Gel spinning system. Branded as the FET-500 Series, this system now allows rapid, small-scale gel spinning of UHMWPE without the use of the toxic solvents typically associated with the process. For this, FET received the prestigious Techtextil Innovation Award 2026 in the New Production Technology category.
The presentation emphasised FET’s drive to prioritise environmental challenges, seeking to help clients minimise pollution and wastage in their research and production processes. FET’s Fibre Development Centre further enhances this ability, allowing clients to trial their own products in an ideal environment. To date, FET has successfully processed over 130 different polymer types in multifilament, monofilament and nonwoven formats.
FET’s next exhibition will be COMPAMED 2026, Dusseldorf,
16-19 November. Hall 08B Stand 8BJ109.