Nonwovens: When quality is super-critical…

USTER® fibre cleaning systems prevent contamination in hygiene and cosmetic applications.

Yarn spinners already understand the importance of preventing contamination in their products. A total of 3,500 worldwide installations of Jossi fibre cleaning systems – now produced by USTER – is proof of that. The USTER® JOSSI VISION SHIELD solutions are highly effective at removing even the smallest contaminants, including polypropylene. For nonwovens producers, however, the risk of contamination is possibly even greater:in medical and hygiene applications, for example, quality standards are super-critical and zero contamination is essential.

Contaminated yarn is one of the spinner’s biggest headaches, potentially leading to customer claims and rejects when synthetic particles such as polypropylene (PP) remain undetected in cotton until the fabric reaches the dyehouse. Today, the range of USTER® JOSSI systems is proven to deal with this problem with unbeatable effectiveness, detecting and removing foreign matter from cotton at the spinning preparation stage.

Uster acquired Jossi AG in 2013 and now applies the USTER® JOSSI VISION SHIELD 2 and USTER® JOSSI VISION SHIELD T systems,using multiple detection principles to eject all polypropylene particles, however minute.

The finest white PP contamination is reliably and efficiently detected with the USTER® JOSSI MAGIC EYE in combination with the USTER® JOSSI VISION SHIELD. Practically all types of foreign matter, including polypropylene and polyethylene, are eliminated by USTER® JOSSI MAGIC EYE, with a minimum of waste.

Special challenges for nonwovens producers

Compared to yarn spinning, nonwovens products and processes bring some special challenges and even more demanding requirements. Imagine, for example, a scratchy remnant of polypropylene in a make-up removal pad…or any kind of contamination in hospital products such as absorbent cotton, alcohol swabs, or nonwoven gauze. Such problems would be totally unacceptable. Not surprisingly, markets for medical and hygiene products in the USA, Europe and Asia are extremely quality-oriented.

With developments in synthetic fibres, there was a trend about 25 years ago for nonwovens applications to switch from pure cotton to synthetics. Initially, consumers preferred the dry and light texture of synthetic fibres. In the last decade, however, many applications are seeing a return to pure cotton as the favored option, particularly where allergenic issues such as skin reddening and irritation are possible.

Manufacturers of nonwovens for these demanding end-uses now require an efficient contamination control system, guaranteeing a zero-tolerance standard – for defects bigger than 1 mm – in their products. In nonwovens, fibre cleaning is the only way to control contamination – unlike in spinning where yarn clearing can make a final check at the winding stage. Product quality in nonwovens therefore depends absolutely on the efficiency of the fibre cleaning system, which makes investment in the USTER® JOSSI VISION SHIELD system a logical step.

Nonwovens: big in Japan

Most of the machinery for nonwovens hygiene products is made by Japanese companies and Japan itself plays a leading role in manufacturing goods for medical and cosmetic applications, as well as food packaging materials. “Japan is growing as a market for USTER® fibre cleaning systems, thanks to these nonwovens applications,” says Oswald Baldischwieler, Product Manager Fiber Cleaning within Uster Technologies. “The combination of USTER® JOSSI VISION SHIELD and USTER® JOSSI MAGIC EYE supports the manufacturers to control contamination continuously at a high level.”

USTER at Index

The importance of the nonwovens sector for USTER® JOSSI systems is demonstrated by the company’s presence at the forthcoming INDEX 2017 event in Geneva (booth no. 4418), the largest global meeting point for the nonwovens market. USTER believes that its technology which is already well known and appreciated in cotton spinning will attract wider interest at the exhibition from manufacturers of bleached cotton and other quality-critical nonwovens products. “With USTER® JOSSI VISION SHIELD and USTER® JOSSI MAGIC EYE, the whole production is checked, for every category of contaminants including synthetics,” says Baldischwieler. “Nothing can escape the detection power of these systems.”

The Uster Group is the leading high-technology instrument manufacturer of products for quality measurement and certification for the textile industry. The Group provides testing and monitoring instruments, systems and services that allow optimization of quality through each individual stage of textile production. This includes raw textile fibres, such as cotton or wool, all staple fibre and filament yarns, as well as downstream services to the final finished fabric. The Uster Group provides benchmarks that are a basis for the trading of textile products at assured levels of quality across global markets. The Group’s aim is to forward know-how on quality, productivity and cost to the textile industry.

The Group is headquartered in Uster, Switzerland and operates through a worldwide Market Organization complemented by Technology Centers. It has sales and service subsidiaries in the major textile markets and Technology Centers in Uster (Switzerland), Knoxville (USA) and Suzhou (China).