Tatham’s machinery for staple fibre processing

The focus at ITMA Barcelona will be sustainable processing for hemp fibre, recycling carbon fibre and energy savings for our clients with our TS Drive systems and Weight controls. At ITMA 2019, Tatham will be focusing on three products:

Hemp fibre processing

Recent legislative changes in many countries now allows the growing of the the virtually zero tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) Cannabis Sativa plant for the production of hemp fibre, shiv, seeds and the bi-products of cannabidiol (CBD). Governments and farmers are attracted to hemp cultivation for the reduced water consumption, sustainability and that all the hemp plant can be used for commercial products.

Tatham manufactures hemp decorticating and cleaning machinery to provide clean hemp fibre suitable for onward processing for the home textile, apparel and nonwoven automotive market. Bi-products of decortication are construction products, briquettes and animal bedding.

The hemp plant after growing, harvesting and retting is baled and transported to the hemp fibre decorticating and cleaning unit. Input weights up to 4000 kilos per hour can be processed on one line. Cleaning of the fibre can be prepared both for nonwoven and apparel fibre products. Tatham can provide a turnkey proposal for the complete line and installation including the processing of the shiv and dust bi-products for onward use in briquettes, animal bedding and construction products. Tatham’s expertise in nonwoven can also supply nonwoven machinery for the production of hemp needled mats, felts for automotive, home textiles.

Recycling carbon fibre waste

Carbon Fibre – world fibre consumption of carbon for automotive, aerospace, wind turbine and leisure products demand innovative solutions to carbon fibre waste and it’s recycling. Carbon process manufacturers generate up to 50 per cent carbon waste from prepeg, plycutter waste, dry fibre and cured components. Tatham is meeting this challenge with innovative carbon fibre recycling and web formation machinery for reclaimed carbon fibres that have been obtained through pyrolysis of scrap prepreg materials or cured laminates, or recovery of dry manufacturing waste.

In the UK, Tatham has delivered commercial carbon fibre opening, blending, carding, cross lapping and needling technology for both recycled carbon waste and virgin staple fibres.

TS drive technology

TS drives can be retrofit to all other manufacturer old machinery to save energy and improve production control. Tatham manufactures TS drive and weight control systems for nonwoven blending, webforming, cross lapping and needling machinery. Replacing old and unreliable motors and drives with new generation AC motors and drives is proven to reduce energy consumption, improve machine efficiency and reduce downtime of repairs and sourcing of obsolete components and reduce waste materials.

TS weight control systems reduce waste. To manufacture nonwoven materials to specific gsm requires the ability to control precisely the input weights. The TS Microfeed and TS Microweigh controls the delivery of fibre starting with Chute control of the spiked lattice relatively to the chute level improve the accuracy of the target weight by adjusting the input web forming machine roller speed according to any variations in fibre density from the chute feed or weigh pans. Finished Product Predictor – simply input the required finished product and let the intelligent system automatically adjust the settings to achieve the target weight.