Nonwovens

Although there are no major textile machinery shows scheduled this year, 2017 will still be another eventful one for companies and organizations involved in the man-made fiber industry, particularly those touching on the nonwovens and technical textiles sectors.

Almost 500,000 tons of nonwovens are currently used annually in the production of filters, which corresponds to approximately 10% of current worldwide industrial nonwovens manufactured. Here, the filter market is split into two areas: air and liquid filtration. While in excess of 170,000 tons of nonwovens were manufactured for gas/air filters in 2015, the volume for liquid filters was almost double at around 295,000 tons.

By Adrian Wilson, Correspondent

Attracting over 7,000 attendees and 555 exhibitors, INDA’s IDEA16, held in Boston from May 2-5, broke all previous exhibitor and attendee records and the buoyancy of the North American nonwovens industry was very apparent. Yet on a global level, two factors continue to exert a strong influence – the progress of China and the price of oil.