Lenzing expands offering for nonwovens in new facility

January 10, 2019 - Austria

The Lenzing Group is expanding its offering of solutions for the cosmetics, hygiene, and medical sectors. Heiko Arnold, chief technology officer of the company, and Jürgen Lehmann, president of Hof University of Applied Sciences in Saale, Germany, have signed a cooperation agreement to utilise a new spun-lacing line for nonwoven applications.

The collaboration between the company and the university will initially last for a period of five years and gives Lenzing access to use the machines and technologies, according to Lenzing.

The Lenzing Group will take advantage of this new technology centre for nonwoven applications located on the Münchberg Campus at the Hof University of Applied Sciences as soon as it has been completed at the beginning of 2020 and will focus on further developing and testing its fibres there. As a result, it will gain access to the newest state-of-the-art machinery and technologies which its customers and partners also use to process Lenzing fibres. In this way, it will be possible to develop new product qualities and applications in collaboration with the university.

“The cooperation with the Münchberg Competence Center of the Hof University of Applied Sciences is a further milestone in implementing the sCore TEN corporate strategy. It will enable us to intensify customer intimacy with our partners in the hygiene, cosmetics and medical industries and support them even more effectively in developing new products”, Lenzing chief technology officer Heiko Arnold on the occasion of signing the agreement.

“We have been working together for many years with all customers and partners along the value chain and also aim to intensify our cooperation with manufacturers of brand-name products. Utilisation of the facilities made available by the Hof University of Applied Sciences will allow us to carry out more extensive testing and develop new applications more quickly”, Wolfgang Plasser, vice president global business management nonwovens said.

“This cooperation enables both partners to optimally use the nonwovens machine and comes close to being a unique form of collaboration between the research community and industry in this segment. Textiles are more than just clothing. At the university, we offer the entire range of academic training, from bachelor’s and master’s degrees to doctoral programs. Textile engineering is a future-oriented profession”, Jürgen Lehmann, president of the Hof University of Applied Sciences said.

With this cooperation, the Lenzing Group will be able to further expand its product portfolio. Its fibres made of the sustainable raw material wood boast a particularly good ecological footprint, are biodegradable and are considered to be a viable solution against the increasing plastic pollution of land and water. (GK)