Celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, Monforts continues to lead the field in finishing and coating technologies for technical textiles and is looking forward to many fruitful discussions on the scope of existing and new processes and applications at the forthcoming Techtextil show in Frankfurt from April 23-26.

Monforts European-built Montex stenters have earned their leading position for fabric finishing in the technical textiles field as a result of their robustness and lifetime, versatility, reliability, economy and ecology.

Existing customers include many manufacturers making geotextiles, automotive fabrics and other functional materials, while dedicated Montex lines have also been supplied to producers of airbags, flame retardant barrier fabrics and spacer fabrics.

Wovens, knits and nonwovens

Among recent installations, a line supplied to Albarrie in Ontario, Canada, is treating specialised needlepunched nonwovens up to 4mm thick for filter media and performance fabrics, while over in northern France, Dickson-Constant has installed a bespoke Montex line at its second plant, to meet growing demand for its range of well-known sun protection and outdoor upholstery fabrics.

Germany still enjoys the leading position in the production of European technical textiles, and GTA in Neresheim is now employing three wide-width Montex lines for the production of fault-free substrates for the digital printing market based on 100% polyester warp knits.

“I have to say that the Monforts after-service has been absolutely perfect and there has been no shortage of quality, expertise and service on which we have drawn,” says GTA managing director Andreas Niess.

As a leading contract finisher of technical textiles for the automotive, aerospace, home furnishings and workwear markets, Knopf’s Sohn has also recently installed a fully automated Montex stenter at its plant in Helmbrechts.

Dolinschek in Baden-Württemberg meanwhile manufactures an extensive number of technical products including automotive components, geotextiles and wallcoverings, but also those for more unusual applications such as inlays for extractor hoods, cut protection fabrics and even wool felts which are employed as insulation on wind turbines. Dolinschek has developed and commercialised its own proprietary dyeing machines, but for finishing technology relies on Monforts, and has installed a seven chamber Montex TwinAir stenter range.

MontexCoat

Dolinschek has also installed a MontexCoat coating unit in knife execution, enabling the coating of dimensionally stable knitted fabrics with polyurethane or acrylate.

The MontexCoat enables full PVC coatings, pigment dyeing or minimal application surface and low penetration treatments, as well as solvent coatings to be carried out. Its key technical applications include tents, tarpaulins and awnings, black-out roller blinds and sail cloth, automotive interior fabrics and medical disposables.

Other recent MontexCoat installations include a unit for providing an anti-slip and textured backing to upholstery fabrics with a stable and uniform foam via knife-over-roller coating at Altun Tekstil in Bursa, Turkey, and a combined MontexCoat and Montex stenter range for Scottish weatherproofing specialist Halley Stevensons at its plant in Dundee.

“The precise process control functions of the Monforts line give our technicians the confidence to make new products as well as finely tuning the energy requirements of existing products,” says Halley Stevensons managing director James Campbell. “We love the fact that we can record the energy used on each production batch and use this for continual improvements and efficiency savings. The touchscreen software is visual and easy to use, moving from one screen to another to check the various parameters of processing.”

Glimpse of the future

“It’s the sheer diversity of applications for technical fabrics that makes Techtextil always such an exciting show for us,” says Monforts marketing manager Nicole Croonenbroek. “You really get a glimpse of the future and there are always growing opportunities in a number of rapidly expanding markets, such as the current need for new energy storage and transportation, for example, or the electrification of vehicles, where advanced materials can solve newly-arising challenges. At Techtextil 2024 we will be exhibiting a further new development for advanced coating about which we’ll be providing further details shortly.”

Monforts is at stand C58 in Hall 12.0 at Techtextil 2024.

www.monforts.com