Interview with Mohammad Hassan

As a research engineer, I am focusing on filtration application, acoustic and thermal insulation, elastic nonwoven and mass production of fabrication of nanofibres. All these areas show strong signs of potential growth due to several reasons such as urbanisation, emerging markets, rising population and the great need for clean air and water. Growth rate of most of these markets is about 5-10 per cent which is very promising for the nonwoven industry specifically, and to the technical textiles in general.

Meltblown technology is a growing spunmelt technology, and it has a lot to offer to the market. The majority of patents still target higher throughput, finer fibre size at higher capacity and better web uniformity. With continuous development at Biax-fiberfilm, we are trying to bridge the gap between conventional single-row meltblowing technology and the spunbond technology by offering high-strength microfibres and the capability of spinning high molecular weight resins that have higher viscosities enabling our customers to develop niche products with a new class of materials.

The primary competitive advantages of the Biax spun-blown technology over the standard meltblown technology are: Higher operating pressures: Biax spun-blown technology can handle much higher back pressures (up to 200 psi), because of the robust spinnerette that allows it to spin polymers that are not spinnable or are very difficult to spin on traditional meltblown lines. So you can spin high molecular weight polymers to achieve higher strength and elongation. You can operate at lower temperatures and save energy. You can also spin elastomers which are highly viscous and very difficult to spin on a traditional meltblown line. Unique fibre-size distribution: Naturally, it is wide but it can be easily controlled. Wide fibre-size distribution allows for higher dust holding capacity in case of a filtration application --- two to four times higher than traditional meltblown -- and higher absorbency in case of wipes applications. Higher production capacity: Because of the multi-row design of the Biax's spinnerette, it is 1.5 to 5 times more productive than the traditional meltblown process.

The biggest markets for us are still the United States of America and Europe, but we see a lot of enquiries coming from the Asian countries. Emerging markets such as India and China represent a good opportunity for growth for many companies, because of the huge population and the fact that their quality of life is improving at much higher rates than anywhere else. The countries that are still seeking more technical textiles are United States of America, European countries and Japan.

In the last two years, we saw a lot of enquires about our technology and a majority of the companies were beginning to develop good faith in the economy after the recession of 2008. Companies are willing to take the risk of investing to buy new equipment to support continuous demand for their products now. In the last two years, Biax-Fiberfilm was able to sell many pilot equipment and three turn-key spun-blown (Multirow meltblowing) lines, plus tens of upgrade orders that resulted in a growth rate of approximately 15 per cent compared to 2013. In the next two years, we are targeting approximately 20 per cent growth rate.

Currently, we have two representatives, one in Japan and one in Korea, and we are in the process of recruiting another two, one for India and another for China.

Typically, we exhibit at the Filtration Show, IDEA Show, Index Show and present and the WOW conference, RISE Conference and Techtextil NA. Sometimes, we are also present at some of the European conferences such as the FiltreX and the International Nonwovens symposium. We are there to learn something new that challenges our customers, and work hard to develop a solution for that. Going to such events keeps us in touch with our customers, and enriches our knowledge about the industry needs, trends and directions.

As a company that believes in research and development as an important tool to stay ahead of the curve, we invest roughly 5-10 per cent of our revenue on R&D to make sure that we are delivering cutting edge technology that puts our customers ahead of their peers. We are continuously improving our spinnerette design and investigating new nonwoven products using high molecular weight polymers and new bio-engineered resins, besides our effort to provide mass production of nanofibres to the market.

In the coming few years, we will see many medical nonwoven products developed to prevent or reduce healthcare acquired infections (HAIs). After the Obama-care provisions, by putting the burden on the healthcare providers and by financially penalising hospitals that see high rates of readmission of patients within 30 days due to HAIs, hospitals started taking extreme measures and seeking all possible solutions to reduce and prevent HAIs. Another area that will see good growth rate for nonwovens will be in industrial wipes. After almost 30 years, the EPA published Solvent-Contaminated Wipes Rule. With wide adoption of such a rule by many states, nonwoven industrial wipes will experience rapid growth and many products will be developed for the market. As a result of the continuous effort to cut down the price of carbon fibres, we might see some carbon fibre-based products penetrating the commodity market, such as automotive sector.

I believe United States of America is still leading the industry of technical textile and nonwovens, but we need to see more development in getting the price down so that it can be utilised on a large scale in other markets. Also, technical textile and composite materials are, to a large extent, based on woven or traditional textile technology which is kind of slow, and I believe by shifting towards more nonwoven composite-based materials, we can offer the market better and more competitive price alternatives.