Interview with Marcel Alberts

In the last two years, I would say that we have expanded our capacity. We have had difficulties in meeting the demands of the market. We simply did not have enough capacity, as it required a lot of investment. Now, we have set up production capacities to fulfil market demands, and we have a lot of products to gain more of the market share.

Eurofibers is a supplier of high-performance fibres for the technical textiles industry. We have a very clear focus on high-performance fibres like Dyneema, Twaron, Technora, Vectran and Zylon. We have been around for five years. We are headquartered in the Netherlands, and have a production location in the Czech Republic. We supply high-performance fibres by integrating various technologies into the fibres like twisting, plying, coating and chopping. The coating technology is the latest addition to our range of products. About two years ago, we started working on what we now call the Prisma coating technology. The idea is to enhance the properties of highperformance fibres by means of coating technology. For instance, the UV resistance of our product, Vectran is not particularly good. By using the coating technology, we can shield the product against UV degradation, i.e. losing of strength under direct sunlight.

Coating of fabric is well-known. Many companies do that. But what we do is-we apply coating technology at the fibre level itself. We have yarn, which we run through a coating bath. We have a squeeze roll to get rid of the excess amount of coating. We dry the coating in an oven, and then the Sahm winders wind the yarn on bobbins again. And, that is the product we sell. The core of our technology is more in coating formulation. The coating formulation is more or less tailored to serve the needs of customers.

The idea is that we spread the filaments, and coat them so that the coating covers each and every filament. Normally, what we see is that the products are coated on the rope level or fabric level. So, that only enhances the product from the outside and not from the inside. The coating helps in UV degradation and the loosing of strength thereby, but also helps to improve abrasion resistance or make the yarn antimicrobial or anti-fouling.

We have two lines at the moment for this technology. One line is in the Czech Republic, and another in the Netherlands. The line in Czech Republic is for big orders, and for the small level orders and customer trials and new developments, we have one in the Netherlands.

It is specifically not a patent, because if it is, everybody can read it and everybody can do it. So, we have decided to protect it by the means of trade secrets. We sign a very strict confidentiality agreement with all our employees that they cannot reveal any details.

The main application of this technology is in the rope-making industry. Customers make rope of these high-performance fibres. What usually happens is that people get yarns, twist them together, make ropes and then coat them for the desired properties. But here, the coating may not penetrate deep enough. So, there is coating only outside of the rope and not inside it. In our case, before our customers twist and braid the yarns together, we make sure that each and every single filament is well-protected and consistently coloured. Also, net-makers are trying to improve the properties of the net, and this technology helps them. There is also an application of this technology in knitted fabrics, which can be used in industrial applications. Like Dyneema, it was only available in white. But customers wanted in different colours. So, what we do is we coat it in the desired colours, and then our customers knit it.

The ambition is that this technology becomes more or less a game-changer. People get a much better product by the use of this technology. They get something better, which also lasts longer. We expect that in the future most manufacturers will change their production process, which not only make their lives easier but also improves the performance and aesthetics of their products. Since last year we have acquired the distribution rights from Teijin for Twaron® and Technora® and from DuraFiber for their specialty portfolio like PEEK, PPS, PBT and PEN. This brings us in contact with new markets and companies and we see interesting new opportunities in these fields too.

There are a few other companies who coat on the yarn level. However, our technology is cost-effective, and we can tailor the coating to the specific desires of our customer.

We introduced the technology at Techtextil last year in May. But then, there were so many inquiries that we could not live up to the demand of the market. So, the priority with respect to this technology last year was to add capacity to meet demand. At this moment, we have enough capacities to meet demands, so now-finally-we can take on board a few customers.

The rope producers like Gottifredi Maffioli, LIROS, Armare, OTS, Teufelberger, etc.

It is a bit difficult to answer that because it really depends on what the client produces. I cannot give you a flat price, because it depends on the yarn count we are processing. Thin yarn costs more compared to course yarn.

We spent three years fine-tuning the production process and coating formulation. We had a lot of help from our customers who were willing to try the first samples which actually were not so good. Luckily, we have taken some major steps forward since.

Roughly, 6 per cent of the revenue is allocated towards R&D.