Alexium International Group Limited (Alexium) announced that production trials are commencing on Nycolon FR treatments for variety of synthetic-cellulosic blend fabrics. The transition to production trials marks a key development stage for Alexium’s Nycolon FR treatment on a much larger scale. Positive developments over the last two months have also enabled the inclusion of polyester-cotton blends in the first production trials, in addition to the planned transition on nylon-cotton fabrics.

For Alexium, the production trials scheduled at North Carolina State University (NCSU), one of the United States’ premier textile research and engineering institutions, mark the beginning of a key technical stage in the commercialization path.

Treating roll goods in these trials will allow Alexium to make rapid progress towards the production scale, capturing and validating important production parameters. This effort will also take advantage of production scale fabric processing equipment to further enhance physical properties of Nycolon treated fabrics.

“We are pleased with the technical progression and the speed in which the team was able to prepare our FR treatment for the next development stage. I anticipate a number of production trials to prove that our Nycolon treatments are robust and production ready for a variety of synthetic-cellulosic fabric combinations.” stated Stefan Susta, Alexium’s Chief Operating Officer.

Under contract by the US Marine Corps, Alexium‘s affiliate Alexium Government Solutions (AGS), has made significant advances over the last months on nylon-cotton blends, improving the wash durability of Nycolon treatments to 50 home launderings.

AGS successfully concluded the Phase I effort with the US Marine Corps and expects a decision from the US Department of Defense on the possible progression to phase 2 of the program in the very near future.

However, expanding on this work, Alexium has made a significant step forward on the development path and commercial adaptation for other fabric blends. Alexium has held off licensing Nycolon on the basis of, firstly achieving its own commercial product run, given the outstanding attributes of this revolutionary product.

This will enable a licensing of a higher validated and developed product with consequent higher market product price share.The line trial in September will include nylon-cotton as well as polyester-cotton fabrics, benchmarking production readiness and address potential transition gaps on a number of different synthetic-cellulosic fabric blends.