New challenges need new solutions – and true to this slogan of the 52nd Man-made Fiber Congress, Bavarian viscose speciality fibre manufacturer Kelheim Fibres presents its innovative products at this year’s industry meeting in Dornbirn.

 

The spread of product or trademark piracy is one of these challenges as it inflicts an enormous loss on our global economy every year and is becoming increasingly explosive. Almost 70% of all businesses are affected.

 

Bernd Probst, a member of Kelheim’s R&D team, will present a range of speciality fibres that protect products from illegal counterfeits with a visible or invisible fingerprint.

 

Another hot topic is the mega-trend “Ageing Society” and the resulting increasing demand for convenient, discrete and safe incontinence products.

 

Dr. Ingo Bernt presents viscose speciality fibres from Kelheim that enable perfect liquid and moisture management: their absorption levels range from “extra absorbent” to “hydrophobic”; hence they allow the production of incontinence solutions that consists completely of renewable materials and are at the same time washable and re-usable.

 

Dr. Philipp Wimmer will give a lecture on the opportunities that Kelheim’s viscose specialities offer in the filtration industry, a market which is growing in importance in our increasingly ecologically aware and health-conscious society. 

 

In contrast to other cellulosic fibres such as cotton, for example, viscose fibres stand out not only as a result of their definable and reproducible geometry, which enables a perfect match to be made to the specific processing route or end application. 

 

The porosity or surface of a filter, for instance, can be precisely controlled by adding the appropriate viscose fibres with different cross sections. Further, the incorporation of functional additives allows the manufacturing of tailor-made fibres according to the end product’s exact demands.

 

And finally, Dr. Roland Scholz and Dr. Nina Köhne present a series of interesting analyses regarding ionically activated viscose fibres and their applications. By using different technologies, Kelheim’s R&D can deliver fibres with cationic or anionic functional groups and thus controls the fibre properties.

 

Particularly when it comes to ion exchanging properties, fibres offer a distinct benefit: in comparison with common ion exchange resins, the diameter of the ionically functionalised fibres is considerably smaller and the active surface significantly larger. Hence they operate up to ten times faster!

 

With these different lectures, Kelheim Fibres scientists give a fascinating insight in their work – and again demonstrate their versatility and ability to develop cutting-edge products.