What Are The New Spaces For High-End Nonwovens? Full Analysis Of The Fifteenth Nonwoven Innovative Technology Application Summit

On August 21~22, Carl Jung's "2019 (fifteenth) nonwoven innovative technology application summit" was held in Hangzhou.

More than 160 well-known experts from nonwovens, medical materials and other industries, including diapers, sanitary napkins, wipes, facial masks, medical and other industries, as well as raw materials suppliers, machinery manufacturers, associations and institutions, are exploring the latest trends in the market, technology, technology and application of nonwovens.

Speaking at the opening address, Lu Liqing, director general of Carl Jung industrial media conference, said that at present, the globalization of the nonwoven industry is accelerating. China, as the largest and fastest growing market, has always been showing strong momentum and potential. The Chinese government has launched a series of major policy initiatives and has brought a lot of investment opportunities to the industry. On the one hand, local producers increase investment in technology research and development, invest in the latest and most advanced production lines, attach importance to product differentiation, and at the same time, the trend of green, environmental protection and sustainable development in the industry is further highlighted. On the other hand, the leading manufacturers abroad also pay more attention to the Chinese market, and they continuously strengthen their competitive advantage in the Chinese market through investment and cooperation with domestic enterprises and institutions.

According to the National Bureau of statistics, the output of nonwovens reached 2 million 162 thousand tons in the first half of 2019, an increase of 11.41% over the same period last year, which indicates that the demand for nonwovens is still very large. On the export side, China exported 497 thousand tons of nonwoven fabrics in the first half of this year, an increase of 6.88% over the same period last year. From the finished products, wipe and disposable sanitary products increased 7.47% and 16.09% respectively in global exports, indicating that the competitive advantage of Chinese products in the world is obvious. The rapid growth of China's nonwoven investment, on the one hand, shows that enterprises are very optimistic about the future development of the industry, and actively expand and upgrade their capacity. This will boost the industrial upgrading of the whole industry, but on the other hand, it will also aggravate the competition in the short time, especially the low and middle level homogenization competition, which has lowered the average price level. Therefore, from the finished product manufacturer to the equipment and raw material supplier, upstream and downstream enterprises should cooperate with each other to carry out more interaction and sharing so as to jointly resist risks.

ANFA, director of the Work Committee of the Asia nonwovens Association, and Xiang Yang, chairman of the nonwoven materials Specialized Committee of China Technical Market Association, made the keynote speech entitled "Current International Nonwovens Market Development Trend and international nonwoven standard work". Through a large number of data and empirical analysis, the market trend of Xiangyang nonwovens market is analyzed, and the research and development situation and present situation of nonwoven industry in Europe, North America and Asia are explained in detail. He said that nonwovens were one of the most active areas of innovation and development in recent years. By 2020, the global nonwovens market is expected to grow from US $37 billion 400 million in 2015 to US $50 billion 800 million. The growth of 2015~2020 was affected by the expected speed of global economic recovery, but its growth was still up to 13 billion 400 million US dollars, an increase of 36%, which indicates that the development of nonwoven industry is in good condition.

Xiangyang analysis shows that although the market is affected by the economic environment, nonwovens can still meet the needs of diversification and high-end applications in many application markets. The overall outlook is still bright. Filtering materials are the most potential application areas for nonwovens. Based on the "clean and pure" filter materials, they continue to grow at a rate higher than GDP 3%~4%. In the automotive / transportation field, the application of nonwovens keeps growing strongly. It can replace traditional materials by engineering design. For example, in the filtration field, nanofibers and composite media are used, or laminated composites are used to achieve lightweight, noise reduction and heat insulation, and to improve the fuel economy of vehicles; the development of high value-added materials, sophisticated medical and trauma care, including highly valued and cutting-edge implantable products, will become a new high growth area once technology and material technology breakthroughs are achieved.

Xiangyang also introduced the market of nonwovens used for wet and filtration in recent years. Due to its low cost and sustainability, wet nonwovens continue to be a common choice, especially in the fast growing wipes market. During the period 2018~2023, wet nonwovens are expected to grow from US $700 million to US $1 billion 800 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.6%. Its key drivers include the pursuit of convenience and the demand for high quality products. Filtration nonwovens are expected to grow from US $3 billion 500 million in 2014 to US $4 billion 600 million in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.6%.

Hu Xiaoyun, director of marketing of Shanghai, Ltd., made a keynote speech entitled "from cleaning to nursing - the additional function of paper products." With the growth of the economic level in the Asia Pacific region, we can see the emergence of demand escalation, and paper products and wipes are also included. After analyzing several subdivision categories, the new product listing in the past year and the current consumption trend of the market, Hu Xiao Yun mentioned that the products of "natural, non additive and environment-friendly" are more and more favored by consumers. She believes that the Asia Pacific wipes market is full of opportunities. Wet wipes are popular with consumers in China. Compared with dry napkins, consumers recognize the various added values of wet wipes, such as moisturizing ingredients for skin care, and disinfection effects on household surfaces. In the Asia Pacific region, paying attention to its functionality will help enhance consumer acceptance, and the industry should pay more attention to consumer education. She also stressed that the printing of wet wipes can bring benefits to various applications, and can better achieve the effect of wipes, especially in terms of cleaning ability. However, a challenge in the current market is the environmental protection of wipes. Brands in the Asia Pacific region have the opportunity to develop more environmentally-friendly wipes, such as bamboo fiber and other renewable fibers.

With the change of Chinese consumers' cognition and usage of wet wipes, consumers' demands are mainly embodied in functionality, environmental protection and no additions. The market trend of related products will be focused on safety / comfort considerations, additional functions such as sunlight pollution protection, anti-aging, extension of use occasions and use parts. De Xin has been making efforts in this regard. The solution of the wipes area extended by the company includes bionic moisturizing factor Hydroviton? PLUS, rapid bacteriostatic Symguard? CD, sensitive skin suitable for SymCalmin, Symrelief? 100, SymSitive 1609, deep clean and suitable SymClariol, etc. In addition, the company can provide anti-corrosion systems for wipes, including toxicology and safety of ingredients, changes in regulations, and clinical investigation of preservatives.

Li Jingya, health and technology manager of Dow Chemical (China) Investment Co., Ltd., China, has made a keynote speech entitled "Dow's innovative solutions to ensure that you are able to act freely, play hard and rest at ease". Dow fiber and nonwovens solutions cover two major areas: softness and function. In the soft fiber and non-woven solutions, VERSIFY elastomers can be used in one component spunbonded nonwovens, and VERSIFY, DP 4200.02 can be used to achieve soft modification through polymer and formula design. ASPUN? Fiber grade resin can be used in two-component spunbonded nonwovens, such as the production of two-component spunbonded nonwovens with ASPUN? 6850A fiber grade resin, which can achieve better spinning stability and meet the higher requirements of the market for softness and ductility. ASPUN6000 fiber grade resin with Yu Chao flexible single component spunbonded nonwoven fabric can significantly improve pendant feel, and has the advantages of touch comfort and low friction coefficient. ASPUN? Fiber grade resin can be used in short fiber hot air non-woven fabrics, which can be customized to stretch strength and elongation, and make hot air non-woven fabric more excellent fluffiness and improve drape characteristics.

In functional fiber and non-woven solutions, ASPUN? And AMPLIFY? Functional resins can be used in low melting point fibers and dust-free paper. Taking AMPLIFY? GR 204 functional resin as an example, the bonding properties of cellulose and cellulose can be improved, and the tensile strength of dust-free paper can also be improved. ASPUN? MB melt blown fiber resin can be used in melt blown nonwovens, which significantly improves pendency and softness, and does not require additional processing or additives to enhance the melt index of materials, thereby reducing odor and enhancing the sensory experience of masks, hygroscopic hygiene products, wipes, filter films and medical products. In addition, compared with polypropylene, ASPUN? MB resin has higher gamma radiation sterilization stability and is more suitable for pharmaceutical packaging and other uses. In the field of hot melt adhesive, Dow's Infuse OBC solution can provide lower odor and lower environmental impact.

Chen Peng, a researcher at the Ningbo Institute of materials technology and engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, made a keynote speech entitled "research and development of biodegradable polymer based fibers and non-woven fabrics". Combined with his own research topic, Chen Peng introduced the research and development of biodegradable fibers and non-woven fabrics. Biodegradable fiber non-woven fabric is in line with the industry's green development and innovation driven concept, and has huge market potential. However, it still faces some challenges and urgently needs to open up the technological chain of raw materials and processing to application. The diversity of biodegradable poly (lactic acid) resins and the expansion of the scale of polymerization have made the cost close to the general PP and PET level, but they are not affected by price. The spinning process of PLA is similar to that of PP and PET. It can save the cost by using the existing PP and PET spinning threads to produce PLA fiber and nonwoven fabric. He analyzed the extension of technology from the perspective of molecular structure. He proposed the research idea of combining biological basis and rigid chain, and obtained PEFT copolyester according to the molecular design of some biologically based rigid chain copolyesters. According to the research results, the melt flow behavior of copolyesters is similar to that of PET, and the shear viscosity is proportional to the intrinsic viscosity (IV). The preparation process and properties of PEFT fibers with different EF content were compared. The results showed that the copolyester with <8% content of furan monomer exhibited good melt spinnability, and the mechanical properties of the copolymer fibers were close to or better than that of pure PET under the similar process conditions. He also made a preliminary study on the dyeing properties of draft wires. < p= >

Chen Yue, marketing manager of Kimberly (China) Limited, made a keynote speech entitled "China Diaper Market Structure and future development trend of high-end diapers". As a leader in the field of global health and health care, Kimberly's three core areas are personal health care products, household paper and commercial consumer products. Combined with the changes in China's consumption trend index and consumption intention in recent years, Chen Yue analysis shows that in 2019, consumption index picked up and consumption intention increased. Under the full liberalization of the second child policy, the birth rate of the newborn is still very stable, and the birth rate of the second child in the newborns is more than one fetus. When choosing a baby care product, the second child mother will reevaluate the brand and product, pay more attention to the product word of mouth, and prefer the online shopping channel that can see the multi-dimensional product evaluation. Against this background, the Chinese diaper market is on the road of upgrading and upgrading. The product experience demand is constantly upgrading. From the foundation of no rash, no leakage of urine, and then to the dry and comfortable middle end, it has developed to soft, breathable, natural, and skin friendly requirements. High end and super high-end diapers and trousers have enjoyed a very high growth rate. Compared with last year, the high-end high-end pants grew by 94%, while the high-end growth pants also increased by 51.2%. The growth rates of ultra high end and high-end diapers were 51.9% and 17.1%, respectively. In contrast, the negative growth of mid and low-end diapers was -14.2% and -21.8% respectively.

Chen Yue combined with product cases to analyze 3 important trends of high-end products in detail. First, consumers are more concerned about the safety quality of products. The survey shows that safety, high standard technology, word of mouth and green organic are the factors that mothers attach importance to. Safety factors are ranked first. 76% of the 90's and 69% of the 80's mothers pay the most attention to safety factors. The major brands also spare no effort to ensure this through various effective means and cooperation and communication with suppliers. The two is product differentiation. According to the survey, 40% of the post-90s and 30% of the 80's mothers agree that "the finer and more targeted products of mothers and babies are more attractive to me." this proportion is even higher in the first tier cities. There are more and more subdivided skin care products in the market, such as the application of weak acid, vitamin E and other surface materials, and even some sex and premature products. The three is that products are becoming more and more scenes. Consumers are willing to choose products for different scenarios, such as daily and night use, travel, and even seasonal products, especially cool, breathable summer diapers. According to the survey, 70% of consumers expressed interest in seasonal diapers.

Wu Haibo, Professor of nonwoven materials and Engineering Department of textile School of Donghua University, analyzed spunlace technology to promote the rapid development and application of cellulosic fiber nonwovens. He said that the nonwoven industry was formed by the rapid development of research and technology in the field of textile, paper and polymer. Spunlace is the fastest growing entanglement process in the nonwoven industry. According to incomplete statistics, at present, about 72% spunlaced nonwovens are used for disposable wipes and cotton towels. In this part of spunlaced nonwovens, such products are easy to use, quick to handle and environmentally friendly, and are favored by consumers. Speaking of the attention to the material that can be displaced, Wu Haibo said that the materials that can be washed away must be capable of being washed out, dispersible and biodegradable.

Lu Yan, senior technical director of Rhine Technology (Shanghai) Limited, made the keynote speech entitled "compostable nonwovens testing and certification". Lu Yan said that it is foreseeable that the nonwoven field, which is undergoing critical structural upgrading, will accelerate the industry reshuffle, and enterprises that can achieve environmental protection and sustainable development goals will be more competitive. Biodegradable nonwovens such as wipes can be turned into safe soil nutrients in a composting environment, a sustainable alternative to traditional wipes. She distinguished the definition of biodegradable and compostable materials. Degradable plastics include plastics that can be degraded by physical and biological factors, and composting plastics are biodegradable plastics. Biodegradable plastics are plastics that can be digested by microorganisms that can be processed in the system as food for energy. Under different conditions, different degrees of biodegradation may occur. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the prerequisites for products to be biodegradable. According to Lu Yan, composting tests usually require chemical tests, biodegradability tests, disintegration and non-toxic tests. As an international leading supplier of testing services, T V V has over 20 years experience in compost certification field. In 2013, a biodegradable inspection laboratory approved by DIN CERTCO was established in Shanghai, and became the first foreign inspection laboratory approved by BPI in April 2017.

Cao Renguang, deputy general manager of Heng Tian Jiahua nonwovens Co., Ltd. made the keynote speech entitled "research, innovation and application trend of two-component spinning nonwovens for hygiene". Cao Renguang said that the demand for materials is increasing, including soft touch, fluffy, breathable, skin friendly, safety (zero stimulation, Ling Zhimin), which can meet these needs by developing more advanced melt materials. The two-component nonwovens are functional nonwovens made of two different kinds of chips, which are extruded by separate screw extruders and fused together to form mesh and reinforce them. The greatest advantage of the two-component spunbonded nonwoven technology is that different products can be produced from different raw materials, and different products can be produced through different composite forms, including high evenness, good softness, high strength and low elongation. He introduced the different types of two component spinning technology and their respective fiber characteristics and advantages, and shared the research and innovation work of Heng Tian Jia Hua in the field of health two component spinning and melting materials. For example, the EXCEL transcendent series products have a micro spiral structure. It uses unique raw material formula, and uses the unique and parallel two component composite spinning technology. The products are fluffy, soft, breathable and skin friendly, which can meet the needs of high-end development of sanitary products, and provide consumers with better comfort and safety experience.

Liu Ya, associate professor of the Department of nonwoven materials and engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, made the keynote speech entitled "research and development of polylactic acid Medical Nonwovens". She said that with the acceleration of aging process, the application prospect of medical nonwovens is promising. The nonwovens market continues to maintain rapid growth in the overall economic environment. In this context, the traditional PP nonwovens are not only single in structure, but also lack of flexibility. Biodegradable poly (lactic acid) materials are not only more flexible, but also degradable and environmentally friendly.

Mei Changhong, deputy general manager of Zhejiang golden three hair health Mstar Technology Ltd, made a keynote speech entitled "innovative ideas of wipes products, innovative applications of Nonwovens in wet wipes". There is a certain similarity between the wet towel market and the diaper market. Mei Chang Hong, based on the company's market research, indicates that with the development of China and the increase of consumption level, the products will also require corresponding changes, such as high affinity, softness, and the guidance of consumer safety and Application. Besides, pure natural sources of raw materials and environmental degradation are also the focus of consumers' attention. He also mentioned that consumers today have high requirements for appearance besides their great concern for comfort, and should pay attention to developing products. In terms of market innovation, Mei Changhong believes that environmental protection and biodegradation will become an important development trend. The third generation of the fibers may open the process of replacing viscose fibers in a comprehensive way. Viscose fiber, cotton, bamboo fiber, Lex fiber and its blend will become the main fiber of environmental protection and degradable Spunlaced cloth. In category, cleaning and disinfecting wipes will increase rapidly. The baby wipes will be greatly affected by dry towel, which may slow down growth. Adult incontinence, wet wipes and household wipes will usher in a high growth. At the same time, e-commerce shopping has become a habit. Each platform will have the oligopoly of each sub category and the differential competition between small and medium-sized businesses. In the direction of product innovation, consumers pay attention to thickness and thickness is the first intuition reaction; easy deformed wet towels are often labeled with poor quality; more than 60% of viscose and heavy products have little difference in consumer experience; jacquard usually thickens 5~8%. But low weight jacquard is risky; Chinese consumers prefer non fragrance or light flavor. In terms of nonwovens innovation, it is based on sticky polyester, developing to a high proportion of cellulose fiber, including bamboo, cotton, Lesel, etc. the production line with high impurity or TT will continue to be the mainstream of nonwoven fabric with wet towel. Through certain process, thickening, non fuzzing, softness, special custom patterns and other properties can be achieved. The blending of cotton, bamboo, sticky, Lesel and corn will be the main base material for high-end and differentiated products. The material can be increased, but the total amount is limited in the short term. The thickening and high CD strength will replace the crossover.

In the round table discussions, Xiang Yang, Li Jingya, Cao Renguang and Mei Changhong discussed the current opportunities and challenges of the domestic nonwoven industry, green and sustainable development, and emerging markets.