Cormatex, a leading Italian textile machinery manufacturer for woollen spinning and nonwoven sectors, is going to participate in the international textile and garment technology exhibition ITMA 2019, which to be held from June 20-26 in Barcelona, Spain.

In a recent interview with CTA, Mr. Luca Querci, Managing Director and R&D Manager of Cormatex, shared his insights on the company’s winning approach, as well as the latest market trends.

CTA: What will be the main focus for Cormatex’s participation at ITMA this year?

Mr. Luca Querci: The main focus of our participation is to show our know-how and expertise in developing innovative solutions for high quality yarn production (woollen spinning sector) and for waste recycling (nonwoven sector).

CTA: What will be the main exhibits of Cormatex at the show? Please introduce some of their key features.

Mr. Luca Querci: We will exhibit our unique Airlay machine called “Lap formair H” that is an aerodynamic web forming machine designed to process different types of fibers, virgin or recycled, as well as various waste materials and to convert them into high performing nonwoven products for different applications, such as furniture, mattress, automotive, thermal and acoustic insulation, agriculture and so on.

The machine provides the possibilities of processing fibers and non-fibrous materials, very short fibers (down to 1 mm length and lower) and producing a weight range from 100 gsm to over 5000 gsm with extremely high production capacity (up to 500 kg/h per meter width).

Another unique feature is the possibility of processing powder resins as an alternative to low melting fibers. Compared to other machines existing in the market, this efficient machine requires lower maintenance.

The other highlighted exhibit is our High Speed Cross Cutting machine model PLOT, which is specially designed to perform a very precise and straight cut without stopping the line. It is also the viable solution for cross cutting stiff and/or very thick materials. Our new design allows very high cross cutting frequency - cutting cycle lower than 2 seconds, meaning that a 600 mm long panel can be cut at a line speed of over 12 m/min. The design also offers the possibility of assembling different types of blades such as scissors cut, pressure cut or running blade for thin and thick materials up to over 200 mm. 

CTA: What are the latest market trends do you see in the textile industry?

Mr. Luca Querci: In our opinion, the main trend is to reduce the environmental impact of industrial processes through producing new products from waste materials. So the versatility in terms of processable materials is one the most important features required to our machines. At the same time, the market is asking for reducing production costs and improving line performance. 

CTA: Does Cormatex benefit from the morestringent global environmental standards and regulations?

Mr. Luca Querci: The global environmental requirements are giving additional value to Cormatex technology, which is specifically designed for processing recycled waste materials and thus reducing the environmental impact. We are witnessing a growing interest in our projects all over the world although not all the countries are culturally prepared to accept recycled products. But we are sure that it’s just a question of time!

CTA: Concerning woollen spinning sector, how do Cormatex’s technologies help to handle delicate yarns? What will the company intensify in this sector?

Mr. Luca Querci: Our long experience in woollen spinning technology is mainly focused on cashmere production, as well as other high quality fibers, such as extra-fine wool, alpaca, vicuna, llama and so on.

Our latest developments in this sector include the unique dehairing technologies for cashmere and other special fibers as well as the Wool Deburring machine to clean raw wool from vegetable impurities prior to be fed to the spinning process.

The developments are aimed to improve the quality and productivity of the spinning process without using any chemical treatment, and, therefore, minimizing the environmental impact of the spinning process itself.

CTA: How do you see Cormatex’s strengths in the growing nonwoven market?

Mr. Luca Querci: The nonwoven market is moving towards recycling solutions and lower-cost production. Cormatex’s technology offers both of these advantages, thanks to our 2 Airlay systems. The cost of final products can be reduced as we can process almost every kind of waste material, including post-industrial as well as post-consumer wastes. In addition, our process is simple and high productive. The result is that most of our projects payback time is shorter than 2.5 years, which is extremely fast for these kinds of investments.

CTA: Are there any challenges in developing new machines and processing recycled materials?

Mr. Luca Querci: Yes, the challenges come from keeping our products always updated in terms of performance. It is important to continuously modify our products and adapt them to develop innovative solutions.

When developing new products in cooperation with our customers, one of the key factors to be taken into consideration is to find adequate market. In order to reduce the market risks of our customers, we install a complete pilot line in our Research Center in Prato and offer the possibility to produce samples on industrial scale for marketing purposes. Such activity requires continuous investment from our company and adaptation of our technologies to new project every time.

Concerning the recycling process, the selection of recycled materials is usually not a problem for our Airlay technology as our system can deal with any kind of textile waste. The main challenge is to find a market which is ready to absorb the big volumes of products produced by our Airlay lines.

CTA: Which regions or countries are the driving engines of the company’s business?

Mr. Luca Querci: China, Indonesia and Thailand are the most promising markets at the moment, together with East European countries.

CTA: What areas and strategies will Cormatex focus in the next few years?

Mr. Luca Querci: Cormatex will push the boundaries of our Airlay technologies by further testing on new recycled materials. In addition, we are completing the investment to move our pilot line into a new building twice as big as the present one. By doing so, our pilot line will be enlarged from 1 meter to 2 meters width, thus increasing the testing capability of our systems.