INDEX™ Awards: 2023 Winning Entries

The prizes were awarded on the opening day of INDEXTM23 across five categories; there were no shortlisted entries for the achievement for the most original marketing campaign for a product made from, or incorporating nonwovens category this year.

Throughout the four-day exhibition, both the winning entries and the finalists, are on display at the INDEX™ Innovation Lab, an INDEX™ exhibition showcasing how innovation and sustainability are driving the nonwovens industry forward. This showcase contains the best examples from the industry, highlighting creativity and innovation from businesses of all sizes, and across all parts of the nonwovens supply chain. 

The shortlisted candidates – presented in alphabetical order – for each category of the award are listed below, along with a description of the innovation and feedback from the jury as to why the entry was selected.

1. Nonwoven roll goods

Winner: Suominen – HYDRASPUN® Circula Nonwoven

HYDRASPUN® Circula is one the first nonwovens on the market to be produced with recycled paper and virgin cellulosic fibres. It is challenging to use a waste source as a raw material in nonwovens due to high quality and hygiene requirements, which makes HYDRASPUN® Circula stand out as a successful example of innovation.

This entry caught the jury’s attention for its innovative use of post-consumer waste, and its ability to demonstrate that innovations in nonwovens can support the circular economy and sustainable production. The jury also recognized Suominen’s efforts in transforming their product portfolio into an environmentally sustainable range of solutions.

Finalists

Fitesa – Fitesa® Hydro-X S 100% BioBase

This is a spunbond product that delivers the softness and high-loft properties normally found in nonwovens created by air through bonding (ATB).

Sandler – Fast Forward Fabric

Fast Forward Fabric is a single-polymer textile material, specifically designed to offer maximum performance while contributing to sustainable material cycles and the conservation of resources at the same time. 

2. Finished products made from, or incorporating nonwovens

Winner: Henkel – Smart Adult Care 

Smart Adult Care transforms a conventional diaper into a smart, connected medical device. This is a vital step into the future of patient-centred care and smart hygiene services. Equipped with a lightweight, flexible printed sensor and reusable pod, the diaper enables remote monitoring of moisture, movement, and temperature. It was developed in cooperation with Henkel’s IoT partner Smartz AG.

Nonwoven-based absorbent hygiene products already make a significant contribution to the comfort and well-being of many elderly people. For the jury, the well-considered and field trialled Smart Adult Care solution, will not only take this to the next level, but also make life considerably easier for nurses and healthcare staff working under a lot of pressure. The integration of sensors into disposables has been suggested for all kinds of applications, but this is a big step forward in what is practical and achievable now.

Finalists

Fibroline and Euro Wipes – Multimasking Mask

Using a patented technology, Fibroline and Euro Wipes developed a tri-zone sheet mask with dedicated active ingredients for forehead, eyes, and face.

Sparkle Innovations – Sparkle Compostable Sanitary Pads Wrapped in Paper 

Sparkle sanitary pads are made from renewable resources that are designed to biodegrade in warm and humid conditions. 

3. Raw materials or components (e.g., fibre, binder, polymer, tape), of special relevance to the nonwovens industry and related converted products

Winner: Fiberpartner – BicoBio 

A future proof bicomponent fibre core sheath construction, developed from materials with a low carbon footprint, this component was designed to biodegrade in the environments where most plastics eventually find themselves: landfills and ocean water. 

• The BioBased PE is produced from sugar cane and has a negative carbon footprint.

• The Recycled PET is GRS certified.

• PrimaLoft® Bio™ an additive technology that enables polyester and fabric fibres to biodegrade in the environment. 

Fibres can be processed in a variety of nonwovens technologies and used for different applications. The jury recognized that the hydrolytic biodegradation of fibres in landfill is beneficial for some nonwovens applications.

Finalists

Indorama Hygiene Group – Biotransformation Technology 

This innovation is a biotransformation technology which delivers biological decomposition of polyolefin in the environment. 

Sparkle Innovations – SugaFluff™ 

Made from bagasse fibres, SugaFluff™ offers a wood-free, sustainable, cost-effective, high performing and truly circular alternative source of fluff pulp for absorbent hygiene products. 

4. Innovation in machinery of special relevance to the nonwovens industry

Winner: Curt G. Joa, Inc. – ESC-8™ 

JOA’s ESC-8™ Electronic Size Change unit offers a previously unavailable push-button product changeover technology. It uses numerous methods and processes that are truly unique to in-line product changeover and flexibility. As one example, each absorbent insert carriage within the ESC-8™ unit is controlled and cammed independently leading to unparalleled process flexibility and user control.

The jury was impressed by this innovation associating flexibility and cost efficiency for the pant-type products industry.

Finalists

Herrmann Ultraschalltechnik – Elastic Thread Anchoring (ETA) Sonotrode

The creative and novel approach of the ETA Sonotrode for elastic anchoring eliminates the need for additional joining agents, which represents a substantial cost reduction of the process.

Reifenhäuser Reicofil – RF5 XHL Platform for Supersoft Spunbond

The Reicofil RF5 XHL line configuration is designed to produce super soft nonwovens for the hygiene industry. 

5. Sustainable Product

Winner: Sparkle Innovations – SugaFluff™ 

Made from bagasse fibres, SugaFluff™ offers a wood-free, sustainable, cost-effective, high performing and truly circular alternative source of fluff pulp for absorbent hygiene products. No extra land is required to grow bagasse fibres for SugaFluff™, as sugarcane bagasse is an abundantly available by-product of the sugar industry.  

Shortlisted in two categories, the jury found this to be an excellent example of sustainability in all its dimensions, and of real relevance to the nonwoven industry and its related markets. See also category 3. 

Finalists

Fitesa – Fitesa® 100% BioBase AquiDry 

This material limits the need to offset carbon emissions by reducing the carbon footprint of the product by using the raw material in the final roll good.  

Sparkle Innovations – Sparkle Compostable Sanitary Pads Wrapped in Paper

Also nominated in category 2. See above for the description.