“We’re currently running trials, preparing samples and defining specifications for companies in Germany and Italy, as well as the UK, and we could already have sold the lab line we have here many times over,” says managing director Richard Slack. “It’s primarily designed for R&D and pilot scale applications, but trials have proven it to be suitable for the low volume production of critical meltblown face mask materials. Some of the customers to whom we’ve supplied similar lines have already pivoted their production to this, which has generated further interest.

“We feel, however, that we are ideally placed to offer services to nonwoven companies who may be exploring alternatives to polypropylene in meltblown, due to our experience in working with such a wide range of fibre types.”

Medical

FET’s meltblown system was originally developed for companies looking to process high melt viscosity medical grade resorbable polymers such as PGA (polyglycolic acid), PLLA (polylactic acid) and PGH (polyhydroxl btyrate), mainly for use in implantable products and other medical devices.

The key applications for these fibres are in hernia repair patches, staple reinforcement buttresses, artificial skin, adhesion barriers periodontal and ringival repair materials and those fortendon and ligament repair.

“Our meltblowing system provides medical companies and others dealing in such fibres with a  simpler processing route than other techniques such as needlepunchingand a wide range of structural and mechanical properties is obtainable from batch production,” Slack says. “There are also numerous options for post-processing of the webs,by calendering, point bonding or lamination.”

Performance polymers such as TPU polyurethanes and TPE thermoplastic elastomers are also processed by a number of leading sportswear companies on FET meltblown systems, while engineering polymers such as ABS and PEEK, as well as polycarbonate and halogenated polymers, are other possible raw materials.

Sustainable resins

It is in the area of sustainable resins, however, that FET believes much more can be achieved.

Meltblown polpropylene nonwovens are the critical component of the face masks needed for Covid-19 frontline workers and their scarcity on the open market has in part been the reason for the reported shortages around the world.

An estimated 40 million face masks and other disposable nonwoven-based PPE items are currently estimated to be being consumed each day, amounting to a daily 15,000-ton mountain of waste –much of which must be incinerated.