11/11/2024 – Anniversary

Monforts is 140 and looking to the future

Monforts recently celebrated its 140th anniversary at a special event for staff and their families at its headquarters in Mönchengladbach, Germany.

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The first Monforts machines were mechanical napping units for raising the surfaces of cotton fabrics. © A. Monforts

 
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The company’s range of textile machines has been significantly expanded based on decades of accumulated know-how and a dominant position in fabric finishing technologies has been established. © A. Monforts

 
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Building on a very rich history since its foundation by August Monforts in 1884, the company remains 100% dedicated to the development of technologies that will ensure the future success of its textile industry customers.

Under the motto, ‘140 Years of Performance, Innovation and Partners’, Monforts is looking forward to further celebrating this milestone with its representatives and customers at the forthcoming ITMA Asia + CITME exhibition in Shanghai from October 14-18, in Hall 5 at stand C09.

International outlook

The first Monforts machines were mechanical napping units for raising the surfaces of cotton fabrics, providing softness and warmth and adding value. By 1893, Monforts 24-roller napping machines were drawing appreciative crowds at the World Fair in Chicago – establishing international trade networks was paramount to the company from the outset.

In 1897, August Monforts established an iron foundry equipped with hydraulic casting machines, by which time the company employed 1,200 people. This was followed by the introduction of semi-automatic manufacturing tools – an area in which Monforts achieved a number of firsts, such as the single-spindle lathe which became a big export hit in the late 1930s due to its unique and unmatched precision. Since 2013, Monforts has been a member of the CHTC Fong’s Group, today one of the world’s largest textile machinery manufacturers.

Industry standard

Monforts Montex stenters – for processes such as drying, stretching, heat-setting and coating – are now the industry standard for the fabric finishing industry, not only in the sectors of denim and home textiles, but also in the field of technical textiles, with numerous patents registered over the course of the decades for premium quality and a number of advantages in terms of production throughput and especially in energy efficiency and savings. The other key technologies in the Monforts range include DynAir relaxation dryers, Thermex continuous dyeing ranges, Monfortex compressive shrinking ranges and Montex Coat and coaTTex coating units.

ATC

Since its opening in 2013, the €2.5 million Monforts Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) in Mönchengladbach has proved an invaluable resource to customers for achieving new standards in fabric finishing. Over an area of 1,200 square metres, it houses two full finishing lines, engineered to accommodate an extremely diverse range of processes, in addition to a Thermex range for the continuous dyeing of denim and other woven fabrics, a full colour kitchen and a number of lab-scale systems for smaller batch trials.

Montex Austria

For over 40 years, Monforts finishing machines have been manufactured at Montex Maschinenfabrik based in St. Stefan, Austria. While there is standardisation in series-produced Monforts machines, Montex Maschinenfabrik is also increasingly called upon to construct bespoke machines with unique designs, according to the special needs of customers in technical textile or special textiles.