Based on surveys of production and growth rates and market shares of needle felts, the needling technology as the most important staple fibre web forming and consolidation technology has been raised to more public awareness in the past years. Basis for the high importance of needle felts made from staple fibre is the processability of almost any fibre: all natural fibres, all organic man-made fibres, all mineral and metallic fibres.

The parameter range of raw material and machines allow a wide variety of combinations for product characteristics which range from light and fine needle felts used in medicine and hygiene applications to heavy technical felts. The great number of diverse needle products covers numerous applications: textile floor coverings, automotive interior linings, natural fibre felts for the mattress and bedding industry, wipes for household and industry, voluminous felts for heat and sound insulation, filter media for environmental protection, geotextiles for the construction industry to artificial leather for shoe and apparel production, high-tech felts for the paper production and an almost endless range of further fine special applications.

Additive textile manufacturing

Dilo is one of the leading European machine building companies for the worldwide nonwoven industry. The company concentrates and specializes on the sector “needling technology” where customers more and more rely on complete solutions which include fibre preparation, cards, crosslappers and the most different kind of needlelooms.

In the recent past, Dilo has been created a new needle arrangement, the “8000X” scheme, which can be considered as a breakthrough on the way to more even needlefelt surfaces with almost no stripes and undesired patterns. The “8000X” produces an even stitching distribution with less dependency on advances per stroke compared to classical random needle arrangements.

The latest research work at Dilo concentrates on a completely new sector for web forming and needling which may be best defined by the term “additive textile manufacturing”. Basis is an even needle felt which gets a topologically varied fibre mass distribution in 3D by the controlled placing of fibres. This 3D web forming technology allows placing the fibres directly where they are needed: as stock for subsequent molding, as support for further strength and stiffness, for sound insulation or as protection in case of accidents. The new “3D-Lofter” shows us the future of the current needle felts as homogenous semi-finished product where textile lightweight construction e. g. in the automotive industry meets further weight saving challenges.

Techtextil: Hall 12.0, booth B95