The Neumünster-based systems builder Oerlikon Nonwoven premiered its new hycuTEC hydro-charging solution at this year’s FILTECH in Cologne. This new technology for charging von nonwovens enables the filter efficiency to be increased to more than 99.99%. As a result, it offers meltblown producers considerable material savings with simultaneously improved filtration.
The hycuTEC is the market’s first industrially-manufactured hydro-charging solution that can also be seamlessly integrated into the production process. And the innovative technology is also easily retrofitted to existing systems as a plug & produce component – a first within the market.
Filter media with a whole new level of quality
hycuTEC hydro-charging can reduce the pressure loss in typical FFP2 filter media to less than a quarter. Even filtration efficiencies of more than 99.99% are easily achieved in typical filter media of 35 g/m² at 35 Pa. Tests at pilot customers manufacturing FFP2 face masks have confirmed quality increases due to the improved filtration with a simultaneous reduction in material usage of 30%. For end users, the consequence is noticeably improved comfort resulting from significantly reduced breathing resistance.
In addition to this, the hydro-charging unit also stands out in terms of sustainability: “The hycuTEC process excels as a future-proof technology due to its considerably lower water and energy consumption compared to other hydro-charging concepts. This unit allows an additional drying process to be dispensed with in many applications, which has a huge impact on energy consumption”, comments Dr. Ingo Mählmann, Head of Sales & Marketing at Oerlikon Nonwoven. Incidentally, the hycuTEC unit can be easily and quickly installed and is simple to operate, set and service, while also being extremely user-friendly.
Technological quantum leap
Whereas classical hydro-charging processes charge the finished non-woven material, the hycuTEC concept is based on the all-round charging of each filament. Through controlled atomization, a charge is evenly transferred to the fibers from the water spray. And a special additive is used to permanently bond the charge to the surface of each fiber. The result: filter media with a uniformly stable charge over the entire cross-section and an effective fiber surface area about 10 times greater than that of surface-charged media. Integrating the new unit into a state-of-the-art Oerlikon Nonwoven meltblown system helps achieve a uniformly high product quality across the whole production process.
