According to a recent report, the global
non-woven industry has increased at a steady rate of 7.5 percent each year in tonnage in the past few decades. Although development in the nonwoven sector in countries such as the US, Europe, & Japan has decreased with age, these countries still continue to grow at a CAGR of 5 percent/year. The surge in demand for such fibers as emerging markets such as Asia expands accounts for a greater share of global non woven growth, and one of the major contributors to this is India.
The developing nations cannot do without automation since it helps in improving the quality as well as quantity, considerably with
automated weaving. Today, the companies in the nonwoven sector should ensure that they not only manufacture and supply the finest quality of fabric, at the lowest cost, but also at the shortest possible time-frame. And therefore, automation is the only option which will lets the firms to attain this objective.
While the nonwoven & textile sectors share some of the most common heritage, the nonwoven industry has grown to render a broad array of engineered-fiber & polymer-based products which are driven by low-cost, high-speed, innovative as well as value-added processes. The nonwoven industry created an ecosystem which is built based on automation, and therefore, it reduces the dependence on low cost labor. This thereby has made the industry to not set up manufacturing facilities in low-labor cost regions across the globe. Nonwovens are typically manufactured & converted where they are sold thereby reducing shipping costs.
Adopting technologies from diverse industries
The non woven industry has adapted technologies from various sectors such as paper & pulp, as well as the extrusion industries, for instance, for manufacturing the desired products at reasonable cost. Although automated converting has been a significant part of the non woven supply chain for several years, clearly, high-speed, as well as huge volume & low unit cost of production requires complete automation and this in turn, shows that
short runs as well as flexibility in offerings becomes limited.
Although there are some disadvantages to using automation, the benefits are not small. In order to survive in the current market, it is necessary to invest in automation, the main reason being that the country's garment industry is heavily dependent on automation. So, in order to keep pace with the developed countries, we need to ensure the use of automation in our industries as well.
Meeting growing demand with advances in printing technology
Some of the several drivers which will lead to the use of nonwovens in conventional textile products include the recent advances in printing technology, the need for controlling while at the same time offering unique fabrics which render the right kind of performance. The recent advances in printing technology would have led to even the replacement of multicolored woven fabrics that are manufactured by utilizing multicolored yarns with simple woven fabrics which can be printed to mimic the finer structures. Although these products would lead to significant savings owing to the ability for performing short runs & render mass-customization like never before the perfect type of nonwoven structure will be an ideal candidate for such printed materials.
While the nonwoven part of the sector comprises raw materials suppliers, the converters/fabricators of the end use products, roll goods producers, & a machinery industry supporting the past 3 categories, auxiliary material suppliers, winding, slitting, packaging equipment manufacturers, among other segments, the list does not render a picture as one should be imagining, since the picture is clouded further by several degrees of vertical as well as horizontal integration within the sector. The picture is more complicated by the local market as well as economic nuances.
However, what is clear is that nonwovens industry still continues to be more adaptive, creative as well as relentlessly opportunistic and this means that in the years to come, there would be an array of products which can replace several traditional textiles and a few may look at this as an opportunity, and a few others may see it as a threat.
Bright future ahead
Nonwovens as well as technical textiles are some of the most dominant as well as active areas of the textile sector; hence, production and the usage will increase in the coming years. The nonwovens industry is booming in the country and nonwovens have been manufactured in the country for several years, although they were primarily restricted to nonwovens made with staple fibers by implementing the traditional & outdated technologies. Furthermore, since the trend for lower basis weight continues, the other materials that have become increasingly important are spunmeit & spunlace.
Over the past decade, nonwovens have been one of the fastest growing segments of the sector and hence there is significant scope for growth in the nonwovens sector of the textiles industry. Since Asian countries are the biggest consumer of nonwovens when compared to the other countries, it will keep on growing with a significant CAGR in the near future & India is one of the major markets within Asia.
