Magazine July 2016

Focus on the textile world: from recycling to networking

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An important step in card clothing development

– a carding test line begins operations at Groz-Beckert

One year ago, Groz-Beckert acquired the carding solutions activities of the Belgian Bekaert Group and thereby founded the young product sector Carding. Since the takeover, numerous innovations have already been implemented in order to achieve the product and service quality that Groz-Beckert is famous for.

For example, as reported in the last Newsletter, a new service workshop has been established in Albstadt for the service business in Germany. This has now been followed by the opening of a Technical Center Carding at Groz-Beckert in Albstadt, the heart of which consists of a nonwoven card for testing metallic wires. Find out more here about the Technical Center Carding and the opportunities that arise for customers and partners of Groz-Beckert.

Just an imageA look inside the Technical Center Carding

The heart of the Technical Center Carding

– the nonwoven card

The Technical Center Carding was established specifically for the testing of newly-developed metallic wire. At the heart of the Center is the nonwoven card "Spinnbau System 2000". The card is served by a fiber opening line, partially consisting of bale opener, fine opener and card feeder. Synthetic fibers up to 60 mm fiber length, natural fibers and also recycled fibers can all be processed for testing new metallic wires.

Due to the low working width of the card of just one meter, raw material consumption during these experiments is comparatively low. The card can be operated with or without condenser rollers. The drive technology, equipped to the highest standards with individual drives, enables rapid adaptation of the carding elements to the operating speed and the respective raw materials.

The Technical Center Carding

– driving product development

Development in the field of card clothing is particularly time-consuming and costly. Larger-scale trials at customer operations are almost impossible, since clothing rollers in the usual working widths with wires is time-consuming and causes unacceptable production shutdowns. Therefore, new or enhanced wires involved a certain risk until now, since the precise impact on the final product was far from clear. Factors like these have all resulted in a slowdown in development in the card clothing sector over recent decades.

Groz-Beckert now offers a solution to this: the carding line at the Technical Center Carding enables developments to be thoroughly tested before delivery to customers, and any improvements can be made right away. Because the card is fitted with sensors and samples can be taken at the highest of speeds, conclusions can be drawn about the character of the wires and their impact on the end product.

Just an imageDevice for bypassing the cross lapper

The card can be optionally combined with a cross lapper in order to produce a pre-needled nonwoven, enabling further conclusions to be drawn about the properties and character of the wires. To enable the tests to be carried out under real conditions, a vacuum-supported conveyor belt can be used to bypass the cross lapper, so that the fiber distribution in the nonwoven is not destroyed – even at speeds of over 200 m/min.

With its Technical Center Carding, Groz-Beckert is equipped to actively promote innovation in card clothing development and to build up key expertise – which makes its customer service and advisory even more comprehensive and universal. Would you like to find out more? The Groz-Beckert experts will be happy to advise you!