Celebrating Decades of Innovation: A Visual Journey Through Past Editions of INDEX™. Photo: Collected
Half a century of nonwoven progress
EDANA selected Geneva Palexpo as the natural home for INDEX™, the World’s Leading Nonwovens Exhibition, in 1984. INDEX™ has been held in the easily-accessible Swiss city, adjacent to its international airport, every three years since – with just a slight alteration in this scheduling due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to 1984, smaller shows were organized at different European locations as the industry gathered pace – by the mid-1970s the global nonwovens market was already valued at around $1 billion, based on the consumption of around 800,000 tons of these engineered materials.
Progress since then, however, has been nothing short of remarkable.
In 2024, according to analyst Smithers, global consumption had grown to 15.2 million tons, with a value of $62.8 billion, which equates to an impressive average annual growth rate of over 6% for fifty years, with double-digit growth figures frequently achieved in rapid developing regions of the world.
AHPs and durables
Much as today, absorbent hygiene products (AHPs) were the industry’s biggest end-use market back in the 1970s, accounting for approximately 40% of output. Disposable diapers and sanitary napkins were growing in popularity in developed markets, but single-use disposable wipes – which today may seem virtually indispensable in many personal hygiene and household tasks, as well as in industry – were unbelievably almost non-existent.
All AHPs were also considerably bulkier than they are today, and were often prone to leakage, since it was not until the mid-1980s that the use of superabsorbent polymers was introduced to replace a considerable amount of fluff pulp in their cores, paving the way, in combination with engineered elastics, for today’s thin, lightweight and highly efficient products.
Nonwovens were also being increasingly used in medical supplies as surgical gowns, drapes, and masks in the 1970s. The cost-effectiveness and ability of nonwoven materials to be sterilized made them ideal for single-use applications in hospitals. Today, their use is ubiquitous.
In durable markets, nonwovens were finding their way into automotive interiors for sound insulation, carpeting and trunk liners and their benefits such as strength and moisture resistance were being discovered by the construction industry, as roofing materials, geotextiles and insulation products. Nonwovens were also increasingly replacing other materials as the preferred media for air, water and oil filters.
Challenges
Many of the issues facing the industry in the 1970s also sound surprisingly familiar today. The oil crisis early in that decade had a lasting impact on the cost of synthetic fibres like polypropylene and polyester, while the rise of disposable products brought increasing scrutiny over waste management and environmental impact. Even then, these concerns were prompting the industry to start exploring the adoption of recyclable and biodegradable materials.
Intense competition among producers, particularly in the AHPs and medical sectors, was also driving down prices, demanding continuous innovation from the major players in order to maintain profitability. While the industry was already well established in developed countries, penetration in developing markets was constrained by low purchasing power and a lack of infrastructure.
China’s rise
North America, Western Europe and Japan dominated the production and consumption of nonwovens in the 1970s, accounting for more than 75% of global output.
As for China – today the world’s largest nonwovens producer with an output of 8.1 million tons in 2023 according to the China Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA) – the nation was just emerging from its Cultural Revolution.
Most of China’s industrial capacity was at that time focused on heavy industries, agriculture and military needs, with light industries given scant attention. Nonwovens production was concentrated in a few state-owned factories in major industrial regions serving domestic needs for basic items such as agricultural crop covers, filters and simple medical applications. There was limited access to synthetic fibres such as polypropylene and polyester and China’s industry relied heavily on imported or outdated machinery, hindering efficiency and quality.
It hardly needs pointing out that today China is the world leader in the production of both synthetic fibres and nonwovens production machinery.
At the end of the Cultural Revolution, China embarked on its programme of economic reforms under Deng Xiaoping from 1978, leading to the nation’s gradual rise throughout the 1980s and 90s.
Yet by 1994, China’s nonwovens output was still only an annual 200,000 tons, largely consisting of the drylaid conversion of staple fibres into basic products.
It’s only in the past thirty years that the country’s industry has really soared, and in 2024 production reached 8.1 million tons, consisting of 4.5 million tons of drylaid materials and 4.6 million tons of spunmelt. China’s annual baby diaper consumption alone now amounts to an annual 42 billion units.
Mega trends
In the latest Global Nonwoven Markets Report which has just been jointly published by industry associations EDANA and INDA, it is noted that between 2013 and 2023 China continued to lead global production growth, having added an additional 4.5 million tons of capacity in that period, representing annual growth of 9.4%, with the wipes, medical and transportation segments experiencing the fastest expansion among nonwoven end-use applications.
Exciting new applications are now arising which will further drive the industry forward. In the automotive sector, for example, the benefits of nonwovens have expanded from interior to external parts such as composite reinforcements, underbody shields and wheel arch liners. Further applications are increasing in alternative drive vehicles such as battery separators and housings, as well as brake-dust filtration. Applications in hydrogen storage for both transportation and energy continue to throw up further opportunities.
Further mega-trends are also impacting the growth of the global nonwovens industry and not least the demands for purer air and cleaner water which are ensuring an ever-expanding filter media sector. The latest development here is in the field of direct air capture (DAC), in which advanced nonwoven filters are being positioned to play a critical role in the removal of CO2 from our atmosphere.
Just as significantly, however, nonwoven-based single-use products will continue to provide comfort, cleanliness, and convenience in modern living.
As such, there is little doubt the industry can continue on its growth trajectory over the next 50 years, and INDEX™26 is the next opportunity to take a deep dive into its very latest developments. See more.
Source: Online/NAN
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