Complete Pilot-scale Prototyping & Analytical Capability
Our Facilities
Our facility is designed to enable our dynamic team of textile scientists to innovate and create new generations of products for our customers. NIRI can develop products from raw materials to full working prototypes and then support scale-up development. Our extensive range of pilot-scale equipment is designed to be modular, which means we can be very creative in terms of the nonwoven fabrics, configurations, composites and products that we can develop
| Complete Prototyping Equipment |
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| Fibre & Filament Compounding & Masterbatching Melt spinning: – Multifilament – Monofilament Wet spinning Pilot crimping & cutting (short and long staple) Filament coating (lick roller) |
| Drylaid Fibre opening & blending Fibre extraction & pulling plant Carding: – parallel-laid – cross-lapping Vertical-lapping Airlaid – Danweb labformer (fibre length ≤20 mm) Airlaid – Laroche long fibre system |
| Wetlaid Wetlaid (orientated hand sheets) & fibre preparation |
| Spunmelt FET Meltblown (≤400°C, coat hanger die design) FET Spunbond (mono & bico) Electrostatic charging |
| Nanofibre Electrospinning, hydro-splitting |
| Bonding Mechanical: – Hydroentanglement – Needlepunching Thermal bonding: – Calender – Through-air – Ultrasonic Chemical bonding (Spray, mangle impregnation, foulard, foam) |
| Other Spray rig and applicator Drying & curing ovens, UV curing oven Hot melt Powder lamination Coating Vacuum bagging (composites) Plasma treatment Cone winding, Ply & cover yarn twisting Warp & weft knitting High volume air extraction for processing developmental chemistries and solvents |
| Comprehensive Analytical Services |
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| Fabric structure, fibre and surface analysis Pore size (capillary flow porometry) Nonwoven structure characterisation, using image analysis: – Fibre diameter distribution, – Fibre orientation, – Bond point morphology Optical Microscopy Electron Microscopy (SEM, ESEM, FEGSEM, TEM) X-Ray Microtomography (XMT) X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) Interferometry |
| Chemical, thermal & filtration properties UV Spectrophotometer Visible Spectrophotometer NIR Spectrophotometer NMR Spectroscopy Raman Spectroscopy Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) HPLC, UHPLC Filtration efficiency |
| Hygiene testing & liquid transport Wicking Wetting/ contact angle – Goniometry – Tensiometry Absorbency Tampon Absorbency (Syngina Method) Inlet time, rewet (wetback), Run off (Femcare) |
| Physical testing facilities for fibers, yarns and fabrics Mechanical testing: – Tensile, – Tear – Compression – Burst – Thickness – Delamination – Friction Areal density Burst testing (diaphragm) Air permeability, pressure drop Abrasion, Pilling (martindale) Dimensional stability (temperature, washing) Haptics: – Softness – Handle & flexural rigidity – Crease recovery & drape Flushability Moisture vapour permeability Pulp absorbency (airlaid), CSF (Wetlaid) |