June 30, 2007

Biax-Fiberfilm Purchases Davis-Standard Fibermaster® II for Large Line

Biax-Fiberfilm, a leader in meltblown and web/film stretching technologies, purchased a 165mm Fibermaster® II from Davis-Standard, LLC for a large-scale meltblown line supplied to a customer earlier this year. This is the largest and most advanced Fibermaster that Biax-Fiberfilm has purchased from Davis-Standard, the company’s preferred extruder vendor since 2002. This specific Fibermaster model revolves around screw design to give end users more flexibility when using compounds with a high recycled content. Davis-Standard has continued to fine-tune its screw designs to improve performance and efficiency for processing these types of compounds.

“We’ve purchased Davis-Standard extruders ranging from pilot equipment to the recent 165mm extruder and have been very pleased,” said Doug Brown, president of Biax-Fiberfilm. “Customers like the quality workmanship and technical staff at Davis-Standard, which fits with our commitment to providing customers with value-added services. The quality of Davis-Standard’s equipment really enhances our high quality product line.”

Biax-Fiberfilm’s largest product line is meltblown machinery for fine to course fibers. The company, based in Greenville, Wisconsin, serves customers in the oil sorbents, filtration, hygiene and insulation markets with about 50 percent of the business in the U.S. and the other 50 percent throughout Asia and Europe. Depending on application, Biax-Fiberfilm can build systems capable of processing fibers ranging from submicron to 30 microns. Currently, the company is in the process of developing products with biodegradable microfibers and submicron fibers. Most meltblown products are synthetic, so Biax-Fiberfilm is working with customers to spin cellulose fibers which would be 100 percent biodegradable.

“The market for nonwovens is diverse and growing. Specifically, we anticipate a lot of growth in the area of fine fibers,” explained Brown. “We are addressing the needs of the industry by implementing the latest technology in our equipment. In this way, Davis-Standard will help us accomplish future goals by supplying the best extruders for our product line.”

Among the company’s future goals is the marketing of a new ultra strength meltblown material recently unveiled at IDEA07 that Brown anticipates will “turn the market upside down.” The production of this new material will involve only one meltblown step rather than three, spunbond, meltblown, spunbond (SMS). Properties of the new material such as tensile strength, hydro-head, and filtration efficiencies are equivalent to that of SMS products, but with reduced costs. Equipment and production costs will be lower due to the need for only one machine rather than three, and processors will be able to use light basis weight materials to achieve the same performance.

For more information about Biax-Fiberfilm visit, www.biax-fiberfilm.com. For more information about Davis-Standard’s equipment for the meltblown and nonwovens industries, contact John Plante at jplante@davis-standard.com.