In today’s dynamic engineered fibers and fabrics environment, rapid innovation while controlling costs can be key to producer profitability as well as to academic advancement of the state-of-the-art.  Whether you call it “Rapid Prototyping,” “Test and Learn” or “Move Fast and Break Things,” maintaining a high cadence of innovation while minimizing the impact upon on-going operations and financial performance has never been more important.  The Nonwovens Institute offers a variety of capabilities to industry, government and academia to assess ideas and concepts quickly and with minimal resource consumption.

NWI is pleased to announce an addition to the NWI Fiber and Polymer Science Lab that enhances our ability to support members, customers, faculty, staff and students; a new Hills, Inc. LBS-330 Lab Scale Bicomponent Melt Extrusion Unit which can produce continuous filament, spunbond, meltblown, and more in almost any desired cross-section requiring as little as 40 grams of polymer to make 100 meters of fiber.  

The LBS-330 offers a wealth of capabilities:

• Single and bicomponent fiber spinning with various fiber profiles:
  • Sheath/Core
  • Side by Side
  • Tipped Trilobal
  • 16 Segment Pie
  • 36 or 250 “Islands-In-the-Sea”

• Monofilament extrusion with water quench and winding – 36 or 72 fibers
• Single and bicomponent meltblown production – 150 mm wide web
• Spunbond, calender bonding, and winding equipment – 220 mm wide web

“One of the most impressive features of the LBS330 is its modular spin pack design, which allows switching between a round single-spinneret (typically 36–72 holes) and a larger rectangular 144-hole spin pack for spunbond,” said Mehmet Dasdemir, Ph.D., NWI’s Director of Product Development, “This enables the production of a significantly wider nonwoven web (220 mm) suitable for a variety of standardized testing and prototyping applications.”

”The unit can also produce a 150mm wide meltblown web with either mono or bicomponent fibers,” added Dr. Dasdemir, “This gives us incredible flexibility to help customers with developing new products across a broad variety of raw materials and spunmelt technologies.”

“We look forward to developing tomorrow’s nonwovens together!”

The equipment was made possible by a generous donation by Hills, Inc. of West Melbourne, Florida USA. “No where else in the world do polymer, fiber, and fabric innovations come together to meet the needs of both academia and industry.  Hills and the NWI are a natural fit.  We look forward to developing tomorrow’s nonwovens together.” said Arnold Wilkie, President and Owner of Hills.  Wilkie who has a distinguished, 55+ year career in advancing yarn, fiber, and nonwoven technologies has been involved with and supported The Nonwovens Institute since its founding in 1991 as the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC), with Hills joining as a member in 2001.  He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from INDA – The Association of the Nonwovens Industry in 2024 and serves on the NWI Executive Committee.

“The LBS-330 joins an extensive array of rapid development capabilities in NWI’s laboratories,” noted NWI’s Executive Director Raoul Farer, Ph.D, “This includes an earlier model of the system, the Hills LBS-300, which remains in use and available to users.”  Farer added, “We greatly appreciate the generosity of Hills, Inc as well as our other commercial partners in keeping NWI’s facilities in line with the state-of-the-art for both research and development.”

For more information regarding NWI’s laboratories and arranging for access, visit https://thenonwovensinstitute.com/#nwi-labs

For more information regarding Hills Inc and their equipment and services offerings, visit https://hillsinc.net