“Meltblown used to be a niche product,” says Kunze. The fleeces are mainly used for diapers, wipes and surgical clothing. At the beginning of 2020 the situation changed suddenly: China, until then the largest and almost the only exporter of mouth and nose protection, could not deliver enough.
Suddenly it was a matter of setting up production in other parts of the world as quickly as possible. “We have optimized processes in such a way that we can now deliver many more systems,” said the company boss. The company with 240 employees produces all essential components itself: extruders, screws, cylinders, drawing towers, winders – and above all the nozzles and nozzle tips that make it possible to manufacture the microfibers.
At times Reicofil produced the important nonwoven itself
The Reifenhäuser Group – and thus also Reicofil – has the largest private technical centers in the world for nonwoven and film technologies. Up to ten high-tech systems are used exclusively for research and development of new products. And when masks and special nonwovens were missing at the beginning of the pandemic, Reicofil produced the scarce meltblown fabric itself without further ado. Technical center machines temporarily supplied the filter material for a million masks a day. But only until the machine customers had built up their own capacities.
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