Beneficiaries
The project includes the following beneficiaries:
Norwex
The Norwegian company Norwex Holding as is the initiator and coordinator of the CleanCloth project.
Norwex Holding is situated in Norway and is the mother company of the Norwex group, a fast growing small multinational company group. Our core business is consumer sales through our own home party organisation. Today we have about 15,000 sales consultants, most of whom are located in North America, but we also do home party in Europe and Australia. We have some distributors in the professional market – Nilfisk-Advance in Sweden is our best reference in this market. Our core products are microfibre products. We are a pioneer in this very young business having introduced microfibre for cleaning to Norway in 1994. We have developed our own antibacterial microfibre, a product which is in a very early stage, and our vision is to make a disinfecting microfibre – which would make a new revolution in cleaning. We are focussing on having the best quality in the high end markets. Our sales companies are situated in North America, Europe and Australia. We believe we are among the best in the world in our business since we have been in this business more or less since the start in the early 90’ies
As coordinator, Norwex will facilitate the implementation of the project and ensure that the CleanCloth product is developed in accordance with the needs of the end-users.
PP Polymer
PP Polymer AB is an independent consulting-, research- and development company working with the chemistry of polymeric materials and surface coatings. The company was established in 1985 by Dr Swaraj Paul. PP Polymer owns extensive know-how in the fields of flame retardants, polymer materials, surface coatings, adhesives and insulation materials including insulation lacquers. PP Polymer has worked with industry for 20 years solving problems in surface treatment, gluing, laquer, plastics and materials for isolation. Among the clients are material producers, producing industry and the building sector.
PP Polymer's main role in the project will be establishing the chemical basis for complementarities between the polyolefin and additive materials, and perform the compounding of the developed materials
For further information,
Polisilk SA
Polisilk is today the European leading extruder of Polypropylene multifilament yarns for industrial applications. The company has near 200 years experience in the textile world and 30 years experience in the production of Polypropylene yarns. Our total production capacity is over 6000 tons per year and we employ just below 100 people. Besides Polypropylene we are also active in the extrusion of speciality polymers like PVDF, PPS, Bicomponent yarns and tailor made polymers for the composite industry. Our production is ISO 9001:2000 certified and our products comply with the environmental standard Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Class 1. Our products are used in industrial textiles markets like webbings, cords, netting, filter fabrics, upholstery fabrics and other technical fabrics. We have participated in other European and National Research Projects, the most recent being SPAN (Speciality Antimicrobials) and ENERSAVE
Polisilk’s main role in the project will be production of antibacterial microfibre for cleaning cloths.
For further information,
EngTex AB
EngTex aims to be a world leader in the development and manufacture of technical textiles. We develop all textiles in close cooperation with customers, suppliers and researchers and our products meet the highest standards in terms of quality, delivery and cost efficiency. Eng-Tex has been actively involved in the development and manufacture of highly sophisticated products in the field of technical textiles. During the years Eng-Tex has been able to gain a wide range of experience, solid know-how and extensive skills, both theoretical and practical.
Over this period, Eng-Tex has also created a very wide network of contacts among colleagues in the branch, suppliers and scientific institutions. EngTex has a machine park consisting of a wide range of ultra modern warp knitting machines:
• Raschel weft insertion
• Raschel weft insertion with sheet material processing capacity
• Tricot
• Tricot with pile
All our machines are suitable for the production of technical textiles and are represented in different gauges and widths, facilitating production of a wide range of textiles. Production is optimally adapted to working with typical technical materials such as Polyester, Polyamide, Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Glass fibre and Aramid fibre.
EngTex was established in 1939 and has 70 years experience in textiles. EngTex has special expertise in textiles for the automotive sector, textiles for pårotective wear and security products, lamination of textiles for taurpaulins etc as well as textiles for plasters and band-aid for Perstorp Pharma.
EngTex has great industrial experience with customers all over the world, amon others large companies as Husquarna, Electrolux and Stihl. The export share for EngTex is as large as 80%.
EngTex’s main role in the project will be by knitting the microfilament in a structure that allows a constant and continuous antibacterial effect on one hand and on the other hand by finishing the knitted fabrics in order to obtain the best properties.
For further information,
Rezidor Hotel Brussels
Rezidor Hotel Brussels is since the opening in 1990 an international 5 star hotel, operated by the Rezidor Hotel. The Hotel is owned by Union Investment Real Estate AG. In 2001 company wide, The Rezidor Hotel group launched its Responsible Business Program, www.responsiblebusiness.rezidor.com Since then, the hotel has worked around social, ethical, environmental and legal objectives. One of the key objectives is our continuous effort to reduce our ecological foot print.
The annual turnover for 2007 is expected to be 17.5 million EURO and the hotel has 180 staff (full time equivalent). Our customers are world-wide travelers and locals but residency mix (hotel guests) is mainly United States, Scandinavian countries, United Kingdom and the Benelux. Since opening the hotel has received numerous awards and recently we received the first star (out of three) as “Entreprise Eco-Dynamique” by the Ministry of Environmental affairs of the Brussels government.
For further information,
Nilfisk Advance
Nilfisk-Advance is one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional cleaning utensils, having 3800 employees in over 80 countries. The company has an annual turnover of € 785 M and is a part of the Danish company NKT. Well-known brands of machinery, cleaners and cleaning utensils are Nilfisk Advance, Euroclean and Nordex, in addition vacuum cleaners are supplied to the Swedish domestic market. In Sweden, Nilfisk-Advance has more than 20 sales agents and 500 retailers all over the country.
For further information,
Teknologisk Institutt as (TI)
The National Institute of Technology, Norway (TI) is a privately founded RTD organization that has grown from a governmental institute into a highly competent organization with high levels of skills and expertise in a great number of areas, working for industry developing technological solutions and transferring new technology to SMEs and large companies in its competence areas. TI is not an IPR holding or exploiting business. Teknologisk Institutt has a wide specialist environment in the field of material technology. TI is a complete supplier of sevices related to material technology and offer inspection, consulting, teaching, analysis and testing. In addition, TI has on of the largest commercial laboratories in the sector, with facilities in Oslo as well as Kongsberg. TI performs accredited testing according to ISO 17025 after approval by Norwegian Accreditation.
Especially will we harness TI's competence in material technology as well as in cleaning technology and best practice. Their expertise in performing industrial verification will be acknowledged in this project
For further information,
Centre scientifique et technique de l’industrie textile belge (Centexbel)
CenTexBel is the scientific and technological research centre of the Belgian textile industry and was founded in 1950 by the Belgian professional federation Febeltex (now Fedustria) to guarantee and reinforce the competitive force of the textile industry. Centexbel provides the industry with a steadfastly growing technological platform to conduct pilot-scale experiments for the development of new products and processes. Besides private research, Centexbel is actively involved in collective research programmes financed by the regional, federal, and European authorities. Centexbel has a large experience in the assessment of antimicrobial textiles.
CenTexBel will be heavily involved in the choice of antibacterial agent and the development of the antibacterial fibre. All testing on antibacterial properties will be performed in the CenTexBel facilities.
For further information,
Swerea IVF AB
Swerea IVF, member of the Swerea Group, is a non-profit research and technology organization (research institute) covering the fields of fibres, textiles, plastics and rubbers. The textile department of Swerea IVF conducts R&D work that covers characterization of chemical, physical and mechanical properties of fibrous and polymeric materials, production technologies of textiles, plastics, nonwovens and rubber products and their waste management. The result from the R&D work is implemented in a number of industrial applications. Spinning of functional fibres is an intense research area. Swerea IVF has a staff of about 150 and its textile department employ 36 scientists and technologists.
Swerea IVF will be responsible for preparing compounds for initial trials of antibacterial activity. They will also be involved in the process of selecting the optimum materials and grades for the bicomponent fibre. Swerea will be involved in testing of the physical and physical properties of the compound, e. g. dispersion of additive.
For further information,
ITCF Denkendorf
The Institute for Textile Chemistry and Chemical Fibres, ITCF, is part of the German Institutes for Textile and Fibre Research Denkendorf DITF. Since 2004 the new name ITCF was introduced indicating a combined competence and expertise in polymer and fibre production as well as fibre processing and fibre finishing. This expertise has be established beginning in the 1920s when the institute was founded. According to the statutes the main tasks of ITCF are:
• to conduct research projects in order to improve the properties of existing fibres and textiles,
• to develop new products in the field of fibres and textiles with regard to manufacturing, modification, characterization and processing,
• to transfer the results to industrial practice
• to educate diploma and PhD students.
This is mainly done within research projects, which are funded by public organisations or national and European authorities. Among others within the context of this proposal two national public projects can be named, which were funded by the German AiF. Firstly, AiF 12821: "Herstellung von Synthesefasern mit permant biozider Wirkung" and, secondly, AiF 2 ZN: "Bakterienabweisende Ausrüstung von Medizin- und Hygieneprodukten mit hoher Biokompatibilität". All research projects are carried out in mixed working teams by chemists, textile engineers, chemical engineers and laboratory assistants. Students are very often integrated in these teams by doing basic research work within the framework of their diploma and Ph.D. theses. The institute is well equipped with all kinds of instrumentation necessary for research, development and testing in the textile and fibre field. From synthesis and modification of polymers to finishing of surfaces of chemical fibres and fabrics spreads the spectrum of relevant equipment for production and analysis in research at the ITCF. Therefore, among others, several steel reactors of different capacity (up to 60 litres) are available in order to perform polycondensation reactions and to produce new polymer products in a range of up to 25 kgs/batch. Furthermore for fibre production processes all standard spinning technologies are available with respect to dry-, wet- and melt-spinning (LOY, POY, FOY – super-high speed spinning) and especially the latter make up one distinctive feature at ITCF. Regarding the analytical equipment for testing of mechanical, chemical, physical and structural polymer and fibre properties among others the following instrumentation is available for testing: tenacity-elongation-modulus, Uster, thermo-analysis (DSC, TGA, DMA), rheology, GPC(MW, MWD), HPLC, GC, NMR, IR, UV(vis), SEM(EDX), TEM, WAXS, SAXS, birefringence, amorphous orientation etc.