YES. Sustainability along the textile chain.
With its process aids, the Recycling Solutions team at CHT ensures that plastic bottles can be put through another life cycle after their initial use – thus serving, for example, as a new source of raw material for textiles. Used plastic bottles have varying degrees of contamination, which can be removed using the appropriate CHT products to obtain high-quality PES granulate. In the subsequent steps, the Fibre Auxiliaries team then employs its process aids to enable the production of nonwoven from this PES granulate for the manufacture of textile yarns, fibrefill for pillows and other technical and hygienic applications.
Added value through training offerings within the CHT world
The selection of the appropriate process aids requires knowledge of the various process steps and the necessary machines. We both acquire a lot of this knowledge on the job with our customers. In addition to this, we expand our knowledge through targeted training measures. In 2021, we and our teams took part in an external continuing training seminar at the Institute of Textile Technology (ITA) at RWTH Aachen University.
Group training in melt spinning at the ITA in Aachen
The technical facilities of the ITA include a spinning tower, a carbon fibre plant and all current textile-making technologies. A several-hour technical tour afforded us a fascinating look at the institute’s latest research projects. One project, for example, is developing new kinds of textiles for use in stents to counteract plaque deposits on the stents and thus the formation of plaque in the blood vessels. This promises to make the use of anticoagulants for this purpose unnecessary in the future.
Harnessing synergies within the CHT Group
The seminar was an opportunity not only to expand our detailed technical knowledge, but also to strengthen and intensify the synergies between the CHT Fibre Auxiliaries and CHT Recycling Solutions teams. This will enable both of us to generate further added value on future visits to customers in Asia and Central America in particular, where a number of our customers recycle plastic bottles and process them into new textiles.