ANNOUNCEMENTS

Background of the Seminar

Nonwovens are unique, engineered fabrics offering cost effective solutions for an increasing wide variety of applications such as hygiene, medical, packaging, automotive, filtration, construction and geotextiles, furniture, components of apparels, insulation and cleaning. The range of applications of nonwovens is imitless. Technological advancements and innovations in nonwovens have leadto rapid growth of their market share in a wide variety of applications.

The large Indian population of over one billion with nearly 48% in the age group of 18-35 and 250 million strong middle class which has high purchasing power and living standards presents a potential huge market for nonwoven products. With the Indian economy poised for a rapid growth of more than 8% during the next five years, nonwovens production and consumption is expected to see rapid growth.

Although there is a huge potential market for nonwovens in India and overseas, it is very essential that prudent choice is made in selecting the right type of technology and right type of product to get in to this new area of textiles.

In India, there is significantly large market for feminine hygiene products, consumer wipes, infant diapers and other disposable nonwoven products. Although the present market penetration in these applications is very small, it is expected to grow at very high rates with rising income levels, if the prices are kept right. Consumption of nonwovens in geotextiles is expected to have exponential growth as more than 10,000 kilometers of coastal roads are planned for the next five years, and also the Government is implementing a project to connect all the rivers in the country. This market is expected to consume about 5000 tons of nonwovens every year.

Other areas of nonwoven applications like automotive textiles, carpets, interlinings and wadings, furnishings and beddings, agricultural textiles, medical textiles, sports textiles etc are already seeing a lot of activity and are bound to grow at rapid rate in order to catch up with the developed world.

Objectives of the Seminar

To provide a common platform for nonwoven machinery manufacturers, existing nonwoven producers, fibre manufactures and converters of nonwoven roll goods to deliberate on different nonwoven technologies, product options, market potential and the major developments taking place in the field of nonwovens in order to throw light on the future directions for the nonwoven industry in India.

Companies looking to diversify in this exciting area of textiles can benefit considerably by participating in the Seminar. This seminar will provide a forum to discuss the technology options in the following areas of nonwoven technologies: needle punching, thermal bonding, adhesive bonding, spunbonding, meltblowing, spunlacing, and nonwoven composites. Apart from the above technology options, raw material requirements and the end product applications for the nonwovens will be other main topics to be discussed.

The focus of the papers to be presented will be on latest developments in various nonwoven technologies, product types, raw materials, conversion techniques and market potentials in Indian and global markets. Emphasis will be provided on the relevance of each technology to the present day scenario of Indian textile industry and the direction for the entrepreneur to adopt a particular technology.