The board of Indorama Ventures has approved plans by subsidiary FiberVisions Corp. to expand capacity for bicomponent fibers in Covington, Georgia, USA. The new line, which will be the company’s largest for producing the polyolefin fiber, will have a capacity of 24,000 t/y. A start-up date was not disclosed.

FiberVisions said its new generation-fibers will offer fresh capabilities to its customers, particularly in the carded, air laid and air lay markets.

“We recognize that changes taking place in the nonwovens, hygiene and industrial markets are creating the need for new performance attributes from our fibers.  This expansion will allow our joint venture with JNC of Japan, ES FiberVisions, to continue delivering differentiated bicomponent fibers that our customers need in order to be successful in their own businesses,” said Tom Zaiser, CEO of FiberVisions.  “As a pioneer of bicomponent fiber, this expansion will enable ES FiberVisions to remain the leading supplier in the world.”

The additional line will take the Covington site’s total number of production lines to four, servicing markets in both Europe and the Americas.

The ES FiberVisions joint venture has been carrying out a series of expansions worldwide for bicomponent fibers. A debottlenecking of existing lines at Covington will be complete this summer, while a doubling of capacity in China is due to be finished in the summer of 2019. The expansion at ES FiberVisions Suzhou will raise output at the plant in Jiangsu province to more than 28,000 t/y. A new 14,500 t/y plant also opened in Map Ta Phut, Rayong, Thailand, in 2017.  

ES FiberVisions said its bicomponent fibers can be heated and bonded to each other without using adhesives and the resulting nonwoven fabrics are softer and bulkier than those produced by competing technologies. The fabrics are widely used in hygiene products such as baby diapers, wet wipes and feminine care items.