Whereas up to two hundred litres of water are needed to produce a kilogram of ordinary wet-laid paper, production of a kilogram of airlaid paper only takes about one litre of water.
– In a wet-laid paper machine, hydrogen forms bonds between the pulp fibres, whereas in an airlaid machine the fibres are bonded by gluing, inter alia. This creates an absorbent, wet-strong, soft, fabric-like and environmentally friendly product, explains Asko
Vihtakari, President of Anpap.
Airlaid paper applications include towels, sanitary napkins, diapers, bibs, pads, napkins, tablecloths, and hospital products. In case of many hospital products, plastic is laminated on one side of the product, thereby creating durable, hygienic wash gloves, pillowcases, surgical sheets, etc.
Marko Mäntylä, Vice President of Anpap, tells that markets for airlaid products and manufacturing machinery enjoy strong growth because of increased consumption of hygienic and wiping products, among other reasons.
The consumption increases – the people are getting older and require incontinence protection products. Airlaid paper is an important raw material for diaper and female sanitary napkin production. As the amount of money available for consumption increases in developing countries, the demand for the aforementioned and hospital products increases.
According to Mäntylä, in North America, the value of hygienic products manufacture doubled between 2003 and 2013. In emerging markets, such as Indonesia, India, and Kazakhstan, the use of hygiene products annually increases by almost 20 %.
– As the population in countries with high birth rates increases, the market potential of disposable diapers grows.
Special skills since the 1970’s
The history of Anpap builds on the efforts of the Jylhävaara workshop airlaid group of United Paper Mills and the technology group of Walkisoft business unit, which was later acquired by Buckeye Technologies Inc. from the USA. Anpap became an entirely Finnish-owned company on 1st of July 2002. Long experience and unique understanding of airlaid process and machine design have created long lasting and close international customer relations.
Machinery and equipment are being continually developed and tested in practice in order to ensure our position at the forefront of innovation. Research and development often take place in co-operation with the customers. Modern companies producing airlaid materials require reliable, competitive and efficient machinery. Because of this, advanced material manufacturers invest into our machines, Vihtakari says. TEXT: Eila Lokka
