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As one of the global leaders in high-performance materials, Low & Bonar designs and produces materials that add value and improve the performance of our customers' products. Mr. Hiddo van de Ven, head of global industrial markets at Luebona, said in an interview with the magazine: "We want to offer unique materials produced with our diversified technologies in a number of niche markets. From a market perspective, the industrial market is one of the key areas that Luebona focuses on."

Mr. Xu Chengyu, general manager of Lubona China and director of business development in the Asia-Pacific region, said: "in the field of filtration, nothing can provide people with a safe, comfortable and healthy life than producing high-quality and excellent performance non-woven fabrics for filtration." Lubona also launched the latest R & D product Colback to the Asia-Pacific market.®Plus, demonstrates their commitment to the filtration market.

High efficiency and low energy consumption: Colback®Plus brings cost advantages to users

In order to provide the market with high-performance materials with unique value, innovation has always been an important strategy for Colback technology research and development. Colback®It is a bicomponent filament nonwoven fabric with a unique sheath-core structure. The polyester core gives it unparalleled strength and dimensional stability, and the polymer of the skin layer can be polyamide 6, polypropylene or polyester-each of which provides exclusive advantages for various filtration challenges. Since it is thermally bonded, no glue or chemical adhesives are used, Colback®Ensures maximum breathability and dimensional stability.

Lueboner's latest development Colback®Plus is designed to meet the growing demand for quality standards to reduce global air pollution. It can be used as a carrier or in the manufacture of automotive air conditioning filter elements, indoor air filtration and HVAC filters. In Colback®In Plus, the Colback non-woven support media has a well-known performance characteristic: "ensuring low pressure drop and high pleat stiffness" combined with unique fine fiber technology to create a unique filtration product with outstanding performance.

Mr Hiddo said: "Colback®Plus is a pleatable support media with a built-in filter layer with a large dust holding capacity. It has an unparalleled low pressure drop, which can reduce energy consumption. The combination of low energy consumption and high pleats will achieve unique and excellent filtration performance."

In addition, Colback®Plus has a strong versatility: on the one hand, it can be used as a filter alone, so it can be used in the aftermarket as the final filter medium; on the other hand, it can also be used as a perfect support layer for activated carbon filters, or as an additional filter layer to improve filtration efficiency. "Ideally, we would use it in combination with other materials, and the resulting multi-layer filter system could replace two separate filters, making it more efficient and taking less time to change." Mr. Hiddo said.

This point mentioned by Mr. Hiddo is particularly important. The filtration market is looking for more efficient media that can reduce energy consumption and, ultimately, total cost of ownership. For the user, replacing the filter is a very expensive and time-consuming task. Mr. Hiddo further explained: "For example, in HVAC applications, it is sometimes necessary to use two or three different filters. This time Colback®Plus comes in handy-it reduces the number of filters. In Colback®Adding different layers to the Plus can build a multi-layer filter system. Such a system can replace two filters. The end user only needs to replace one system instead of two filters. This will save a lot of time."

Second, Colback®An important feature of the Plus is the low pressure drop, so the energy consumption is very low. Lower energy costs mean lower usage costs. "What we are bringing to market is a material that can capture a lot of dust and dirt, and its pressure drop is very low, so the airflow can freely pass through the material. This provides the end user with a better cost advantage."

Deeply Cultivated China, Establish Diversified Business

Lubner is a global company, but Mr. Xu Chengyu said that they want to be as close to customers as possible, so localization is an important strategy for Lubner. Here we are talking about the Changzhou plant, which officially started production two years ago. "The Changzhou plant is in response to the rapid growth of the Asian market, which allows us to make full use of our unique technical strength in China and even Asia, with advanced production lines providing a strong platform for our further development. With this solid foundation, we can better serve our customers and develop new products to improve safety and health." Mr. Xu Chengyu said.

The localization strategy enables Luobona to be very close to customers, developing products that meet local needs. "Interestingly, our customers are also connected to each other on a global scale, and they will quickly find our localized production of professional materials, which will of course be more convenient for them." "So, when a customer starts to promote a product in a certain region, we usually start producing the corresponding material in a local qualified factory. Of course, for new applications, we start with small batches to test the local market. Once our materials are accepted by the customer and the market, we invest heavily in local production facilities," said Mr. Xu."

In addition, the world is becoming more and more global, which also makes Changzhou factory capable of more tasks. "For example, we now export materials produced in China to other regions, and in fact 30% of our production capacity (sales) is used for export. On the other hand, of course, we also see that Chinese customers will purchase materials from our factories in Germany or the Netherlands."

Judging from the current operation situation, this localization strategy is obviously very effective, and the investment in Changzhou factory has been a great success. The capacity of the first production line, which was put into production in early 2016, was quickly filled up, so Lubona speedily completed the second production line at the end of 2017. So far, the total production capacity of the factory has exceeded 0.1 billion square meters, mainly producing Colback non-woven fabrics, supplying China and the Asia-Pacific region, 85% of the production capacity is sold in the Asia-Pacific market.

It is amazing to achieve such a quick success. Mr. Xu Chengyu said that this was actually in their expectation. "In the final analysis, this success is due to our deep understanding of the Chinese market and the insight that comes with it. We have established distribution channels in the Chinese market as early as ten years ago, and officially entered the Chinese market in 2011, and opened the Shanghai office in 2012, so we have established a good market foundation and customer channels."

Secondly, over the years, Luebona has maintained good communication and cooperation with suppliers and customers, including global companies and local enterprises. "It is their support that has helped us gain a firm foothold in China, open up a wider market and establish a diversified business layout." Mr. Xu Chengyu said.

Lubner not only developed the traditional floor material business, but also made a big splash in the industrial field. In addition to interior materials, they have also developed new applications such as waterproofing membranes and other building envelope materials. This is why more than 0.1 billion square meters of capacity can be filled quickly.

Face the Challenge and Realize the Cooperation of the Whole Industry Chain

The rapid development and demand growth of the filtration market has brought opportunities and challenges for upstream and downstream enterprises. One of the main challenges is how to cope with the changing norms, ISO standards and the entry of new technologies in the market. Mr Hiddo said: "Although new materials are emerging in an endless stream, the industry has a complex value chain, so the key is to control the value-added links in the entire chain to ensure overall effectiveness and consistency."

At the same time, consumers recognize that their health and safety are closely related to the quality of the air they breathe, thus driving the growth of the filtration market. Choosing the right type of filter solution is critical for professionals as well as consumers. This presents both opportunities and challenges, and is accompanied by increasingly stringent government regulations that require reduced emissions and soil and water pollution.

Emissions regulations are becoming more stringent, and applications such as residential, commercial and industrial buildings, and transportation require higher levels of air filtration products, which is driving the market's demand for uniform and reliable filter media. These filter media will meet these new requirements. Provide more and more powerful filtration performance. At the same time, users also attach great importance to the energy consumption and maintenance costs associated with it.

These challenges will promote the development of technological innovation. Mr. Hiddo believes that in fact, no technology can conquer the world on its own. The cooperation and combination of technology and technology will bring differentiated materials that help improve lives. "One of Luebona's strengths is the ability to combine multiple technologies and expertise-such as spunbonding, needling, coating, etc.-to provide optimal solutions for specific industries. Our Colback®Plus is a unique product based on spunbond technology, which can provide stable high fold, combined with finer fiber technology, can achieve unparalleled low pressure INNC drop. All of these will be reflected in the final filter element. Whether it is a low-denier meltblown, nano or coating process, various combinations give us the ability to provide the best filtration solution."

In addition to tapping into the potential of its own technology, Lubner is also working with customers and other partners to develop differentiated materials. Colback®The birth of Plus is a good example: after seeing the huge demand for automotive air filtration from customers and the market, the products they conceived should have very high dust holding capacity, very low pressure drop and energy consumption, and passed the flame retardant test. "At that time, we did not have the ability to meet this demand, so we started to carry out in-depth market research, and discussed with chemical suppliers to find suitable flame retardants, and also talked with different fiber suppliers. Finally, we linked the entire industry chain from raw materials to the final fiber technology with our own internal expertise, and the final result is the Colback you see today.®Plus material." Mr. Hiddo said.

Luebona is committed to creating products that help improve the quality of life and help customers succeed, while also continuing to support and develop the broader market. "Depending on the application, we offer low-pressure drop products of consistent quality to meet different industry standards. Our customers' choice of Colback means they can work hand-in-hand with reliable supply partners, and we can ensure that our locally produced filtration materials meet global quality standards." Mr. Hiddo concluded.