The Finnish term for Man Made Cellulosic Fibre is ”Selluloosamuuntokuitu”, which better translates into ”Converted Cellulosic Fibre” or “Cellulosic Conversion Fibre”. Either way, it quite nicely describes the essence of viscose fibre and other regenerated cellulose fibres: In an industrial process, the natural cellulose polymer is converted from the form of fibre pulp into the form of textile filament and staple fibre. But there is much more to it.
After the filament forming process, conversion continues into the form of either non-woven fabrics or into yarn spinning, dyeing and further into fabric forming by knitting or weaving. Fabrics, again, find their end-uses in numerous applications from technical textiles to branded fashion garments. After all these conversions, the humble fibre may have multiplied its initial value by a factor of several hundred.
In this value-adding process, the next conversion step is always the immediate customer of the previous one, and the demanding end-user is the customer of all steps. Performing well in all these conversions and in the end-use application requires carefully defined features and properties of the fibre. Disappointing the customer – either the immediate or the final one – is costly.
A strong combination of theoretical knowledge, experience and skill is required from the suppliers to this value chain with consistently well performing cellulosic fibre. In SciTech-Service, we strive to do our part in fulfilling this demand by providing our customers with the necessary expertise and related services. Our expertise extends from biomasses all the way to cellulosic textile fibres, and is supported by laboratories specially designed for trials in pulping, bleaching, viscose dope preparation and fibre spinning.
But growing expectations of conversion power are also put on cellulosic textile fibres in much greater sense. Limited availability of cotton and the considerable adverse environmental impacts of its cultivation are factors, which call for steep and steady increase in the use of viscose fibre and other “Cellulosic Conversion Fibres”. Furthermore, demand of renewable substitutes for oil based synthetic fibres is also a strengthening trend.
Answering these more fundamental pressures for change or conversion also requires more; innovative solutions are needed to improve the performance of converted cellulosic fibres and to reduce the manufacturing cost. There, too, SciTech is geared and committed to serve its customers.