Publications

Flocking has been widely used for decades as a surface finishing technology across various industrial sectors. Despite its widespread use and functional importance, its adoption in engineering applications could be expanded. One reason for its underutilisation in certain engineering applications may be the lack of clearly defined and standardised performance parameters.

This presentation explores whether the establishment of standardised and recognised values for key technical characteristics — such as abrasion resistance, lightfastness, durability, fibre loss and operating temperature range — expressed as measurable and comparable ranges, could significantly broaden the scope of applications for flocking technology.

By analysing current industrial practices, particularly in the automotive sector, and examining existing scientific standards, the study proposes a structured classification system, termed ‘Flocking Performance Classes’, aimed at transforming flocking from a finishing process into a defined engineering materials system.

The project is part of various initiatives that Aigle has been undertaking for some time to seek commercial areas of application for its textile technologies (coating, coagulation and laminating) in market sectors that are also distant from the more traditional supply chains and/or in existing production systems and therefore to be developed thanks to its technologies. Among the various operating sectors in which Aigle is a leader, the production of coating, coagulation and laminating systems plays a very important role. We start from decades of consolidated experience in coating systems for the production of resin-coated technical fabrics for various uses (furniture, clothing, automotive, construction, etc.) and synthetic leather for various sectors (clothing and furniture, automotive). In summary, we are beginning to apply these techniques and technologies, adapting them to the production of non-woven fabrics coated with microparticles that can be textile, plastic or mineral in nature. These coatings have special characteristics and can be used for a variety of purposes: thermal, acoustic and electrical insulation; other uses include filtration and the replacement of materials to reduce weight. Some of these uses concern products that have an impact on environmental sustainability, such as electric batteries (insulation and cooling).

Presented below are the results of recent tests conducted in cooperation with the adhesive manufacturer Novotex. Using the advanced adhesives Neoflex (which belongs to the Novotex Group), Aigle carried out new tests on flocking processes with very interesting results.

Flock techniques have been used on rubber, plastic, metal, etc. materials for industries such as automotive, packaging and other commercial fields.

Among the various flocking machines on the markets are lines for flocking automotive rubber components. Over the years, these machines have benefited from progressive technical and technological evolution.

We have designed a coagulation (inversion) line with the integrated option of two coating systems – slot and doctor blade on cylinder. The machine integrates the two systems and makes them available with virtually no hardware modifications. The slot system allows low-viscosity chemicals to be coagulated using green solvent without the aid of DMF (a solvent that has always been used for the coagulation process of polymers on films, fabrics). In short, the main objective was to make the line compatible with the mechanical and fluid-dynamic requirements of the new chemicals to be used for this type of processing. This is true both in the way the raw materials are handled along the line and in the threefold way the chemicals are applied to the many possible supports (textile netting, TNT, mylar, cotton, etc.). All also with the possibility of double embedding with supporting mylar. The line therefore allows the application of dedicated chemistry with various technologies, some very innovative, others more traditional, others consisting of traditional technologies used with innovative materials. This opens up very promising technical and commercial spaces for the use of these products.