Interview with Mr Johann Philipp Oskar Dilo

Well, the start to the success journey ofcourse began with founding of Dilo Inc., Charlotte, USA in 1983. In just two years span we reposed another milestone by incepting Dilo Maschinensystem GmbH, Eberbach, Germany in 1985. After having the accrued expertise and success in a decade's span, in 1996, we did integration of Spinnbau GmbH, Bremen, Germany, as a member of Dilo Group, and in very next year, we launched Dilo Systems as the general contractor for production lines. In 1999, we opened representation office in Shanghai, China. In 2005, again another integration of Temafa Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany, as a member of DiloGroup took place. Next year to it, in 2006 we found another representation office in Moscow, Russia. In 2007, New Customer Center in our Eberbach based headquarters had also been started. Year ago we have extended our Technology Center at our headquarters in Eberbach.

In the beginning the basis of our complete line business was established through cooperations with different suppliers. In the meantime Dilo has integrated Spinnbau in 1996 and Temafa in 2005 and has included a large crosslapper production as well. As a consequence Dilo manufactures equipment from bale opening through winding, the complete production lines for needle punched nonwovens in house. For thermobonding or chemical bonding Dilo still relies on partners such as Brückner in Germany.

The worldwide financial crisis makes everybody in the manufacturing industry aware of sharp requirements for efficient production and cost savings. Top priority is saving of fibre material consumption. Production efficiency and product quality contribute particularly during a crisis to stay successful. Dilo is prepared to supply state of the art machinery to enable our customers a strong position within their field. In addition Dilo provides newly developed equipment of the so-called A-series with a medium range performance at a new level of cost/performance ratio. A complete package of new equipment is available from Dilo Group to our worldwide customers who look for attractive machinery in a difficult economic environment.

Automotive: If you look into several nonwoven segments and areas, we find that needlepunched material offers a competitive edge for moulded car parts which are particularly on demand when cars need to be more fuel efficient, smaller and lighter in weight. Therefore, the economic crisis and global warming will result in a requirement for smaller cars which use more needlepunched carpet. A chance for the needlepunch industry!

Geotextiles: Many governments worldwide offer financial packages in order to improve the infrastructure. This will offer opportunities and potential for the geotextile industry again with very interesting applications for needlepunched material.

Filters: A new awareness of the necessity to take care of our environment will create additional sales opportunities for filtration material. Needlepunched filters are highly attractive due to their cost efficient manufacturing, low energy requirement at a high degree of separation e. g. for dust particles. Needled filters are ideal for many different filtration tasks. All this makes me very confident that new opportunities are ahead of us.

Medicine, hygiene and cosmetics: Our new Hyperneedling technology is realized by the newly developed Cyclopunch units with approx. 20,000 needles/m/board. The needle barb is adapted to the fibre fineness in order to transport only one single fibre at a stroke. A new kinematics moves the needle on a circular path resulting in an increase of throughput speed to more than 100 m/min. The Hyperneedling process allows production of light-weight felts made from fine fibres at an area weight as low as approx. 30 g/m² at high throughput speeds. Hyperneedled products are applicable in the fields of medicine, hygiene, synthetic leather, interlinings and filter media.

The needling process in general is highly energy efficient and doesn’t consume water.