News Flash

Swiss mill Bethge installs Monforts finishing ranges

08 Jan '19

3 min read

Courtesy: Monforts

Switzerland-based textile mill Bethge has installed three finishing ranges from textile machinery firm, Monforts, to mark its 185th anniversary. With a diverse range of machinery, many processes for dyeing and finishing cotton fabrics, synthetic fibres and their blends can be used, making Bethge a flexible contract refiner and a commission fabric finisher.

Switzerland’s long hot summer of 2017 was violently interrupted in the first weekend of July when heavy storms finally broke. Particularly badly affected was the town of Zofingen in the canton of Aargau, where Bethge operates. Nestled in the foothills above Zofingen, the Bethge plant was in the direct line of a 1.6-metre-high wave which thundered down onto the town when a dam above it finally burst its banks.

More than 450 rescue workers were mobilised to deal with the chaos in Zofingen, with the electricity down, the railway station underwater, and the motorway around the town closed in both directions for many hours. The following week a crisis meeting was held by the directors of the family-owned company and it became clear that its finishing lines – including the existing Monforts stenter and shrinkage range – would have to be completely replaced, the company said in a media statement.

Bethge opted to order two new energy-saving six-chamber Montex stenters, as well as a Monfortex compressive shrinkage range which is characterised by a larger shrink cylinder allowing for longer processing paths to achieve enhanced shrinkage values. The first stenter was manufactured at the Montex plant in Austria and was delivered, installed, and commissioned in a record time of less than four months.

All of the Monforts lines have working widths of 3.4 metres and benefit from the latest Qualitex 800 control system. This has all of the familiar features of touchscreen smart phones and tablets, making navigation extremely easy and cutting down the time required for becoming familiar with the system. Operation is via touchscreen and wheel-effect selection and the dashboard can be individually configured to meet the exact needs of an operator’s tasks.

The second Montex stenter that has been installed at the Zofingen plant is equipped with the latest Monforts texCoat system, as an extension of Bethge services to its customers. As the only manufacturer which is able to offer completely integrated coating lines from a single source, the latest Monforts coating heads are tailored to the company’s drying technology for maximum benefits. Monforts offers multi-functional coating heads for its texCoat units, with modules that can be integrated into new lines or retrofitted into existing ones. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

More Textiles News - Switzerland...