Novolon Dimensional Fabrics is a small company poised to make a big splash in the nonwoven fabrics industry. Armed with proprietary technology and backed by a multinational corporation with a leading market presence in nonwovens, Novolon products offer significant performance advantages.
The Novolon technology is a continuous molding process that creates three dimensional structures out of two dimensional fabrics. The pattern and size of the structures can be adjusted to create products with increased water absorption, improved air flow or enhanced compression resistance. It has the potential to improve the performance of a range of products from apparel and household products to noise control, building materials and medical products.
Novolon, based in the Technology Incubator on the Centennial Campus of NC State University, is the brainchild of Dr. Walter Chappas and Dr. Benhem Pourdeyhimi. Pourdehimi is a professor in the NC State University School of Textiles and Director of the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC) on NC State’s Centennial Campus. Chappas was CEO of Alasso Industries, which manufactures analytical instruments for the nonwoven fabrics industry and is also housed in the Technology Incubator.
In early 2003, Pourdeyhimi approached Chappas about a technology he and Dr. Trevor Little, a colleague in the School of Textiles, had developed. They derived it from a related technology called SpaceNet that had been donated to the University by Celanese Corporation. The substrates used to produce SpaceNet products were expensive and Celanese had been unable to commercialize the process.
Pourdeyhimi and Little discovered a method of applying the technology to relatively inexpensive nonwoven fabrics. Although Pourdeyhimi was convinced that the technology had enormous potential, he had been unsuccessful in interesting any manufacturers in pursuing it.
Chappas immediately saw the potential in the technology and teamed with Pourdeyhimi to form Noven Structures, LLC, to commercialize it. Noven Structures signed an exclusive letter of intent with the NC State Office of Technology Transfer and began seeking funding for the venture.
As the front man, Chappas pitched the venture to the heavy hitters in the nonwovens industry. He caught the interest of management at Freudenberg Nonwovens, which has a manufacturing plant in Durham. He tried for almost a year to get Freudenberg to invest in Noven Structures, but they declined.
They decided to buy the company instead.
In January 2004, Freudenberg formed Novolon Dimensional Fabrics as a new operating division within the company and installed Chappas as general manager. Pourdeyhimi and Little were retained as consultants to make sure the technology was implemented successfully in a working production line.
The first project was to construct a pilot production line to develop prototype products. The pilot line was built in Freudenberg’s Durham plant at a cost of $1 million and it went online in late 2004.
Novolon’s first commercial product will be introduced in Europe in early 2006. A reusable household wipe sold under Freudenberg’s Vileda brand, the Novolon product has 50 percent greater absorption of water and dirt than a comparable flat product.
“What the Novolon technology provides,” says Chappas, “is a product that is differentiated from flat wipes in appearance, in feel, and in performance.”
Successful responses from focus groups and positive consumer market studies convinced Freudenberg to construct a $2.5 million production line in Germany that will produce 10 million square yards of Novolon fabric for Vileda wipes in 2006. Chappas expects production to scale to 30 million square yards within two to three years.
The next project on the books is a full scale production line for the Durham plant. The $4 million project is scheduled for 2006 and will create a multi-product manufacturing capability.
“I’m very anxious to get that line built because I have customers lining up and I need that capability to jump start the business here,” said Chappas
Novolon employs 10 people at the pilot facility and Chappas expects that number to reach 50 when full scale production goes online. “That number will continue to grow over the next few years as we develop multiple production facilities,” he said. “The complexities associated with production will also drive up the ancillary processes required to support it.”
One area with tremendous potential is bedding products and Novolon expects to be a serious player in that market. “We have taken standard bedding ticking and laminated a fire retardant layer to it. And with our three dimensional molding process, we can create designs and textures that replace the traditional quilting process used to bind the materials,” said Chappas. “So we can offer a bedding manufacturer a single product that meets the latest codes for fire retardancy and takes several steps out of his manufacturing process, all at a lower cost.”
Novolon expects to have prototype products that replace the side and top surfaces of mattresses in the January 2006 bedding shows.
Novolon products are also qualified to be incorporated into the next generation of hospital beds. “We are able to create a very soft, foam-like product from multiple layers of a Novolon fabric that has an open, airy structure,” said Chappas. “You can force air through the material to control body temperature and you can run wires and sensors through the product for monitoring.”
Another plus is that the geometry of the Novolon material can be designed to produce an irregular surface layer that massages the patient and helps stimulate blood flow. This is an important feature in longterm care applications.
Prototype Novolon products for landscaping applications will be on the market by the end of 2005. “One problem with groundcover products is that mulch tends to slide off if it’s on an incline,” said Chappas. “We can create structures that help hold it in place.”
Test products with Novolon fabrics will soon be appearing in automobiles, sound control products, apparel and industrial filters.
“It’s a technology with an enormous range of applications,” said Chappas, “and Freudenberg has given it the muscle it needs to succeed. It has been approved for a global rollout and the company is making money and resources available to the regional groups in Asia, South America and Europe to advance the technology.
“Novolon is a success story that shows the creativity of the faculty members here, the ability of the Office of Technology Transfer to work with small companies and the ability of the Technology Incubator to nurture those companies in the early stages of growth. Now, Freudenberg is selling products, the University is receiving royalties and we are creating new jobs in North Carolina.”
