NC State University Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC) 2401 Research Drive, College of Textiles North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8301 Phone: 919-515-6551 Fax: 919-515-4556

Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Associate Dean for Industry & Extension & NCRC Director, 919-515-1822 Email: bpourdey@NCSU.edu
Dr. John Hagewood, NCRC Associate Director 919-515-4550
Email: jfhagewo@NCSU.edu
Mr. Sherwood Wallace, NCRC Operations Manager, 919-513-1326
Email: swallace@NCSU.edu
Web site: http://www.NCRC.NCSU.edu

Academic Research Facilities:

• High Loft Equipment, Pilot or Full-Scale
  • Truetzschler Scan Feed High Loft.
  • Rando Airlay
• Bonders for Point or Overall Bonding
  • Calender, Thermal Bonding 2-roll 24 inch Fairview. 2 additional hot oil rolls with different patterns and bond areas available. Soon to have 4 roll 40 inch Perkins for bonding & lamination, Fleissner 5 head belt for surface and drum for back (Many patterns available)
• Carding Equipment, Pilot or Full-Scale
  • Card Roller top nonwovens card - single main cylinder with six workers and strippers, 40 in. width.
  • Truetzschler 903 flat top 40-in. width.
  • Carding Cross-Lapping Line The line is capable of producing up to 16 opsy x 40 inch Includes
    Branson ultrasonic bonder Sigma cross lapper. Soon to have New Asselin Cross lapper and tacker and other bonding
• Dryers, Thru-Air, I-R, Etc.
  • Tenter Frame (Marshall & Williams 2000) Pines, clips & overfeed assembly. 212° - 450° F (hot air). Max. width 82 in., min. width 34 in. (approx.).
  • Fleissner Thru-Air(Drum) 24” gas oven Soon to have IR oven
• Dying and Finishing Equipment
  • Coater and Drying Unit, Laboratory (Mathis LTF/LTSV) 33 x 43 cm max. sample size. 28 x 30 cm max coated surface; 20° - 250° C.
  • Finishing Pad (Greenville Machinery Corp.) 82 in. max. fabric width; pressure load 10 tons
  • Foam Finishing Unit (Gaston County Dyeing Machinery Co.) 20 in. max. fabric width. 18 in max. application width. 0-50 ypm. Top & bottom applicator.
  • Padder, Lab (Mathis HVF) Horizontal and vertical nip padding, 500 mm roll width, 2.5-5 m/min.
  • Predryer, Gas (Marshall & Williams) Max width: 18 in.
  • Steamer, Laboratory (Arioli) 105° - 150° C. 18 in. x 24 in. sample size.
  • Thermosoling Range, Laboratory (Mathis THN) Working width: 300 - 600 mm. 0.2 - 10 m/min. 20° - 250° C.
  • Wash Range (Greenville Machinery Corp.) Max. width: 82 in. Three wash boxes 250 gallons each. Yards of fabric per box - 18, laced. 30 ypm.
• Laboratory Equipment - General Purpose
  • Favimat for single filament testing (Textechno)
  • Absorbency Testing System
  • Instron
  • Servo- hydraulic Instron
  • Microscope , confocal
  • Microscope , Tulerference
  • PMI Pore Size Distributors
  • Rheometer, Capillary (Instron)
  • Strike-Through Time Measurement
  • Thermal Conductivity Cell, High Temperature (Holometrix) Measures apparent thermal conductivity of fabrics up to 260° C with controlled atmosphere or vacuum.
  • Vibroscope Measures fiber denier.
  • Water Vapor Transmissions , Mocon
• Latex Bonders, Spray, Dip, Print, etc.
  • Foam Saturation/Coating Line (Gaston County Dyeing Machiner Co.) Saturation Bonding (padding)
• Melt Blowing Spun Bonding Equipment, Pilot or Full-Scale
  • Nordson/Hills Bi-Component Melt Blowing Pilot Line with sheath/core and Side-by-Side capabilities
  • Nordson/Hills Spunbond equipment in line with Fairview Calender 24” 2 roll hot oil and Fleissner 5 head hydroentangler all capable of productions speeds and thru-puts. Bi-Component with sheath/core and Side-by-Side, segmented pie, tipped tri-lobal, islands-in-the-sea and other capabilities.
• Needlepunch Equipment
  • Shoou Shyng single board needle loom
  • Needlepunch and Needle Felting (Hunter) 12 in. wide laboratory needle loom. 34 needles per in., 0-600 RPM.
  • Asselin Rotary Tacker
• Spunbond Equipment, Pilot or Full-Scale
  • Nordson/Hills Spunbond equipment in line with Fairview Calender 24” 2 roll hot oil and Fleissner 5 head hydroentangler all capable of productions speeds and thru-puts. Bi-Component with sheath/core and Side-by-Side, segmented pie, tipped tri-lobal, islands-in-the-sea and other capabilities.
• Spunlace/Hydroentangling Equipment, Pilot
  • Flessiner 5 head belt for surface and drum for back (Many patterns available). Up to 250 bar pressure per head. 24” width.
• Testing Equipment, Physical
  • Air Permeability Tester (Frazier)
  • Burst Strength Tester (Mullen/Scott)
  • Diaphragm bursting strength method (Mullen)
  • Steel ball bursting strength method (Scott)
  • Linting - Clean Room Evaluation (Gelbo) Gelbo dry particle generator
  • Pilling Tester, Sponge & Brush Method
  • Tear Tester (Elmendorf)
  • Hydrostatic Head Tester FX3000 by Textest
  • Kawabata Instrument
• Ultrasonic Bonding Equipment
  • Ultrasonic Bonder for Stitching (Branson)
• Wetlaid Nonwovens Equipment
  • Wetlay, Inclined-Wire, for Nonwovens (Neue Bruderhaus) Laboratory machine with 12 in. width. Not currently installed
• Yarn Preparation and Spinning
  • Small homo-component extrusion line capable of producing single and multifilament strands.