Conference Speakers

Kristian Salminen

Research Scientist, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.

Kristian Salminen works as a Senior scientist and as a research team leader at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. His team is called “fibre product manufacturing technologies”, which consists of 26 scientists. He has 16 years’ experience in research and development in paper science and technology. His expertise covers areas such as fibre properties, fibre network properties and foam forming technology. He more published more than 30 papers in his research field.

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Wednesday 8:30 am - 9:00 am
Medical Nonwoven Developments I & Web Formation

Foam Forming Technology – An Opportunity for the Nonwovens Industry

Wet-lay technology has been used in the nonwoven industry for several decades. The technology enables manufacturing of strong products at high production rates. The main disadvantages of wet-lay technology are 1) low fiber consistency during forming (high water consumption) 2) limited quality range and length of fibers that can be utilized (due to strong flocculation tendency) and 3) high density of the final product.

In our presentation we will show how foam forming technology enables improved structural uniformity, increase of fiber consistency during forming, expanding the raw material range used in the products and control the density of the final product. We will also show that controlling the main characteristics of foam (air content, bubble size distribution, foam stability and foam chemistry) opens up new opportunities to tailor the structure and performance of the manufactures products. 

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