Our world grows together more and more, mobility is increasing, and new ideas are needed.
In Russia alone the construction of 12,000 km of superhighways and 90 airports is expected by the year 2010. The infrastructure will expand considerably, and this is only possible with an efficient building technology, and particularly by using high-tech materials. One of them are the geotextiles.
Geotextiles serve as protection and reinforcement, they control the surface erosion, filter, separate and assume barrier functions. For the manufacture of these multifunctional articles with their all-round tasks, different kinds of textile technologies are employed, the clear favourites being the production of nonwovens and warp knitting. Compared to their woven equivalents, warp-knitted geogrids can be coated with less expenditure and higher adhesive power. Their tensile strength is higher by 20 % in warp and weft directions, they show increased tear resistance, and lower shrinkage values.
Based on these features geotextiles are preferably used in road construction. Placed under the asphalt surface, geotextiles stabilize the total construction, absorbing the forces from the surface layer. No matter whether employed for marshy or stony grounds, the tensile strength of geogrids lies between 30 and 800 kN, depending on the respective soil condition. These warp knits with enormous power reserves guarantee a reduction in the construction time by one third, they ensure a saving of 400 truckloads per km², also increasing the road stability. The asphalt-warpknit combination even resists Siberia’s extreme temperature fluctuations ranging between minus 70° C in winter to 40° C in summer. Such advantages are convincing for the building industry. If everything goes according to plan, the implementation of the infrastructure projects, for example in Russia, will require about 50 mio. m² of geogrids this year and even 70 mio. m² next year. Moreover, White Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan have also announced their demands in this respect, although at a somewhat lower level.
This is good reason for the textile machi-nery experts KARL MAYER and MENZEL to give the profitable business of geogrids and geo-nonwovens fresh impetus by means of a jointly developed combined solution.

Two companies, one strategy and complementary products
The connecting element between KARL MAYER Textilmaschinenfabrik GmbH and KARL MENZEL Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. is not only the same first name of their founding fathers. Both manufacturers have chosen Germany as industrial location, spreading their worldwide activities from here. Besides, both enterprises can look back on a long success story, being able to rely on a combination of established business culture and wealth of experience.
After its setting up in the year 1937, KARL MAYER specialized in the production of warp knitting machines and warp preparation units already at an early stage, whereas MENZEL, since its establishment in 1925, has become one of the leading producers of equipment for the complete range of textile finishing. The products of these two machine builders complement one another in the textile production chain, belonging to the premium segment. Such an image impresses. As far as innovation, quality and efficiency are concerned, these two market leaders don’t leave anything to chance in their fields. They concentrate and cultivate their know-how, they work together with research institutes, and in close cooperation with their customers they are permanently developing new application-specific solutions. These two enterprises have the same corporate philosophy even in terms of machine delivery: No product leaves the company without a complete check in assembled condition.
A most convincing attitude for both sides. For more than 22 years MENZEL has been delivering all types of batchers to KARL MAYER, and the cooperation of the two global players in the sphere of geotextiles started by end of the nineties. The first jointly made machine was supplied to Malaysia in the year 1999. Since that time, and after a ten-years’ starting stage, the common products made by KARL MAYER and MENZEL along with the functional building materials pave the way out of a market niche, and into a wide range of applications.

A combined solution paves the way
KARL MAYER Malimo, KARL MAYER’s division for technical textiles, and MENZEL have combined their machine technology in a pack of two, thus, offering maximum efficiency. The partners of this combined solution are a Raschel machine with parallel magazine weft insertion and an online coating equipment.
The nonwoven Raschel machine type RS 3 MSU S-V processes high-performance yarns to grid structures or to all-over warp-knitted fabrics and, if requested, it already integrates fed nonwovens. Regardless whether basalt fibres, polyester or polypropylene – the wide variety of materials employed in this respect is almost unlimited. Even when using thick, high-tenacity yarns, such as glass rovings, a reliable machine operation is ensured by the tuned interplay of robust drives and strong knitting elements. Besides, the RS 3 MSUS-V also offers gentle yarn treatment, high production speeds and extreme flexibility in stitch density.
After the technical warp-knit structure has been taken down at constant speed over the entire laying process, it gets straight to the online coating equipment, without expensive batching cycles and, thus, without losses in terms of efficiency and quality. Because: winding and unwinding always imply material losses at the beginning and at the end of the batching process, sometimes even resulting in damages of the fabric layer structure. However, the warp-knitted yarn arrangement receives its non-slip property, its protective layer and finishing with a bonding agent only after the appropriate chemicals have been applied in the coating unit.
MENZEL’s online coating range consists of a coating aggregate, a cutting device and a batcher, all being „state-of- the-art" equipment, offering extreme coating flexibility due to perfected engineering solutions. PVC plastisols, employed for geogrids when used as reinforcement in bridge and tunnel construction, can easily be applied, same as is the case with acid-proof and alkali-proof acrylic dispersions used for building restorations or Latex for special applications. In great demand, however, are geogrids and geo-nonwovens with bitumen coating. The deep-black structure is clear favourite especially in road construction.
Whatever has to be applied onto the technical textile, MENZEL renders the optimum solution. MENZEL’s masterly handling of chemicals results from the company’s close cooperation with finishing-agent producers and yarn manufacturers, ensuring highest coating precision and quality. Besides, the set-up times during product change are extremely short. Replaceable trough systems, coating aggregates with matched roller combinations and easy-to-clean surfaces guarantee a change of styles in the twinkling of an eye. Furthermore, the modular system makes a material-specific processing possible.
An important station is the drying and gelation zone using the infrared radiation technology. While the textile structure passes by the sources of heat, an automatic temperature check straight at the fabric line as well as a tension controller in the fabric ensure the keeping of predefined values in terms of shrinkage and width.

Advantages resulting from the series connection of the machines
One of the strong points of the machine duo made by KARL MAYER and MENZEL is the maximum fabric width that can be worked, namely: 5,400 mm on the standard execution with nonwoven feeding system. Even values just above 6000 mm are possible when using a combination with machine type RS 3 MSUS-G for producing heavy grid structures.
Other arguments in favour of this combined unit are: reduced space requirements in terms of floor space and handling room needed, minimization of the quality-reducing and costly winding processes, maximum working speeds along with top flexibility due to coordinated cycles and a generally reduced expenditure of operation.
From warp beam to finished product in one go, without any resistance and with highest efficiency. The novel machine-duo technology emerged victorious from a practical comparison test performed with two combination units including two Raschel machines placed in offline arrangement to a coating range. The productivity of the „duo" was higher by 25 % when manufacturing a coated fabric having a running length of 500 m and a fabric width of 4,500 mm.
It turned out that the separately running machines showed 3 % more material losses due to unacceptable grid cuts at the end and at the beginning of the batches after winding and unwinding processes, as well as 16 % losses in productivity due to the required roller changes. Besides, investment costs for assembly equipment, material transportation as well as winding and/or unwinding devices have to be added.
„We have combined our know-how, we have connected our machines online, and in this way we can offer a first-class product to our customers who can open up completely new markets. A noticeable fresh wind comes into the business related to bitumen-coated grids and nonwovens", says Manager Constantin Menzel very pleased with the success of the combination unit. Axel Wintermeyer, Sales Manger at KARL MAYER Malimo, confirms this statement: „More than 30 years of experience in the construction of machines for technical textiles and the combined support of two market leaders are more and more convincing for our clients – worldwide".

Universal application for unlimited mobility
„Our geogrids and geo-nonwovens are in great demand in every place where infrastructure projects are implemented", explains John Boyd, Sales Manager at MENZEL. And this all over the world. This is also the reason why the customers of this business corporation can be found all over the globe. Main buyers of the combination unit are still the European countries focusing on the production of technical textiles. But also the successor states of the Soviet Union, the Iran, Korea, some South-African countries, and especially clients in India producing for the local market, are more and more a guarantor for full order books.
Those who are eager to get more information about the highly efficient connection of the nonwoven-Raschel machine with weft insertion system and the online coating machine, are kindly invited to visit MENZEL’s headquarters in Bielefeld, where a standard version of the combination unit has been exhibited since January 2008 for trial and inspection purposes. Especially visitors to the European trade fairs have made good use of this offer. It was only in April that MENZEL’s management could welcome members of the Russian glass association in the company’s technical center. Other guests from Europe, the USA and South America have already registered.
By the way, the interested persons don’t belong to the road construction sector only. Geogrids are also employed for supporting foundations and embankments, for improving the building ground (subsoil); they are used as stabilizing layer over soft ground in embankment construction, under supporting frameworks in bridge building, and for track bed construction.