JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #88 - April 2014 - Special JEC Americas Spring Edition - 4

point of view: greener solutions

Procotex, a provider of
environment-friendly fibres
Masters in flax, recycled natural, synthetic and technical fibres. This
is how Procotex Corporation defines itself. The Belgium-headquartered company can deliver a wide range of environment-friendly
solutions. Let's see with Bruno Douchy, Sales Director of Procotex,
what his company's portfolio has to offer to composites.

interview
Bruno Douchy
Director SaleS

Procotex

Bruno Douchy : The ap-

plications of our recycled fibres
are quite diverse. PP fibres are
mostly used as thermobonding
fibres in the automotive and
felt sectors. If you blend 50% of
PP fibres with 50% of natural
fibres such as flax or kenaf,
you can produce hard interior
panels such as doors, shelves,
etc. Using only 10% PP fibres
in a blend with other inexpensive recycled synthetic fibres,
then you can produce insulation felts/paddings. Another
application is the manufacture
of geotextile felts. Mixed 100%
synthetic fibres are mostly
used to wrap drainage tubes,
etc. Flax and recycled natural

fibres are mainly used in the
geotextile and mattress sectors.
Natural fibres are also increasingly used in automotive
applications as they are strong,
recyclable and absorb impact/
vibrations and noise. Technical
fibres such as recycled carbon
and aramid fibres are mostly
used in high-end markets such
as thermoset and thermoplastic applications that need extra
strength or extra electrical conductivity (carbon). Recycled
dry/wet milled aramid (pulp)
is also used in applications
where friction plays a major
role. Last but not least, the
spinning industry can use our
pulled recycled aramid fibres
for spinning. These strong and
heat-resistant products are
used, for example, in gloves to
protect workers from cutting
and burning.

many countries are you currently working with?

JCM: Procotex has subsidiaries
in Belgium, France, Lithuania
and Turkey. Do you have other
investment plans abroad? How

pean textile industry has been
experiencing a continuous
restructuring since the open-

4 jec composites magazine / No88 April 2014

JEC Composites Magazine:
Procotex specializes in flax fibres and in the recycling of synthetic fibres (primarily PP) and
technical fibres such as carbon
and aramid. Which are the largest markets for your products in
composite manufacturing?

We see a lot of
opportunities and
applications in
the near future for
recycled carbon and
aramid fibres

B.D. : As you know, the Euro-

ing of the borders worldwide
(WTO agreements). A major
part of the European spinning
industry moved to China and
Far-East countries. Price has
become a crucial parameter in
the textile industry. So we had
no other choice than delocalize our mill from Belgium to
Lithuania to become competitive again in the world market.
Luckily, the raw materials for
flax fibres will always remain
in Northern France (Normandy) and Belgium as these
two countries have the ideal
climate, soil and experience to
cultivate flax. Only the processing industry has moved to
low-wage countries.
Unfortunately, this also happened in the carpet industry,
where Belgium used to be the
world leader for the manufacture of PP carpets. Today,
Turkey is taking over this role.
For this reason, we had to
follow to be able to recycle PP
waste where it is produced. But

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #88 - April 2014 - Special JEC Americas Spring Edition

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #88 - April 2014 - Special JEC Americas Spring Edition