Sintex, New Ways of Thinking about Finishing
Since 1996, Sintex has specialized in the field of coating machines for transfer paper and fabrics destined for the textile industry, the footwear sector, and the plastics and paper industry. Bruno Griffante, its founder, who had managed the production side of well-known textile machinery companies since 1965, had as his primary goal to create an innovative reality in the field of coating for technical fabrics and faux leather. Sintex focus has always been to supply in particular specialized machinery for resin coating, impregnation and lamination of fabrics and textile products, coating on release paper for Pvc and Pu and in the construction of pilot machines for research and development. Over the years, the Veneto-based company has expanded its production range toward new leather finishing systems, driven also by the stimuli arising in the nearby tanning hub of Arzignano, developing an established field, namely that of leather finishing using transfer paper.
You are the only ones in the world who give a guarantee on a specific type of final product fortified from the realization of a pre-product. How much do experience and know-how count in the customer relationship?
“Coming from the synthetic industry, especially in its infancy, in order to make a name for ourselves in the tanning industry, we wanted to give a strong signal to the market, emphasizing the quality of our work. By providing such a guarantee we were sure that our new customers would not be disappointed. We are speaking about a single type of finished product derived from a single type of paper that we called Chevron: actually technically it is a product that originated from a paper that is coded as R61. Through this approach, customers felt very confident right from the start that they could invest not only in an excellent machine but also in a solid company that was able to meet their needs, albeit not very large as ours is. Over time, this kind of procedure has fallen by the wayside, first of all because our company is now well known in the market and because the evolution of our system has led to dozens of different products. Instead today, we are trying to go further and do something more than in the past.”
Can you share what new things you are working on?
“Sintex today is offering an open source product, that is, a product that allows customers to develop their own items. So it is no longer the R61 article, it is no longer the Chevron article, but actually they are a set of their own articles that each customer can develop individually with our machine. This, in our opinion, is the flagship of our product, the one that allows us to go to major companies and have the confidence to propose a goal, which is to replace the traditional finishing system. Which until a couple of years ago was unthinkable mainly because traditional finishing is a process that is not very invasive and respects the original product a lot. This being the leather. Working with release papers, siliconed papers through which a film is formed, has always been seen as a very invasive finishing, so a process that goes into applying a significant amount of chemical to mimic the pattern of the full grain. Thanks to our system, almost the same thickness of finishing as the traditional product has been achieved. Let me give you an example: if on average the finishing thickness of a traditional product is 22/23 microns, a paper finishing system, which is more of a covering, is around 80 microns. With our Sintleather system you can to finish leathers with a thickness of just 25 microns, so we are definitely close to traditional finishing. Also, there is a major difference between the two systems regarding time and savings: we work five to ten meters per minute in one step, avoiding the multiple steps of normal finishing.”
…and more importantly you also recuperate levels of leather quality while with traditional finishing it is difficult to achieve, correct?
“Yes, that’s exactly right. The advantage of our system is also to be able to ‘scale up’ the level of leather quality, which is no small thing.”
Third to second, second to first…
“What we make available to our customers is completely changing their perspective. We are going beyond what is already known. With this technology we are actually proposing to completely open horizons and point to the future. We want to break away from ordinary ideas and we want to do so by proposing a different alternative, which is to give customers the opportunity to customize their product. That means opening up new avenues for them other than just the R61.”
What is the biggest challenge for you today?
“For us, the biggest challenge today is to meet the demands of the future. We have already been working toward this direction for some time. Our research is focusing on developing new potentials of our system such as, for example, application on recycled products. We are excited about the results it is giving us. It’s amazing! This is what we believe is the next goal to be achieved. Sooner or later everyone will have to deal with the CO2 balance. In my opinion, those who want to continue to sell leather, will also, of course, have to consider what is done with the waste of their hides. Here, we are already working on this new vision, therefore, not so much to the making of the recycled materials as to the finishing of the recycled materials. We have made contacts with companies that produce plants for making the recycled materials, we have selected a couple of very interesting ones, and together, we have already developed a line to follow that we expect will be implemented within a year or so. This new project will actually make it possible to completely and satisfactorily finish even recycled leather in roll form and no longer in individual pieces. The ability on the part of large tanneries to be able to rebalance CO2 production with this type of product will create a need immediately nearby. They will also be able to refine these products in such a way that they can be brought to market, perhaps alongside their premium products from their leathers, with a more economic but also innovative value.”
With this “looking to the future” in mind, are you working on any other projects?
“I can share with you that, in parallel, we have started to propose a new machinery always dedicated to finishing, namely our Sintleather system but in a compact version. For us compact means with a productivity per shift of 400/500 hides. A plant that we can define as more “concentrated” to suit small and medium-sized companies that want to approach our system with all the features that have distinguished it so far: reliability, great product quality, ease of use and optimization of productivity with the consequent reduction of environmental impact.”
Will it also be suitable for laboratory machinery?
“Yes. We are among the most important manufacturers of laboratory and pilot machines for research and development in the textile industry. We waited a while before we thought about the laboratory world because there was no particular buzz from chemical manufacturers. Today we have seen that it is slowly developing, and our intention in the short term is to produce a third product line dedicated specifically to the laboratory. What we will try to create will be three distinct sectors, that is, to differentiate three areas of work, with three different types of machines: one for large production destined for large companies, one for small and medium-sized companies – we have already installed the first machine of this type right here in Arzignano – and a third sector that we will develop shortly because we have had an actual request for it, that for laboratories. Three different worlds that need to be treated in the right way to enable them to actually do research and development.”
What are your target markets? Is there much difference between Italy and abroad?
“Yes, there is a difference between Italy and abroad. We have been used to working with foreign markets for 15 years. The first plants we built, made and sold were exported abroad. Italy came later and is only now catching up. Despite the problems experienced in the past two years, we continue to receive inquiries from foreign customers. Our expansion has actually slowed down, however, it has never stopped, so we hope that in the coming months, thanks also to the eurodollar decline, we will get back on track as we did a few years ago.”
Will you be present at Simac Tanning Tech in September?
“Yes. After attending Techtextil in June, we decided to attend again this year to consolidate the brand and give continuity to what we are doing.”
What feedback did you get in Germany?
“It was very interesting. We came into contact with companies of considerable size with really good results. I would say an average of about ten contacts per day, for all four days of the fair. Quality contacts because they were made directly with R&D departments, so a very good starting point for developing machinery or new production processes.”
Source: MPA STYLE
https://mpastyle.it/en/sintex-nuovi-modi-di-pensare-alla-rifinizione/