New Horizons for IMA Teknoweb

Thanks to new technologies, company enters new market segments dedicated to wet floor mops, dry cloths and cosmetic masks and bathing gloves.

Based in Palazzo Pignano, Italy, IMA Teknoweb is a machinery manufacturer. Its longstanding expertise belongs to designing and manufacturing nonwoven production equipment, specifically wet and dry wipes for which the Company distinguished worldwide for its cutting-edge machines.
As main contractor of complete solutions, IMA Teknoweb covers the entire transformation cycle, from raw material processing to web converting, packaging and pack handling through to pallets. Minimum Total Cost of Ownership, maximum integration, and high performance for each industrial customer are always a priority in the design of its machines.
In 2023 IMA Teknoweb has introduced some new technologies to expand its market horizons, finding three new main segments following the latest trends:

• Absorbent mats
• Cosmetic masks and bathing gloves
• Wet & dry floor mops and cloths

Absorbent Mats
The absorbent mats market has seen a rise in the latest years; such products are dedicated to a personal care use, known as underpads, catching leaks that may occur in beds, especially taking in consideration elderly people. But they can be employed for pet care as well. To produce the finest quality of absorbent mats, IMA Teknoweb introduced Ocean. It runs a 4 & 5-layer pad with an innovative and patent pending core formation process. It allows even and homogeneous distribution of fluff all over the core area, ensuring minor costs to the producer due to the optimization of the absorbent material. This equipment can reach the impressive speed of up to 400 mats per minute. The line can be completed with a primary and secondary packaging line provided by IMA, capable to pack the mats in pre-formed bags (also paper-based) and bundle them.

Cosmetic Masks
Cosmetic masks are widely used as a daily routine skincare product which gives benefits such as improved skin quality by providing nourishment and cleanliness to the skin. Increasing air pollution, dust, smoke, and high temperatures across the globe has increased the demand for such products. Cosmetic masks are essentially used in SPAs, skincare specialty hospitals and clinics or by the consumer itself.
MARK II SPA is IMA Teknoweb’s solution for producing finely shaped cosmetic masks and individually packed in sachets in a vertical 4 side seals packing unit. Line can process printed masks of any shape. Same for sachet which can be customized according to the client’s requests. The equipment reaches a throughput of up to 100 ppm. End of line is available for this product as well.

Wet Mitt and Bathing Gloves
Wet mitt and bathing gloves are more and more popular and gaining tractions in some specific geographies. They are particularly appreciated by hospitals or any other environment where bedded patients are taken care of. They come usually in flow packs of 5, 8 or 12 pieces, and in and general they are microwaved for a few seconds to warm them before use. Bathing gloves can be completed with additional features as 2 different nonwovens for the 2 sides of the product, internal impermeable film to protect hands of users, and the insertion of an elastic wrist, to firmly secure glove to the user.
IMA Teknoweb MARK II GLOVE is the fastest machine available on the market with a stunning production up to 600 glove/min fully wet.

Wet and Dry Floor Cloths
The MARK II is indeed one of the most versatile machines in IMA Teknoweb’s portfolio which, in 2023, has seen a technological upgrade to also cover the market segment dedicated to wet floor mops.
Standard floor mops can be identified as wet wipes with generous dimensions, specifically designed to fit a pad of cleaning/sweeping tool. When applied to the sweeper, only their central area is used. Indeed, side areas are used just to keep the product in place, by folding it over the pad and fixing corners in gripping holes. In standard products, the side areas are composed of the same nonwoven material as the central area. However, this leads to a higher grammage nonwoven that doesn’t significantly contribute to the overall user performance. On the contrary, a product comprising a dense absorbent nonwoven at the center and a lighter nonwoven on the sides offers improved performance while maintaining the same cost. Furthermore, this allows for different combination of nonwovens and the incorporation of additional features, like a scratching stripe. MARK II FLOOR makes up to 400 pieces per minute, fully wet, packed either in flowpack or in tray (which can be plastic or more sustainable material).
Another category which is growing very fast is dry cleaning wipes. They consist of high loft nonwovens which can catch dust into their fiber structure. Moreover, they are usually electrostatically charged to facilitate dust catching.
They can be provided in multiple folding and packaging. IMA Teknoweb’s most recent innovation on this purpose comes in the form of perforated rolls: they are packaged in shrink-wrapped transparent film, which includes a paper insert featuring artwork and product information. Rolls are manufactured by the KN700 rewinder and perforator. Afterwards, they are transferred to a flow packer to be placed inside a shrinkable-film bag. The printed paper insert is introduced at this stage, ending the process with the shrink-wrapping of the pack. This solution from IMA can produce up to 25 rolls/min in semiautomatic or fully automatic configuration. However, other dry wipe types are available as quarterfolded or interfolded.

A Timeless Classic: Wet and Dry Wipes
Among all these innovations, with over two decades of experience, IMA Teknoweb remains fully committed to the manufacture of wet and dry converting and packaging machines, serving as the sole contractor for complete production lines. With the capability to achieve market-leading speeds of up to 600 packs/minute with proper stacking and offering a wide range of folding options, IMA Teknoweb caters to various wipe types, including baby wipes, cosmetic (makeup removal) wipes, and industrial wipes. Additionally, IMA Teknoweb’s explosion-proof converters, compliant with ATEX standards, enable the production of alcohol-soaked disinfectant wipes at rates exceeding 80%.
Thanks to the integration of the vast packaging expertise belonging to the IMA Group, all IMA Teknoweb lines can be completed with countless primary and secondary packaging solutions, including flow packs, trays, cans, and bundles. The full array dedicated to the end-of-line include cartoners, case packers, tray packers and wrap-around machines.