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The Textile Magazine
JUly 2012
Lenzing to produce Smartcel
& SeaCell for smartfiber
fiber news
Lenzing AG, the world market leader for man-made
cellulose fibers, and the German company smartfiber
AG/Rudolstadt are expanding their co-operation. In the
future Lenzing will exclusively produce the lyocell spe-
cialty fibers smartcel and SeaCell developed by smart-
fiber at the Lenzing site in Upper Austria.
In 2007, Lenzing already granted smartfiber a licence
for pilot production of new types of lyocell specialty
fibers. Moreover, smartfiber and Lenzing have been
co-operating for several years to develop fabrics and on
various research projects.
For reasons of profitability, the pilot plant of smart-
fiber is being relocated from Rudolstadt to Lenzing in
order to be able to rapidly move ahead with the com-
mercial exploitation of smartcel and SeaCell fibers in
spite of rising energy and raw material prices.
The integration of the facility in Lenzing, the world’s
largest cellulose fiber production site, will enable a sig-
nificantly better cost structure. Moreover, the smartfiber
pilot plant had recently reached its capacity limits due to
the continually increasing order volume, which no long-
er made it possible to optimally co-ordinate incoming
orders and accept large orders. smartfiber will continue
to be responsible for the sales and marketing of smartcel
and SeaCell.
The smartcel and SeaCell fibers are primarily used in
home textiles as well as in the fashion and medicine seg-
ments. The SeaCell fibers contain valuable active sub-
stances from seaweed which promotes health, nurtures
the skin and protects against free radicals.
Smartcel sensitive is the first anti-bacterial, natural
fiber available on the market to which the essential trace
element zinc is added, thus enabling regenerative skin
care and hygiene in textiles.
The management of smartfiber considers the intensi-
fied co-operation with Lenzing to be an important and
future-oriented step for the benefit of customers which
comprises a win-win situation for the two companies
involved.
Thus the high level of competence on the part of Len-
zing with respect to the production and processing of
lyocell fibers under the brand TENCEL will be com-
bined with the original and innovative patented technol-
ogy of the function-oriented fiber products developed
by smartfiber.
The objective of smartfiber is to be able to offer the
best possible quality, service-oriented order processing
and intensified sales-driven marketing support to cus-
tomers in the future.
For Lenzing the launch of pilot production for smart-
fiber at the Lenzing site is a consistent continuation of
the research and development partnership which smart-
fiber and Lenzing have pursued for years.
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