OREANDA-NEWS. April 02, 2013. Xerium Technologies, Inc. announced a 350 ton global press felt production increase through a combination of the following actions: 

- Equipment investments in base fabric making, card making, needling and heat setting
- A centerpiece investment in a new, state-of-the-art DILO needle loom
- Additional production in Xerium’s Asian and South American plants.

Xerium is increasing its capacity in its press felt plants in response to strong global demand from customers for Xerium’s high-end surface sensitive press felts. This additional capacity will be coming on line beginning in 2Q 2013 and continue through 4Q 2014. Xerium is largely capacity constrained with regards to press felt sales growth and, therefore, somewhat hampered in terms of partnering with growing customers, growing areas of the market and growing regions of the world.

The DILO needle loom is a special machine used in the production of high-end surface sensitive felts. These products are used on paper machines, fiber cement machines used in the production of building products and general purpose industrial textile machines. The high-speed, high-density needling capabilities of DILO’s Hyperpunch machine will expand Xerium’s current platform of needling looms used to manufacture Xerium’s most technologically advanced press felts. The DILO machine is on order.

“We are excited to be investing for sales growth and expanding our capacity to make press felts of all types - paper machine press felts, fiber cement products, nonwoven products, and general purpose industrial textiles. Xerium’s ability to grow in these areas has been limited by available capacity. These actions give our customers and sales teams more flexibility to pursue growth plans and additional new products. There are many parts to increasing our global capacity in a high-quality manner and it is a top priority at Xerium. We are expanding our base fabric capabilities, our heat setting capabilities, our needling capabilities, our card making capabilities and our finishing capabilities,” said Harold Bevis, Xerium’s President and CEO.

“These actions increase our global capacity, lower our costs, increase our quality, and balance our production more efficiently to improve our lead times to customers. We are committed to reducing our total costs, growing our sales and maintaining our global technology leadership positions. These actions help us achieve these goals.

We have also reorganized our global machine clothing Operations team so that Xerium can optimize outcomes and efficiency across all regions of the world. We have four new leaders in charge of these matters. Jurgen Hartmann – based in Germany, VP & Global Operations Leader for Forming Fabrics.

Alain Cayer – based in Canada, VP & Global Operations Leader for Press Felts. Jurgen Heiss – based in Germany, Director of Global Planning and Scheduling for Forming Fabrics. Lynn Height – based in USA, Director of Global Planning and Scheduling for Press Felts,” Harold Bevis added.

Xerium Technologies, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of specially engineered fabrics, belts and roll cover technology used in the production of paper, paperboard, building products, nonwovens, and specific industrial processes.