Woven or knitted screens? What are the properties? Why does one fit better than the other? If you ask those questions to Peter Ollevier of Phormium, you will get a comprehensive answer. "First of all, woven cloth is 3 to 5 times stronger than the knitted. This has to do with the raw material. The yarn/bands of woven material has a higher strength. This higher tensile strength is required for the weaving technology used. The advantage is that the screen fabric is stronger. We give, with ease, an eight-year warranty on woven cloth."
Peter Ollevier and Els De Martelaer (marketing), Phormium
In tests at their R&D department, they see that the lifespan of this material is longer than knitted material. This is due to that high mechanical strength. This also makes it a sustainable alternative. The lifespan is long; the necessary replacement takes a long time. Peter: "That's why woven screen cloth is also a financially favorable alternative. A grower's budget is not infinite."
Knits for clear cloths
Besides woven cloths, Phormium also has knitted ones in its range. Peter explains that they offer knits for clear cloths. "If light transmission is the main requirement, a knitted cloth is a good solution. For a few years now, we have also been producing these in Lokeren. PhormiTex Crystal and Crystal V."
Stomping looms
Most of the screens produced by Phormium are the woven variety. 150 looms stamp 24/7 in the factory to meet this demand. These cloths are woven with yarn produced in-house. It is preceded by an extrusion process.
Grains are melted into a film
This film is cut into tapes, which are heatset in an oven.
During that process in the oven, the foil strips are pulled to make them strong. And to stretch them until it becomes a yarn.
The four extrusion lines in Lokeren supply the entire plant with yarn. Before they are processed into cloth, a process follows to prevent shrinkage, during the warm months. During that thermofixation, the yarn is heated for more than 12 hours to get the maximum amount of shrinkage out of it. And if that is not enough, an additional thermofixation is provided on the final fabric for certain screen cloths.
Weaving
R&D
The R&D department plays a big role in the company. Peter takes us there to show us the tools used to arrive at a new, high-quality product.
Remarkably, as one of the first machines we 'bump into', we see a small loom and a small knitting machine. Peter explains that this is very nice. "We can now start knitting and weaving at a very early stage. We don't have to 'free up' a whole loom for a test. Also, the material costs are much smaller. There is no need to knit or weave a few hectares to see if the screen does what it is supposed to do. Literally with a spool of yarn, we can quickly weave a few square metres. And that is enough to carry out initial tests on.
The fact that they control the extrusion process themselves also gives the R&D department flexibility. "We can switch quickly. We are not dependent on other parties," Peter shares with us.
In the R&D department, we see a lot more technical ingenuity: the QUV tester (to measure the effect of light, temperature and moisture on the fabric), a device to measure the tensile strength and stretchability of the fabric and the spectrophotometer. The latter allows you to make light measurements. The principle of spectrophotometry relies on the fact that every compound absorbs or transmits light, depending on its wavelength. With this meter, absorption or transmission can be accurately measured.
The latest Phormium news
Last, but not least, R&D is bearing fruit. Soon, greenhouse horticulture can expect an innovative screen from Phormium. It will be launched soon. Peter: "We expect that the sector is waiting for this. This new screen combines the best of everything."
Sales Team: Marta Gentile, Vitalina Tsourkan, Peter Ollevier, Tayyar Erzurumlu, Arjan Van Der Veer, Joshua Gauché, Rémy Ballet
Phormium
Phormium has made a spurt since its intro into the fencing world in 1977. Phormium now employs 180 people and has a turnover of around €30 million. The sales team consists of seven people. Phormium is part of the listed company Duroc.
For more information:
Peter Ollevier
Phormium
+32 477 77 32 77
peter.ollevier@phormium.com
www.phormium.com