Alchemie Technology is announcing the accelerated launch of Novara, a breakthrough new high-throughput digital precision coating technology for technical textiles. The textile technology innovator is supporting the global efforts to combat COVID-19 by applying its Novara technology to the manufacture of safety-critical products, including anti-viral facemasks. Alchemie is actively partnering with manufacturers worldwide to build production lines to address acute personal protective equipment needs and medical textile shortages.

"We have accelerated the launch of our Novara textile coating technology to address the critical shortages of personal protective equipment worldwide," said Dr. Simon Kew, Managing Director at Alchemie Technology. "Our team has been working hard to ready Novara, our breakthrough technology for coating technical textiles, to support the frontline efforts to combat COVID-19. We predict that the worldwide requirement for facemasks will be over 50 million per day, and we are getting ready to address this urgent need."

Alchemie's Novara technology delivers high-precision, 2D-patterned one or two-sided functional coatings to technical textiles, enabling truly unique, multi-functional textiles to be manufactured. Novara combines the throughput of conventional coating technologies with the precision of digital to unlock new product design opportunities and radically reduce the cost of technical textiles. The technology enables functional coatings to be applied with unparalleled precision, all controlled with real-time digital data.

"Our Novara precision coating technology is a breakthrough for digital technical textile manufacturing," Dr. Alan Hudd, Chairman at Alchemie Technology explained. "Our digital manufacturing approach to textile coatings will finally bring the limitless flexibility of digital printing to functional coatings."

The benefits of Novara include:

New product innovation: precise 2D digital placement of coatings, including one or two-sided application using different materials.

More profitable production with reduced material consumption: only delivering coating where it's needed
Unparalleled agility: with reduced inventory and digital productivity benefits, including rapid changeovers in less than five minutes and economic short runs.

The Novara digital precision coating technology can be delivered as a stand-alone machine or as a module for current production lines, enabling convenient implementation and rapid delivery of manufacturing capacity.