Hills Inc., a West Melbourne,
Fla.-based specialty fiber extrusion equipment producer, has developed technology to produce
meltblown fibers with an average size of 250 nanometers (nm) and a range between 25 and 400
nm.
250 nanometer average diameter meltblown fiber
Hills said its development of
meltblown nanofibers grew out of the company’s development of true bicomponent meltblown extrusion
equipment. The company has used its patented printed-circuit-style extrusion dies to produce the
fibers from high-melt-flow-index polypropylene. According to Hills, a hole count of 100 holes per
inch and up and extremely high length-to-diameter ratios enable production of these nanofibers at
reasonable rates, and puts meltblown production in the same size range that was previously the
exclusive domain of multicomponent spinning or electrospinning technology.
May/June 2007
