SPONSORED EDITORIAL

Wetherby is a market town within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the A1 Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh. It has a population of 11,155 and is home to Arville Textiles, a customer focused ‘Technical Textiles Specialist’, which is making major changes in order to stay at the forefront of the industry.

Not much changes in Wetherby but that’s not true of Arville, which remains customer-focussed but continues to invest in order to offer the best level of service and technical expertise possible. It focusses on market demand for fabrics that perform in challenging applications and strives to deliver a 'best in class' approach in the field of technical textiles.

With over 60 years of experience in technical textiles manufacturing, Arville has built a business with a solid foundation and it is this approach that has made it a success in the industry – it is a specialist at what it does, and aims to stay that way.

“These are exciting times within our business as we go through some major changes to continually drive ourselves to the forefront of our industry,” says Andy Smith, Arville’s Group Head of Marketing.

“We have recently re-branded all of the companies within our operating group in order to create, for our customers, an integrated offering of technical textile design, weaving, finishing, coating and fabrication. It is this portfolio which we believe is unique within the industry and will reinforce our position as the ‘Technical Textiles Specialist’,”

Proud heritage, yet firmly focused on the future

Arville was founded in 1954 by William Wight who, along with Eddie Fegan, began contract weaving of woollen textiles, which were used in the manufacture of uniforms for the public transport sector. As the business grew it relocated to Wetherby in 1960 to benefit from improved transport links and availability of labour. New work was secured manufacturing textiles which were used in the filtration industry, providing an entry into the market for technical textiles.

To meet with increasing demand, further premises (Factory 2) were built in Wetherby in 1973 to create dedicated capacity for twisting and warping machinery to feed the looms.

In 1978, the first rapier weaving machinery was installed for the production of flat fabrics and in 1985 a second bay was built at Factory 2 to meet with increasing demand as Arville continued to grow its market share within the defence, aerospace and automotive industries, supplying key companies with high performance woven textiles.

In 1989, the first Dornier looms were installed at Wetherby, and over time this capacity has been strengthened to become a state-of-the-art facility, specialising in the weaving of technical textiles.

In 1991 dedicated finishing equipment was also installed so that all finishing processes could be carried out in-house, improving efficiency, quality and technical performance of the fabrics.

In 1995 a Benninger warping machine was installed and in 1997 Arville acquired The Multiple Fabric Company to further diversify its offering to customers with complex requirements for pre-fabricated textile pieces. In 2000, Arville acquired a coating plant, P&S Textiles, to further strengthen its portfolio, creating the capability of complete end-to-end manufacturing of technical fabrics entirely within the Arville group of companies.

Arville Textiles today

Today sees Arville positioned as a ‘best-in-class’ specialist in the field of technical textiles operating with a team of highly experienced textile professionals who have expert knowledge of fabric design, weaving technology, loom set-up, coating & finishing properties and product make-up. Arville’s end-to-end manufacturing capabilities allow it to create engineered fabrics which are designed to possess specific physical properties.

With a wide range of unique production processes, each requiring its own in-depth specialist skills, the company is able to combine these, to produce bespoke fabrics which have been developed to perform to exacting standards in their end application. At every stage Arville has rigorous QA and testing procedures to ensure it maintains exceptionally high levels of quality and consistency throughout.

Arville’s people

Arville is fully committed to positioning itself at the leading edge of technical textiles manufacturing and its people continually strive to bring its customers the most advanced materials and processes possible.

Andy Smith enthuses: “Our intimate knowledge of yarns, weaving, finishing, coating and fabrication drives our passion for designing and creating fabrics with ever-increasing levels of technical performance.”

“Our team of people have pioneered the use of new techniques and approaches, based on a rich experience of developing fabrics used in some of the most complex and challenging end applications.”

Arville’s brands

“We understand the importance of having a recognisable source for technical textiles and our brands play a major part in helping our customers achieve their objectives,” Andy clarifies.

Arville® and Arvex® fabrics are exclusively designed and manufactured in the UK by Arville and can be found at work within a wide range of diverse, complex and difficult applications around the world.

Integrated approach to textile design

According to Andy Smith, Arville is expert in all areas of the technical textile manufacturing process.

“Our integrated approach means we can develop highly complex technical textiles, tailoring the yarn types, weave constructions, finishes and coatings to produce fabrics which are custom - made to perform to consistently high standards in even the most demanding of applications,” he articulates.

“At the heart of this lies our ability as technical textiles specialists to design the manufacturing processes, which allows us to develop for our customers, an end product of high-quality fabric, engineered to have performance characteristics that exactly meet their requirements.”

Design

“We’ll act as a design and specification resource for your business. Our technical experience and specialist knowledge of yarns, fabrics, weaving, finishing, coating and fabrication processes means we can take the hard work away by developing innovative fabric solutions,” Andy effuses.

“We like a challenge - the more complex and unusual the application, the better. We are happy to work with your internal team, tailoring cost-effective textile solutions for your particular needs.”

Arville will design fabrics to meet performance specifications, developing prototypes for new uses or improving and refining characteristics for existing applications. In this way, the company says, it will work with customers as their textile development partner, acting as a vital resource to help them with a structured approach to the design of fabric components within their products or processes.

Weave

Arville is a specialist weaver of high performance textiles. It is constantly developing new textiles for its customers to meet with the ever-growing demand for extra functionality, performance and added value required from engineered fabrics.

The company’s development team works at the cutting edge of textile technology to ensure that its customers benefit from high-quality, cost-effective solutions to their fabric requirements.

“We control the entire weaving process in-house from yarn preparation through to weaving, finishing and testing. Dedicated machinery for twisting, beaming, weaving and finishing allows us to create high quality fabrics which have been engineered to consistently deliver specific performance characteristics,” adds Andy Smith.

Coat

Arville are also specialists in coating and combining fabrics for bespoke, high performance technical applications. The company can apply a diverse range of coatings which are designed to alter and enhance the technical performance of fabrics.

Arville’s in-house mixing, coating and testing facilities ensure that it achieves not only exceptionally high levels of quality, but also consistent and reproducible results within exceptionally tight manufacturing tolerances.

The company’s state-of-the-art coating, dipping and curing machinery has been developed to offer customers a wide range of coating options.

“We are able to formulate bespoke chemical compounds which are designed to enhance the performance of our fabrics in their end use through the application of solvent or water-based coatings,” Andy Smith states.

Fabricate

Arville design and manufacture complex textile products which are used across a wide range

of industries and applications. The Arville fabrication team can cut and sew complex textile products to an exact specification to meet customers’ specific requirements. The company provides a high quality, traceable and consistent manufacturing environment for customers requiring the fabrication of textile products.

“As part of our integrated approach within the Arville Group, we are able to go right

back to the design of the underlying fabric so that we can tailor the materials to deliver the exact performance requirements of the fabricated product,” Andy Smith says.

Watch the Arville Textiles company video…

Markets served

With a customer base that encompasses over 50 countries world-wide, Arville manufactures bespoke technical textiles which are utilised across a wide range of highly complex applications and industries.

The company’s customers range from large multi-national to medium and small sized companies with unique and niche needs for technical textiles. Here are examples of just some of the industries it serves:

• Defence
• Aerospace
• Pharmaceutical
• Food
• Medical
• Automotive
• Industrial
• Filtration

The future

Added value

Arville is constantly developing new textiles to meet with the ever growing demand for extra functionality, performance and added value required from engineered fabrics. The company’s development team continually works at the cutting edge of textile technology to ensure that its customers benefit from high-quality, cost-effective solutions to their fabric requirements.

A fully integrated solution

However, it is a highly cohesive approach that has allowed Arville to become successful as a specialist in its field. Arville’s fully integrated capabilities from design and yarn preparation, to weaving, finishing, coating and fabrication allows it to offer flexible manufacturing which makes it an essential partner for short-run or development work, and cost effective for longer-scale production runs.

Further information

Contacts

Andy Smith - Group Marketing Manager -  [email protected]

Daniel Ames - Group Sales Manager - [email protected]

Jim Wight - Managing Director - [email protected]

Company

Arville Textiles Limited

Sandbeck, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS22 7DQ, England, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1937 582735

Fax: +44 (0)1937 580196

[email protected]

www.arville.com