Sono-Tek Corporation announced the sale of the first ultrasonic WideTrack Textile Coater for industrial use. The coater is based on Sono-Tek's proven WideTrack platform, which has been successfully used in many glass line coating applications over the past four years. The unit was sold to a major textile company, and will replace a traditional finishing line at the customer's facility, which applies several different finishes to the fabric.

The current approach in the industry to textile finishing involves running a fabric line through a bath of chemicals and water to impart a desired property such as water repellency, stain repellency, antimicrobial action, flame retarding properties, etc. After this bath, the excess liquid must be removed from the fabric, typically by passing the fabric line through a heating section to evaporate the moisture. Since most fabric finishing treatments are only required on or near the surface of the material, the bath method is wasteful of chemicals, water and energy.

Sono-Tek's new WideTrack Textile Coater provides a series of ultrasonic nozzles in a unit positioned over the fabric line, plus a computerized control system to determine the flow of liquid required depending on the speed of the line and the performance requirements of the finishing coat, and an integrated pumping system. Less of the finishing liquid can be used in achieving the required performance, and a reduction in heat energy is also achieved. Textile customers have tried to use traditional pressure nozzles in the past to replace the bath method, but had problems with clogging in the small openings required in these nozzles.