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Monforts Advanced Technology Center : Where Textile Ideas Get Their Factory Test

• By  Textile Excellence
• September 30, 2026

What happens when a promising textile idea leaves the laboratory and meets a real production line?

At the Monforts Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) in Mönchengladbach, Germany, customers can find out before putting their own production at risk.

Originally opened in 2013 and subsequently expanded, the 1,200 sq m ATC houses two full MONTEX finishing lines, a THERMEX continuous dyeing line for denim and woven fabrics, a complete colour kitchen and several laboratory-scale systems.

The idea is simple: bring your own fabric, test it on industrial machinery, find the right process and take the results back to the mill.

“The ATC allows our customers to test their own textiles and technical fabrics on Monforts dyeing and finishing machines under fully confidential, real production conditions,” says Nicole Croonenbroek, Marketing Manager, Monforts.

And the range of experiments is getting broader.

Technical textiles need flexibility

One MONTEX line is dedicated to technical textiles, a category where radically different materials can arrive one after another.

Think digitally printed soft signage substrates, carbon fabrics for high-performance composites, extreme temperature filter media and flame-retardant barrier fabrics.

“These very different materials all require expert coating and finishing,” says Monforts Textile Technologist Saskia Bollhöfer. The machinery therefore needs to switch quickly between fabric formulas without wasting energy or raw materials.

The four-chamber horizontal-chain MONTEX stenter can operate at temperatures of up to 320°C. It can also treat the top and bottom faces of certain materials at different temperatures in a single pass.

That opens up applications such as floor coverings, where the textile face and rubber backing need different treatments, PVC flooring with chemical foams, and blackout roller blinds with heavy backings.

The line is also explosion-proof, allowing organic solvents and other volatile materials to be handled under controlled conditions including specialist pharmaceutical applications.

Spraying, not soaking

The latest addition is a Baldwin TexCoat G4 digital spray unit, integrated for full customer trials and particularly suited to advanced sustainable finishing chemistries from Archroma.

The system precisely applies water-based chemicals such as softeners, antimicrobials, durable water repellents and flame retardants. Combined with MONTEX stenters, it can reduce water, chemistry and energy consumption by up to 50% compared with conventional pad application.

“The new TexCoat installation is making an important contribution to what we can achieve,” says Bollhöfer.

Knits get the gentle touch

The second MONTEX production line is designed for conventional knitwear, with a vertical chain return.

That matters because knitted fabrics are more elastic and need careful handling. The MONTEX system processes them at very low, precisely controlled tension while providing gentle, even thermal treatment.

It also features the Eco Applicator, which replaces a conventional wet-on-wet padder with trough-and-roller technology for more precise chemical application.

The difference is substantial: fabric entering a stenter with a conventional padder can carry around 60% moisture. With the Eco Applicator, that falls to 40%.

The system can also finish one side, both sides, each side differently or even selected areas of a fabric.

Thermex takes on dyeing

Monforts has almost 1,000 THERMEX hotflue dyeing systems operating in major textile manufacturing countries, with more than 150 using its Econtrol® process.

Econtrol fixes reactive dyes through a one-step dyeing and drying process using controlled steam and air. The entire pad-dry process takes just two to three minutes, at 120–130°C and 25–30% relative humidity.

The ATC’s THERMEX line now also features the Universal Energy Tower, which recovers heat from exhaust air and can deliver up to 25% energy savings, depending on exhaust-air volume and operating temperature.

With brands demanding cleaner production and regulations tightening, Monforts sees this kind of technology becoming increasingly important.

The real payoff – Proof before production

This is where the ATC earns its keep.

Customers can establish the right machine settings, temperatures, dwell times and application parameters, and see what happens to water, energy and chemical consumption, before making changes in their own factories.

That turns an interesting laboratory result into something much more valuable: production data.

“Whether the objective is to improve an existing process, develop an entirely new product or evaluate the potential of a new technology, we can work with customers from the initial trials through to the optimum production parameters,” says Bollhöfer.

And that may be the ATC’s biggest advantage: new ideas do not have to remain ideas. They get a factory test.

That turns an interesting laboratory result into something much more valuable: production data. “Whether the objective is to improve an existing process, develop an entirely new product or evaluate the potential of a new technology, we can work with customers from the initial trials through to the optimum production parameters,” says Monforts Textile Technologist Saskia Bollhöfer. And that may be the ATC’s biggest advantage: new ideas do not have to remain ideas. They get a factory test.