Swiss antimicrobial products producer Sanitized (Burgdorf; www.sanitized.com) has opened a new technical centre at his head office. The Sanitized TecCentre will provide product development and support for polymer and textile coatings.

The company helps to develop new products with integrated hygiene function, material protection against defined aggressors, such as UV irradiation or mould, and odour management in textiles.

The TecCentre has testing facilities for coatings as well as manufacturing equipment for plastic films or coating support systems and textiles. Sanitized said repellent plastics and textiles can be subjected to various extensive endurance tests, including thermo gravimetric analysis, thermo tests for PVC, heat and cold, tension, exposure, wash resistance and watering. Textiles can also be finished using pad transfer or extraction techniques, or the dye bath method.

Urs Stalder, CEO of Sanitized, said: "The equipment in our new Sanitized TecCentre, allows us to conduct application tests at laboratory level to advance product developments and optimisation which, so far, had to be carried out in customers’ manufacturing processes at great expense in terms of machinery, time and energy.”

Equipment is also available to perform microbiological laboratory tests. Depending on the type of protection and technology, the centre can test for mould formation, odour development, material deterioration, dust mites or bacteria growth – either individually or in combination.

The centre will also test Sanitized products for new applications. This, said the company, will bring customers benefits through applying a single product on several different articles which not only cuts logistics and transport costs but also allows them to avoid converting machinery and vehicle fleets.