{"id":2304,"date":"2025-06-14T14:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T12:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2025.monforts.de\/nicht-kategorisiert\/ntbs-unique-monforts-montex-business-gets-a-full-upgrade\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T08:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T06:14:01","slug":"ntbs-unique-monforts-montex-business-gets-a-full-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/news\/ntbs-unique-monforts-montex-business-gets-a-full-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"NTB\u2019s unique Monforts MONTEX business gets a full upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a highly specialised company with a focus on excellence in the provision of fabric coating and finishing services, NOVA Textil-Beschichtung GmbH (NTB) has recently benefited from an extensive Monforts modernisation programme.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NTB\u2019s relationship with Monforts dates back to the company\u2019s formation, with the 1999 installation of a first MONTEX stenter at its plant in Grefrath, Germany \u2013 just 30 kilometres away from the Monforts HQ in M\u00f6nchengladbach. At that time, the NTB team consisted of just three people at a 1,000 square metre site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years later, by 2019, the company had grown to a 40-strong workforce operating three MONTEX lines at two adjacent plants covering over 3,500 square metres. NTB sales that year exceeded \u20ac8 million for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forward momentum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NTB\u2019s initial focus was on the coating of mainly glass fibre fabrics and awnings and sun protection products for outdoor furnishings, as well as breathable membrane film laminations for sportswear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a great customer who was providing us with so many orders that by 2005 we took the decision to order a second MONTEX stenter, in a special configuration,\u201d explains managing director and founder Rainer Hurtz. \u201cThis also allowed us to enter the market for blackout and digital printing fabrics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important development for the company was its approval by the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) for the supply of vector protection clothing and equipment. NTB\u2019s special finishing technology is essential in shielding military personnel from insect bites and vector-borne diseases which can be prevalent and deadly in many areas of the world. In 2023, Germany\u2019s Ministry of Defence subsequently granted NTB an exemption for the processing of permethrin for its vector protection services, in the interest of national defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Covid-19 resilience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, a third MONTEX production line with a working width of 3.4 metres was installed to meet ever-increasing demand, but inevitably, the company\u2019s forward momentum was set back somewhat as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a sudden 70% drop in sales, NTB was nevertheless able to retain all its staff and in 2020 founded Gorilla Protect GmbH, as a distributor of advanced anti-viral face masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-pandemic, regular business has resumed and the company celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is now in the process of a generational change, with Rainer Hurtz stepping back and management of the company being transferred to his son Oliver as Commercial Director, along with Technical Director Bastian Schreurs and Sales and Development Manager Lampros Kampas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will accompany and support them as long as it makes sense,\u201d says Rainer Hurtz. \u201cThe company\u2019s goal has always been to understand how processes work and to continuously optimise them. As such, our current focus is on process data acquisition and analysis, a high degree of digitalization, actively implemented quality management and the introduction of an energy and occupational safety management system. If you stop getting better, you\u2019ve stopped being good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital affinity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Technical Director Bastian Schreurs \u2013 who was NTB\u2019s first-ever trainee \u2013 has worked closely with Monforts specialists on the modernisation project and is in full agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal is to be able to offer a high level of quality and service, with our business under constant price pressure from our Asian competitors,\u201d he says. \u201cWe see this modernisation project as an opportunity to further establish ourselves and thus retain our customers. It is also important to continue advancing our digitalization, firstly, to better understand our processes, and secondly, to remain attractive as an employer. Young people have a strong affinity for digital things and while we can always buy the best machines, without well-trained specialists to operate them, it\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He adds that the electronic controls of the two older MONTEX stenters particularly needed updating, as sourcing spare parts, most notably of the frequency converters, had become increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated system<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Monforts has subsequently installed new control cabinets and Qualitex 800 technology to the two older MONTEX stenters at NTB, along with programmable logic controller (PLCs) process visualisation and 24-inch TFT multi-touch colour screens at the stenter frame infeeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outfeed, padder and calender have further been equipped with seven-inch touchscreen control panels and all frequency inverters for the drives used to transport the textiles have been updated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall control is via a Siemens TIA 1500er F portal and a Gateway server\/client OPC\/UA interface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe clamping frames of the stenters are now equipped with the latest drive and control technology as well as visualisation and thanks to the OPC-UA interface, data can now be read out directly from the PLC and analysed by a customer\u2019s EAP system,\u201d explains Monforts Area Sales Manager Thomas P\u00e4ffgen. \u201cOur machines are known for their robustness and long service life, but the retrofitting of specific modules with new control and drive technology \u2013 going far beyond the basic replacement of spare parts \u2013 can have a significant impact on the performance of an existing line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal was to be able to produce all fabric orders on any of the three MONTEX lines, and we naturally chose Monforts for this project,\u201d adds Bastian Schreurs. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to do anything mechanically apart from updating the safety devices, which speaks volumes about the quality that Monforts has been delivering to us for 26 years now. I would like to once again praise the Monforts service department headed by Volker Gingter and our own workshop staff, because not only the scheduling, but also the implementation of this project was virtually seamless. It is very important for us to have competent and always available partners and unfortunately, as we have repeatedly experienced, this is not a given these days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a great ongoing relationship with Monforts from the beginning,\u201d concludes Rainer Hurtz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a highly specialised company with a focus on excellence in the provision of fabric coating and finishing services, NOVA Textil-Beschichtung GmbH (NTB) has recently benefited from an extensive Monforts modernisation programme. NTB\u2019s relationship with Monforts dates back to the company\u2019s formation, with the 1999 installation of a first MONTEX stenter at its plant in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2898,"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions\/2898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monforts.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}