N.V. Bekaert SA reports that it "has put in a bid" to acquire the ECC card clothing division of Carclo plc, a global supplier of technical plastic components and specialist wire products in a deal valued at approximately 16 million US dollars. A press release described Carclo, which has facilities in the U.K., France, Italy, Turkey, the U.S., Canada, China and India, as "an important player in the manufacture and sales of card clothing." It explained that carding "is a preparatory step in textile manufacture whereby the natural and/or man-made fibers are opened, cleaned, then combed in one direction and combined into either a single continuous strand or a web, in so-called cards (carding machines). The skein of carded fibers is then spun; the web is processed into non-woven applications. The cylinders of the carding machines which process the fibers are 'finished' or covered with card clothing. This is a consumable good that is made from serrated carding wire, so-called metallic or rigid card clothing. Flexible card clothing, made of finer, oil-tempered carding wire, is also used in wool and cotton carding machines."
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