Conwed fetes 50 years of plastic netting innovation

Conwed Global Netting Solutions, a global plastic netting manufacturer headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016. Since the company's founding in 1966, Conwed has developed oriented and knitted plastic netting for hundreds of industrial and consumer products worldwide. Today the company has five manufacturing locations on two continents, more than 400 employees and a global distribution network.

The company provides extruded plastic netting to reinforce, protect, contain, separate, laminate and stretch a range of materials and substrates in various industries. "Our netting helps make products lighter, stronger and more durable," said Ivan Soltero, Strategic Marketing Manager at Conwed.

Conwed introduced reinforcement netting to bedding products early on in its history, and the netting soon became essential in reinforcing carpet cushion and provided separation, containment and support to diverse air and liquid filtration products. When the erosion control industry boomed, Conwed netting became a key material in erosion control blankets, turf reinforcement mats and wattles. The company also thrived by creating netting for hay and forage containment, turf harvesting and crop protection.

"When someone asks what Conwed does, it can be complex to explain, as netting can be found in many different industries," explained Soltero. "People buy turkey or produce at a supermarket contained in a plastic netting bag, walk on their living room carpet supported by carpet cushion reinforced with netting, run on a backyard lawn harvested with netting, wear disposable diapers with elastic netting waistbands or use reinforced industrial wipes, and Conwed is there. You can find us in the most unexpected places."

In the last decade, Conwed has expanded into porous pavers, rug liners, reverse osmosis feed spacers, elastic hygiene composites, packaging and high-temperature netting for automotive, oil, hydraulic and liquid filtration applications. "Our netting innovation relies heavily on our customers' product development needs," added Soltero. "We pride ourselves on customizing each netting design to the point where we rarely have an off-the-shelf netting solution for our customers. Netting is so versatile."

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, Conwed prepared a video, embedded below, that highlights company milestones. "Our audience will be surprised with this new video. We wanted to bring some fun and excitement to our 50 years of netting innovation across industries," Soltero said. "So we asked the question: 50 years ago, could you have predicted an entire world of netting?"