ENKA – 100 years of Know How & technical advantage
THE COMPANY
We have been producing our viscose filament yarns for many years at the Industrie Center Obernburg, today the largest chemical fibre site in Western Europe on the edge of the Rhine-Main area.
The textile finishing of our products takes place at the Gorzow site in Poland, also a chemical fibre site with a long textile history.
Our sales office is located in Wuppertal, at the historic headquarters of our company.
ENKA is a subsidiary of the International Chemicals Investors Group (ICIG) and a member of the Industrievereinigung Chemiefaser e.V. (IVC) and the European Man-Made Fibers Association (CIRFS).
Our locations
Obernburg
ENKA GmbH & Co. KG
Industrie Center Obernburg
63784 Obernburg
Wuppertal
ENKA International
LUX SE & Co. KG
Schlössersgasse 1
42103 Wuppertal
Gorzow
ENKA Sp. z o.o.
Ul. Walczaka 25
66-407 Gorzów Wlkp.
Polen
Our History
For thousands of years, silkworm breeding and the extraction of silk were a monopoly of the Chinese. Fabrics made of silk were brought to Europe via the Silk Road.
Since the Middle Ages, however, the emerging European textile industry was unable to satisfy the growing demand for high-quality clothing.
Therefore, researchers and developers tried to learn the secret of silk from nature.
In 1884, the first patent application was filed for an invention entitled “Artificial textile material similar to silk”. The inventor had succeeded in extracting cellulose – the building material of all plant fibres – from the leaves of the mulberry tree and spinning it into thread.
In the following years, various processes for the production of artificial silk were brought to industrial maturity in England and Germany.
One of these processes, the “viscose” process, has been practised by ENKA at its Obernburg site since 1924.
Since then, the production of viscose filament yarn has been continuously developed by ENKA and adapted to today’s European production and environmental standards.
Quality
100 years of know-how, experienced employees and craftsmanship enable us to optimise our manufacturing process further and further and thus set the standard in the production of viscose filament yarn.
The art of producing a yarn from cellulose in a chemical process that is similar to natural silk and even surpasses it in length and uniformity – that is “The Art of Viscose”.
