Van de Bilt zaden en vlas bv has a modern flax processing plant. The flax supplied to the company is processed in its scutching factory. Flax is a bast fiber and comes from the fibres that grow around the woody cylinder in the plant’s stem. Processing breaks down the composition of this woody cylinder and allows the plant to be split to extract long fibers, short fibers and by-products, including the woody shives. These woody shives are collected separately in bulk containers for further processing into straw bedding for horses and cattle etc. The short fibers are cleaned and pressed to form large bales before being sold.
The main product resulting from dressing the flax is the long fibers. After scutching, the long fibers are cleaned mechanically to remove any fine woody particles. The fibers are then pulled through various combs – a process also known as hackling – to make the flax finer. Van de Bilt zaden en vlas bv is an expert at this process and has a hackling department where the scutched flax is turned into hackling sliver.
Van de Bilt zaden en vlas bv can supply the right flax fiber product for every customer!