LEONBERG, Germany — November 27, 2017 — The Tropic Knits Group located in Mauritius is with 3,000 employees one of the biggest producers of high-quality fine knit garments in the Indian Ocean. Well-known international brands from Europe, the United States and South Africa are among the company’s most important customers since many years.

The textile industry has changed very much particularly in the past years, not least caused by a changed consumer behavior: increased online shopping, shorter production lead-times, fast fashion cycles and quick turnaround for new collections coupled with high quality customer demands at the right price. And, in addition to that, the focus has been on sustainable production meaning compliance to environmental standards and social compliance. These are the great challenges for Tropic Knits, the garment division of the Group. The company achieves this among other things thanks to their excellent target-oriented, customer focused and flexible team. CDL Knits, a fully integrated knitting, dyeing and finishing plant is the Fabric Mill division of the Tropic Knits Group. There, they have the ability to control the complete production chain which allows rapid optimization of processes to improve fabric quality as per customer demand.

At Forest Side in Mauritius, CDL Knits is producing every day approximately 17 tons of knitted fabric out of which 80% is assigned for Tropic Knits which converts them into garments. The rest is exported to South Africa in open-width fabric form.

Since quite a long time the operations and finishing team of CDL Knits has been looking for leaner production processes that would lead to further savings in terms of resources and energy for the company. During ITMA 2015 in Milan the first ideas were discussed with different textile machine manufacturers and very soon their thoughts became a mature and solid concept. CDL Knits manufactures a variety of cotton fabric, cotton blends and viscose. The finishing line they operated at that time comprised a relaxation dryer, a stenter and a compactor. The intention was to replace these three finishing machines by only one line without compromises regarding quality. In the beginning this seemed to be rather unrealistic on a technical point of view.

The German textile machinery producer BRÜCKNER TEXTILE TECHNOLOGIES kept their ears open to the concept. An intense exchange of insights began, new ideas were discussed and several fabric trials were performed in the Brückner Technology Centre in Leonberg/Germany. Together, a completely new machine concept has been developed which CDL bought for their production site in Mauritius. Most important was the mutual trust which has developed during the phase of conceptual design between Brückner and CDL Knits. The excellent assistance by the complete Brückner team, the technological advice and the positive results of the trials in Leonberg were in the end convincing and crucial for the purchase decision.

The new Brückner line for knitted fabric which will in future replace CDL’s three finishing machines is a special design: a relaxation dryer with pre-arranged stentering zone. Scroll rollers in the entry of the line provide for the spreading of the fabric and skew straightening rollers for the reduction of spirality. After that the fabric is pinned on precisely directly behind a special selvedge spreading unit, so that the selvedge waste is later reduced to a minimum. A non-lub vertical transport chain, developed particularly for knitted fabric, transports the fabric through a ten-meter-long stentering zone. It is provided with a selvedge gumming unit, comprising several IR dryers and further hot air dryers for a complete drying of the gummed selvedges. Depending on the process and the fabric quality it is possible to operate with up to 60 percent overfeed and a wet overstretching of 40 percent and more.

At the end of the tentering zone a selvedge cutting device is installed. With minimum tension the fabric is then fed on to a specially coated transport belt leading into the four-zone relaxation dryer. The fabric is dried with an optimized air control concept and it is relaxed due to the tumble-like movement so that the residual shrinkage is reduced to a minimum. The individually adjustable air flow in the dryer and the wet spreading and shrinkage in the tentering zone allows to influence the quality features such as shrinkage, fabric width and fabric surface to the optimum. The curling of edges in the dryer is prevented by a systematic and selective arrangement of the circulating air. This new technology allows to save previously required expensive process steps.

Brückner’s Technical Director for Mechanical Design, who is an expert for the finishing of knitted fabric at the same time, wanted to assure himself that the recently developed concept is performing perfectly. He visited CDL Knits in Mauritius directly after commissioning of the new line. Together with the customer he made tests with different fabrics and determined the optimum process parameters for each fabric quality. The operators were directly involved and correspondingly trained.

After a short time CDL could start the production and the results speak for themselves. The fabric quality is better than expected and the residual shrinkage as well as the spirality are for all fabric types less than 5 percent. CDL is already now saving about 40 percent of electrical and thermal energy compared to their previous process. But the biggest saving is definitely the significant reduced process time. Where previously 90 hours were required, is today 20 hours to achieve the same productivity. This gives enormous benefits regarding the delivery time.

But there are some more aspects which made CDL Knits invest in a Brückner line. The state-of-the-art lines of the German machinery producer are very robust and durable. Spare parts and support are available for all machines, even if they are 20 or 30 years old. In addition the machines are produced 100 percent in Brückner’s own plant in Tittmoning, Bavaria, in Germany and they are always tailor-made to the customer’s needs. Furthermore Brückner attaches particular importance on an energy-efficient technology to save costs for their customers when operating the lines and to reduce simultaneously the consumption of resources.

The Tropic Knits Group is part of the Fine Knits cluster of Ciel Textiles which is also located in Mauritius. The complete Group has more than 20,000 employees with an annual turnover of about $300 million. Once a year, Ciel Textiles hosts the Ciel Textile Chairman’s Manufacturing Excellence Award for its capital intensive companies. This is a good occasion to bring together the employees of the individual business units and to emphasize the team spirit and the solidarity of the whole team. Because only together it is possible to master challenges. The Knitting Division of CDL Knits won the award for Manufacturing Excellence twice in 2015 and 2016. This year, in September 2017, CDL won the World Class Innovation & Creativity Award. The installation of the new Brückner line at CDL Knits and the corresponding benefits for the company played a small but nevertheless important role in winning the award.

The group and each individual business unit attach great importance on sustainability. This includes the saving of resources (water, oil, electricity, etc.), but also social responsibility with a vision for the future. CDL Knits came up with the initiative “Stairway to Hope”. The objective is to help underprivileged people in the community. Selvedge waste from production is provided to socially disadvantaged persons who knit these into rug mats which they sell and earn a living. The required equipment (for example wooden frames or needles) is made available by CDL Knits who also supports the people in the sales of their products. The project is also known as “WASTE to GOLD”. Since last year, CDL Knits is engaged on a yearly basis on a D-Day, also known as Love Day, with a community close to its production facility. This is an opportunity where all the employees of the company would gel with the people living in the community and organise different activities such as free medical check-ups, planting of trees, cleaning of the environment, awareness on drugs and diseases and also distribute food and school materials to the needy. In September 2017, CDL Knits was also awarded the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Award among the capital intensive units of Ciel Textiles.

Verena Ruckh, head of marketing at Brückner, is really inspired. “A great commitment with many exciting social projects. During my stay at CDL and Tropic Knits in Mauritius I met so many highly motivated people from various cultures who always welcomed me with a smile. When I walked through the company I could feel the spirit of willing to move something forward together as a team. This is something very special and it impressed me deeply. Keep it up!”

The Group now benefits from a state-of-the-art and durable Brückner line for knitted fabric which clearly saves thermal and electrical energy and streamlines their internal processes. Improved fabric quality and shorter lead-times are other benefits derived from the new finishing line. This allows Tropic Knits to offer in future the highest possible quality and to position itself as a very good alternative to suppliers from China and the Far East.

Posted November 27, 2017

Source: Brückner

MUTTENZ, Switzerland — November 22, 2017 — Clariant together with its Masterbatches business unit, is announcing plans for a major revision to its pioneering ColorForward trend-watching platform, which is used by designers and brand managers to forecast colors for use in plastics products and packaging. The changes will take place with the ColorForward 2019 edition, due to be launched in early January 2018.

“The 2019 edition of ColorForward will be the 13th we have published,” noted Maurizio Torchio, global head of ColorWorks®, Clariant’s global network of color design and technology centers. “When we began this mission to help our customers better understand the link between global trends, consumer preferences and colors, it was the first of its kind in the plastics industry. Since then several other companies have begun to copy our concept. That’s one of the reasons we decided to update the package. We also want to ramp up the ‘WOW’ factor.

”

ColorForward springs from the minds and experience of Clariant color, design, marketing and polymer experts from all over the world. Each year they come together for a week-long workshop during which they share what they have observed over the last twelve months about consumer trends and interests. After much discussion and debate, they distill all the ideas and input and eventually agree on four trends that seem to be truly global in scope, and which can be expected to influence consumer behavior in the near- and mid-term future. The ColorForward team then selects different color aesthetics that evoke an emotional response related to each trend.

Torchio notes that this basic approach has been very successful and, therefore, will not change. “We will be changing how the trends are presented,” he says.

In the past, Clariant has published three different versions of ColorForward — the classic edition for consumer products and packaging, an Interiors editions for the fiber and textile market and a third edition for automotive customers. “What has become very evident recently is that, even though they make use of plastics and polymers in different applications, there is not much distinction in how these different markets look at trends and color,” explains Torchio. “They are very open to ideas that transcend specific industries and applications.”

With that in mind, the new ColorForward package will include elements from all three versions, including prototypes specifically tailored to the interests and requirements of the different markets. The ColorForward 2019 kit will include a smaller box of color plaques that can be used by itself when required. Overall, the package will be 20 percent smaller in volume, making it more portable, and easier to use.

At the same time its scope will be expanded and it will get a new subtitle: Society | Trends | Aesthetic. These three words encompass the essence of ColorForward, which is based on the idea that ColorForward’s observations of ‘Society’ worldwide are contextualized into four major ‘Trends.’ Those societal trends are then translated into tangible form in colored plastic materials.

“How those colors can be applied to products and packaging represents a new ‘Aesthetic,’” Maurizio Torchio explains. “ColorForward helps us gain a better understanding of how consumer emotions are shaped by the complex world around them and how those emotions influence their preferences and the choices they make in day-to-day life. That understanding, in turn, helps designers and brand owners harness the power of color and other visual cues to help their products stand out in the marketplace. This is what has made ColorForward so successful and why the new design for 2019 will be even more valuable.”

Posted November 22, 2017

Source: Clariant

COMO, Italy — November 21, 2017 — Originally created to speed production times up and reduce pattern book production costs, in 20 years digital printing has taken a leading role in the design and production of printed fabrics. There is a consensus that inkjet printing is the future of the textile printing in both the fashion sector, which is particularly sensitive to versatility, speed and customization, and other production sectors, such as interior design.

The third Book of the “Beyond the Silk Road” series will be unveiled at the digital textile industry conference, organized by Epson in Como November 20-21, 2017. Created by the Textile Solution Centre Advisory Board by Epson, For.Tex. and F.lli Robustelli, the “Digital printing and sustainability” Book covers the latest environmental impact thinking within the textile industry. The publication was edited by Blumine, a textile and fashion industry sustainability research and consulting company, in collaboration with the Como technical institute Rete Clima.

The focus on digital printing is entirely justifiable as it is a well-established and ever rising trend: in the first half of 2017, there were more than 982,300,000 square meters of digitally printed fabric. The many advantages of this cutting-edge printing technology can be found throughout the industry, from the companies to the final consumers. The economic, organizational and ecological benefits include waste reduction, fewer wash cycles and the related reduction in environmental pollution.

“Inkjet printing is an irreplaceable technology in a textile production system which has to cope with the daily demand for flexibility and customization of production”, said Pietro Roncoroni, president of the Textile Solution Centre and of For.Tex, a chemical company working in industrial textile market now part of the Epson Group. “It is a question of understanding how much digital printing is consistent with the demand for reducing environmental impact and chemical safety that the customers and brands are imposing on textiles manufacturers and printers. Our mission is to study the dynamics and drivers of cultural and technological innovation. The Textile Solution Centre was established to disseminate digital innovation culture among the textile printing processes. We do this through our training programs for different public sectors: both making our teaching available by running workshops in schools, businesses and research institutes that want the first-hand experience of the potential of inkjet printing and publishing the “Beyond the Silk Road” Book series.”

The “Digital printing and sustainability” Book provides an in-depth examination of sustainability applied to the digital printing on the textile sector. It starts with an analysis of the economic and cultural background, which the technology is now a part of, its fashion sector connections and the continually evolving market dynamics. Special attention is given to the research role and the production of low environmental impact chemicals. Printers are governed by laws, regulations, certifications and restrictive specifications produced by customers and brand in the fashion industry. This can be seen from the interviewed opinion leaders and from For.Tex’s daily experience.

How are the environmental advantages of inkjet printing quantified?

The study collects the data obtained by simulating the consumption of materials needed to print 1,000 metres of fabric using conventional and digital technologies based on values provided by a printer run with both types of equipment. The processed data revealed that digital technology has a smaller carbon footprint compared to traditional printing. The report explains that a digital system produced less equivalent CO₂ than a conventional rotary system — specifically, this is 139.56 kg of equivalent CO₂ compared to 85.66 kg of equivalent CO₂. This significantly limits the contribution to climatic warming.

Digital printing used 27-percent less water, confirming yet another vital statistic, which has two environmental knock-on effects. This process guarantees a reduction both in the volume of wastewater sent for purification and in the consumption of energy for heating process water. This further lowers the carbon footprint while using the printer.

Further analysis in the report includes a study of the environmental advantages evaluation introduced by the constant maintenance model at the production plant used by F.lli Robustelli. The evaluation used a Life Cycle Thinking approach and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) techniques to the Monna Lisa Evo Tre printer, the latest in the series developed by Fratelli Robustelli based on Epson technology. A circular economy logic and the non-replacement of the machine’s structural parts, thanks to optimised update and maintenance protocols developed by Robustelli Spa, reduces greenhouse gases in comparison with the more invasive alternative revamping process. This reduction is an indirect environmental benefit.

Manufacturing a new printer (based on a small size Monna Lisa Evo Tre) has a carbon footprint of about 13,900 equivalent CO₂. However, it is now possible to keep more than 80% of the machine in service at each five-year maintenance. The limited invasiveness of the maintenance work produces a clear economic benefit for the final customer and limits the environmental cost compared to more critical maintenance. The environmental cost of the parts replaced is equivalent to “only” 3,260 kg of equivalent CO₂, or 25 percent of the overall environmental cost of new production.

Posted November 21, 2017

Source: F.lli Robustelli