The Hong Kong Research Institute of
Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) won five Gold medals and one Silver medal at the
46th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva.
Among the 6 participating entries, the
project “AI-based Production Order Prediction Algorithm for Fashion Colour” was
also received a special prize from The National Research Council of Thailand.
These achievements recognise HKRITA’s concerted efforts in driving the
innovation and re-industrialisation of the textiles and clothing industry in
Hong Kong.
Since 2010, HKRITA has participated in this
global event for nine consecutive years and received 38 awards, with 18 gold
medals. Mr Edwin Keh, Chief Executive Officer of HKRITA, remarked, "Most
of our award-winning entries are under the theme of sustainable development,
where some of our more well-known research achievements thrive, contributing
immensely to the textile and clothing industry in Hong Kong. In addition,
fostering sustainability is also one of our key research tenets.”
Mr Edwin commented
that HKRITA will continue its important efforts in
developing sustainable and practical technologies to enhance the
competitiveness of the industry and benefit the living standards of the
community at large.
Award-winning
Projects:
Gold
Medal and Special Prize from The National Research Council of Thailand: AI-based Production Order
Prediction Algorithm for Fashion Colour
This project has developed a colour
productivity prediction model by integrating sales, pricing and branding to
best meet operational needs such as product planning and inventory management.
The model makes use of fashion colour-related posts from fashion brands,
magazines, designers and key opinion leaders in Facebook and Weibo, as well as
product prices, market events and brand positioning, to predict future sales of
fashion items of different colours. Authentic fashion posts that relate to
colour are identified via Natural Language Processing (NLP). Advanced machine-learning
methods are applied to improve the accuracy of fashion colour prediction. The
model can be customised for different users based on their market positions and
production lead time.
Gold
Medal: Post-consumer Blended Textile Separation and Recycling by Hydrothermal
Treatment
Garments are often made from a blend of
different fibres in order to improve fit, style, comfort and longevity. As yet
no commercially viable separation and recycling technologies are available in
the industry for the most popular combinations such as cotton and polyester
blends. This project has developed an efficient hydrothermal treatment method
to decompose cotton into cellulose powders, hence enabling the separation of
the polyester fibres from the blends. The separation process uses only heat,
water and less than 5% of a green chemical with a recovery rate of over 98% for
polyester fibres in 0.5-2 hours. The quality of the polyester fibres is
maintained, permitting fibre-to-fibre recycling.
Gold
Medal: Enclosed and Dry Industrial System to Transform Textiles Waste into
Fibres
This project has developed a safe and dry
closed system which incorporates a sanitisation process to mechanically recycle
old clothes into fibres with minimal impact on the fibre properties. The recycled
fibres retain good physical properties for the reproduction of various textiles
products such as yarn, fabric, and garments. The industrial recycling process
makes use of a high degree of automation through the application of robotics
AGV and intelligent control of conveyors. Recycled colour-sorted fibres can be
used directly for spinning without the need for dyeing and finishing. This
efficient sanitisation of textile waste reduces at least 90% of the
micro-organisms in the waste according to the ISO 11737-1:2018 test method.
Gold
Medal: Textile Waste Recycling by Biological Methods
This project developed a novel bioprocess
which makes use of textile waste for the sustainable production of different
value-added products, such as glucose, synthetic fibre, bioplastics,
bio-chemicals and bio-surfactants. The process consists of pre-treatment,
enzymatic hydrolysis and melt-spinning. The enzymes efficiently degrade the
natural fibre (i.e. cotton) in the textile waste into glucose, leaving the
highly pure polyester residues for the subsequent re-spinning process. These
materials are then applicable in a wide range of industries.
Gold
Medal: Washable Hygienic Facemask as Barrier to Air Pollution
This
project has developed a unique technique to embed a magnetic field in a
facemask in order to provide effective filtration without reducing permeability
by changing the direction of movement of nature-charged PMs and
micro-organisms. The facemask also provides an effective anti-microbial
function. Its ergonomic design provides improved thermal comfort and
next-to-skin touch comfort for the facemask user while preventing it from
loosening. Its washable structure and design are able to extend the usable
lifecycle of the facemask.
Silver
Medal: LCA-based Design Intervention Tool for Sustainable Textile Product
This project has developed a system to
facilitate an advance in evaluating a product’s sustainability properties by
estimating, at the product's design and development stage, the environmental,
human/social and animal impacts of its production processes based on selections
of material and production region. The system incorporates a massive amount of
raw data covering different fabric manufacturing processes from agricultural
production, to fabric finishing and finally to recycling. The original data
came from a wide range of materials, including relevant academic publications,
government and NGO reports, life cycle assessment (LCA) databases, company
reports and news reports. Formulas were developed from the data extracted and
assessed the secondary sources in order to unify the contributions from the
different sources.
An expert panel comprising senior academics, NGO experts and
industry specialists was formed to determine the weightings of 15 factors and 6
manufacturing processes. Users simply input the selected material and
production regions of each manufacturing process into the system, which
automatically generates a sustainability report.
Running from 11 to 15 April,
the 46th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, which is arranged
under the patronage of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the
Swiss Government and the City of Geneva, showcases innovations and inventions
from around the globe. The exhibition is an important invention exhibition,
attracting over 700 exhibitors from 40 countries.