The textile dyeing and finishing industry is the
most pollutant and energy-intensive process in the textile supply chain. To
overcome these problems and meet the expectations of manufacturers and
consumers, sustainable technologies are being developed. Let’s check out the new
advances at ITMA 2019.
Loris Bellini
opens up a new eco era for yarn dyeing
To celebrate the company’s 70th anniversary, Loris Bellini showed a strong presence at ITMA this year with a
total of six exhibits.
According to Luca Formentini, partner of Loris
Bellini, the main protagonist which attracted the attention of the numerous
visitors at the show was the innovative yarn dyeing system Pulsar.
He said the Pulsar machine is the result of over
four years of intense research and development activity, as well as in-depth
field tests. It provides outstand dyeing quality and shades consistency.
An important feature of the Pulsar machine is its
sustainable advantages. It guarantees an impressive 70% electric saving, as
well as reducing the consumption of water, steam and chemicals between 20% and
30%. “Sustainability is one of the most important trends nowadays. The eco-friendly
solution represents our biggest bet for the entire dyeing process today, as
much as for tomorrow,” he highlighted.
“At
Loris Bellini, we believe technological evolution is the only true driver to
move ideas towards a higher level of efficiency,” he said. “Therefore, we have
continuously invested in R&D for new innovations. We have put around 20% of
our revenue on it.”
“To date, there are more than 150 Pulsar technology
machines installed worldwide.” Although initially it was born exclusively for
dyeing yarns and yarns in cones, this solution amply demonstrated that it is
also suitable for dyeing wool tops, as well as yarn beams. Pulsar is also
compatible with the ARSP Loris Bellini quick pressure dryer, an exclusively
designed system for drying bobbins after bleaching or dyeing.
Another machine with new improvement was ABEP 4
Hanks Spray-dyeing machine. It has a new lid opening with pneumatic cylinder.
In addition, the extractable arms can make the hanks loading or unloading
operation easily.
Commenting on the market development, he revealed: “China
is the most important market for us, accounting for around 30% of market share.
It is followed by India, Pakistan and Turkey. We have also made our presence in
South America and Europe.”
Pentek’s
resource-saving machines offer high-added value
Italian company Pentek demonstrated
three highlights at ITMA 2019. Andrea Prologo, International Business
Developer, Pentek Textile Machinery Srl., told CTA that the machines on display
improve fabrics quality and reduce energy consumption at the same
time, offering high-added value to customers.
Talking about the development of sustainability
of the industry, Prologo pinpointed that the starting point comes from the
consumers and they should be aware of the garments they are buying. At the same
time, the brands should encourage the fabrics producers to sell sustainable
fabrics while the technology suppliers should invest in R&D to develop more
resource-saving machines.
“I expect the recycling system will be the future possibility because the world
population is going higher and sustainability is definitely a major trend,” he
underscored.
He revealed that, in order to expand
production capacity, the company is building a new 6,000sqm manufacturing
factory near Florence. It is expected that the new factory will be completed in
January 2020.
“Our annual turnover is around €16-17 million. Among them, 90% is generated from the export market
while 10% is generated from the Italian market. We expect our turnover to grow
to €20 million by 2020 after moving to our new manufacturing factory,”
he said.
In the interview, he also emphasized the
importance of Chinese market. “China, together with Pakistan and turkey, are
the major markets of Pentek. In China, we have been experiencing constant
growth since 2014 and we are working with the top names of the industry. Nowadays,
Chinese customers are looking for quality products and it is for sure going to
be very positive for us who are selling machines that produce high quality
fabrics. And I expect China will grow in the finishing sector.”
As introduced, a major highlight at the booth was PowAIR. It is Pentek’s most performing dryer
within a continuous tumbler. The machine is equipped with an internal recycling
system, which enables to recover the majority of the air. This cuts off
dramatically the gas/steam consumptions (-50%) and brings the cost per meter to
minimal standards within a huge productivity.
Another highlight DreamAIR was designed to perform all specialty wet finishing which require high
mechanical action in a continuous process, with total repeatability and safe
from any crease mark, lustering or abrasion. It can handle various fabrics,
from silky goods to shirting to denim and bottom weights up to the new
cellulosic fibers and polyester, both on woven and knitwear.
Wanny was born as a modular washing unit
to rinse and neutralize fabrics after DreamAIR chemical processes. The huge
versatility, low consumptions of water and power as well as its continuous
mode, make it a valid alternative for
preparation for dyeing or preparation for printing. Wanny is now popular in China, Southeast Asia, India and Portugal.
CHTC Fong’s: Energy
saving enabled by smart manufacturing is the way forward
The CHTC Fong’s Group is currently making a huge
investment in the infrastructure and advanced automation technology required
for manufacturing next-generation Industry 4.0 dyeing and finishing machines in
China.
CHTC Fong’s produces some 250-300 stenter frames
and between 1,000-1,200 discontinuous dyeing machines every year, including
those made by its European companies and brands Monforts, THEN, Fong’s, Goller
and Xorella, all of whom will contribute their know-how to the new developments
in China.
Speaking during ITMA 2019, CHTC Fong’s CEO Ji Xin
said the company was making a very substantial investment in infrastructure in
Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, as the base for its new subsidiary, CHTC
Fong’s Intelligent Printing and Dyeing Machinery.
According to him, CHTC Fong’s has purchased some
76,000 square metres of land in Shaoxing City as the base for this new company,
and in addition has recently completed the second phase of construction at its
new Monfongs plant in Zhongshan, Guangdong, China
The new Zhongshan plant contains a dedicated
Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) for customer trials, as well as a miniature
smart dyeing factory.
“The trade dispute that has recently been taking
place between the US and China have had a significant impact on the world
economy and led to uncertainty in the market, but we believe high efficiency,
energy savings and environmental protection – enabled by full automation and
smart manufacturing processes – are the way forward in the long term,” said Mr
Ji. “Fully intelligent dyeing and finishing equipment will provide the high
quality and inexpensive textile products of the future.”
Biancalani develops water-saving washing machine based
on years of experience
Biancalani exhibited a
total of four machines at the booth, including three drying systems (Airo 24, Airbox,
Brio 24) and a washing system (Aquaria).
As introduced by Rossano Biancalani, President, Biancalani Textile Machinery, the new washing machine Aquaria was created
based on years of experience in treating fabrics by air.
“In most of our machines, the fabrics are always
treated by air. We dry the fabric and at the same time make it soft. Aquaria, which is a continuous and open-width washing machine, can wash all types of fabrics. As
we’re experienced in air treatment, we can use the air drying system also in
this washing machine,” he described.
Aquaria
keeps a very good mechanical action to the fabric. Besides, the air pushes the
water or the chemicals through the fibers of the fabric making it very clean.
This also allows the use of less water compared with other machines.
The Aquaria model can be developed into a
complete product line, such as including the module of washing preparation or
fabric rinsing, depending on customer’s requirements.
He was satisfied with the
response of visitors during the show. “This is only the third day of the show and
people arriving here have shown a lot of interests in the new
machine. Many customers who visited us during these 2.5 days are from India,
Turkey and China, which are our most important markets.”
“The Europe market is returning to be very
important for us. For example, there are a lot of Portuguese, Italian, French
and German visitors – maybe because they’re starting to specialise in some
particular sectors and our machines are good for specialised productions,” he added.
Benninger: Resource efficiency a major concern for the
industry
Benninger, a provider of advanced,
highly-developed textile finishing and tyre cord solutions for the global
textile, chemical fibre, tyre and conveyor belt manufacturing markets,
presented its latest developments at the booth.
According to Marcel Moser, Area Sales Director,
Textile Finishing, Benninger, resources saving is a very important topic to the
dyeing and finishing sector in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and
China. Water-saving, in particular, in China, is probably the most important
point right now.
In view of
this, the company presented its Benninger Küsters DyePad, which was the heart
of Benninger’s cold pad batch (CPB) system. The CPB dyeing process allows
salt-free dyeing of woven fabrics and knitwear without the use of energy.
“The system has been popular in China, although
the North African market is rising fast,” he commented.
In
addition, in order to give customers an overview of their production facility
at all time, Benninger has further developed the established management
information system Ben-iDATA. This allows the customer to query all important
machine data, the maintenance status and the ecological footprint of the
current production batch.
“After a few years’ development, Ben-iDATA has
become more efficient and can be connected to any Benninger
machine,” he said.
“Tools with the Industry 4.0 concept open up a
lot of new opportunities,” he observed. “There is now a trend towards preventive maintenance. Users can have closer
maintenance support through the tool, e.g. monitoring the temperature of the
motor, vibration of a gear, etc. It can also trigger the order of spare parts.
The maintenance cost could then come down.”
Mario Crosta offers innovative finishing solutions with high connectivity
Mario Crosta, an Italian specialist in the field of textile finishing, launched its new innovative and sustainable solutions at ITMA this year.
As introduced by Marco Crosta, President and Managing Director, Mario Crosta, the company launched a revised version of brush sueding machine LISA 4.0. It is made especially for knit fabric and synthetic fibers.
Another highlight at the booth was Polaris 28, a double drum raising machine which presents new applications for synthetic or performance fabric, especially knitwear and warp knit fabrics.
He said there were some new features in mechanical and electronic aspects under the company’s Industry 4.0 strategy – connectivity between machines. “I don’t think all the customers are ready for this at the moment, but we are getting ready before them,” he highlighted.
“More features of Industry 4.0 have been included in the machines, so that customers could connect the machine with Mario Crosta if they want.”
He revealed that the company exports more than 95% of its production every year. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, China, Vietnam and Uzbekistan are among its key markets.
Commenting about the current market situation, he pointed out that the US-Sino trade tension has brought uncertainties to the Asian market. “Customers are not rushing to invest because they don’t know what will happen,” he said.

Corino uncovers a new generation of automatic weftstraightener
Corino Macchine uncovered a new generation of SUPER N fully-controlled by PLC and managed by touch screens, offering the advantage of memorizing and recalling various machine settings and fabric recipes.
SUPER N is an automatic weftstraightener for all woven fabrics. It is capable to correct all types of distortions, diagonal, curved, sinusoidal and asymmetric, thanks to a simple but effective physical principle. The weft yarns are brought back to their original position by tensioning them transversally.
The company also showcased a re-styling of the SUPERSLIT rope opening/slitting line, which includes a completely new drop needle detection system as a further development of the GOLDEN EYE system.
The SUPERSLIT is also a favorite among many important Chinese knitting dye houses. The line offers outstanding performance as well as low fabric tension and fabric elongation.
MCS presents a spectrum of dyeing and finishing solutions
 With the theme “Feel the Power of Water”, Italian manufacturer MCS S.p.A. presented its wide range of dyeing and finishing solutions at the fairground.
One of the highlights was COMBY JIGGER 143 HT Open-Width Dyeing Machine. The machine provides maximum winding diameter up to 1.100 mm and features Inverter-controlled variable-speed pump.
MCS JIGGERs are very versatile machines allowing reduced processing cycles at very low consumption values. Ideal machine for any woven fabric, MCS Jigger can work at low tension (down to 10kg) with fibers of different thickness.
Another focus at the booth was the SOFTFLOW 18 HT Rope Dyeing Machine. The machine features pump suction with variable speed motor and preselected machine inclination. In addition, it has micro touchscreen and is possible to work in double rope.
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