Alchemie Technology, the UK innovator of waterless, low energy textile dyeing technology, has achieved significant energy and water savings by applying water and stain repellent to 280gsm polycotton twill workwear fabric using their NovaraTM textile finishing machine.
NovaraTM system saves 46% energy and 52% water for polycotton durable water repellent (DWR) fabric finishing, maintaining high performance after 20 washes.
A ground breaking innovation
When compared to the traditional padding method of fabric finishing, using Alchemie’s Novara single sided digital finishing process to apply HeiQ Barrier HM-C6 water and stain repellent chemistry saves 52% water and 46% energy.
This breakthrough provides workwear manufacturers with a more sustainable and cost-effective solution by allowing for a lower wet add-on, 31% versus 65% for padding, and a higher concentration of chemistry.
External laboratory tests confirmed that the HeiQ Barrier HM-C6 water and stain repellent achieved high functional performance even after 20 washes when applied using the Alchemie NovaraTM system.
Adding functional finishes
The Novara low energy, single-sided digital application system from Alchemie applies functional finishes at up to 20 times the concentration of traditional processes, with more even application and higher quality – saving money and improving efficiency.
Adding functional finishes to a single side of fabric rather than the entire fabric has the added benefit of keeping chemicals, such as insect repellent, to the outer side of a garment, away from the wearer’s skin. This is an especially important feature for workwear in industries that require permethrin treatment of uniforms, such as the military.
The Novara system’s energy saving system significantly reduces the high costs of textile finishing while also lowering CO2 emissions and pollution.
Alchemie estimates that replacing a traditional textile finishing padder with a Novara machine would save an average European textile finisher around €1 million per year.
Demand for workwear continues to soar across the world
Workwear demand continues to rise globally, owing largely to legislative changes. By 2030, the global workwear market is expected to be worth USD 27.36 billion. Over the last five years, the value of workwear imports into the European Union has increased by 4.8% on average.
“Our ambition is to transform workwear textile finishing to dramatically reduce its climate change impact by significantly lowering the amount of energy, water, chemicals, and chemical waste’’.
‘’With demand for workwear increasing every year it is important to address the use of energy and water in the finishing process. We have the technology to provide workwear manufacturers with huge energy, water, and cost savings” quoted by Dr Alan Hudd, founder of Alchemie Technology.
“The textile industry is one of the biggest polluters on the planet, yet it is also one that can achieve rapid amounts of positive change’’.
‘’We hope manufacturers will increasingly switch to these more sustainable and lower cost textile solutions” adds further.
Mike Mordente, business unit head, Textiles at HeiQ added: “We’re pleased to further our partnership with Alchemie Technology to prove that the Novara system works with our chemistry to produce high quality workwear finishes. Together we can provide a finishing solution which is better for the planet and can be more cost efficient’’.
Also read: Flame Retardant Textiles in Industries: The new-age Fabric
