PROCESS / MANUFACTURING TOOLS
THE LABORATORY
Equipped with low and high temperature laboratory machines, we make around 12,000 studies each year. Based on the spectrophotocolorimeter and the company’s database, dye formula will be tested on a 10 gr sample representative of the material on which industrial orders will be processed. The laboratory is also responsible for sampling the industrial production in order to validate, and corrects if necessary, formulas whose industrial application does not exactly correspond to the laboratory test.
DYEING PROCESS
The Company has 39 dyeing machines “Roto” or “Autoclave”, and a treatment capacity of between 20 and 600 kg. All of these machines are managed by a pilot system according to the recipe applied to the order being processed. These connected systems are themselves linked to a centralized management system, called ORGATEX. It enables the process to be monitored by machine and to optimize occupation time of each machine.
- Stringing and stitching end-to-end for free dyeing (fabric is in rotating movement in a machine
containing a static dye bath) - Stringing and stitching on “ensouple” for “autoclave” dyeing which is carried out in a pressurized
machine with a dye bath which is injected through the wrapped and inert fabric.
COLOURING DISTRIBUTION BY AN AUTOMATED PROCESS
In link with dyeing, colouring and drugs department is in charge to prepare and weigh colouring and necessary products to make dyeing formulas. This department is equipped with an automated dispensing machine that distributes directly colouring on dyeing machines.
DRYING, SPINNING, SQUEEZING
The free dyed fabric contains around 2 times its weight in water once taken out of the dyeing machines. It will then undergo 2 operations before being primed: spinned or squeezed and dried. If the spinning uses a centrifuge which will remove the water retained by the fabric, the squeezing will allow the same operation, using different types of machines depending on whether the fabric is tubular or wide / to open.
If the treated fabric is tubular, the compressed air which is blown inside the fabric tube will inflate it before it is pressed between two rollers exerting a strong pressure allowing to eliminate a large part of the retained water. For the fabric to be opened or wide, the machine will untwist the material before opening it, if necessary, and lead the fabric between two rollers exerting sufficient pressure to remove a large amount of water. A possible operation of spraying water under pressure, before the squeezing phase, makes it possible to remove the fiber particles remaining on the surface of the material, particles collected in a filter. This last treatment allows to collect these particles and eliminates them from aqueous discharges.
MECHANICAL FINISHING
- SCRATCHING: it will change the surface characteristics of the fabric, by removing fibrils or fragments of surface threads from the fabric and bring them to the fabric surface. To do so, the fabric passes over metal cards that fits rollers mounted on a rotating drum. Some work in the direction of hair, others against the grain with different speeds. These rollers are called “workers”. Machines count 24 or 36 rollers.
- EMERIZING: it modifies the surface appearance of the textile, passing the fabric over cylinders covered with emery paper, to obtain a peach skin effect.
- BRUSHING: it aims to modify superficial aspect of fabric, by passing it over carbon or ceramic brushes. This operation gives the fabric a silky touch to natural or soft cotton fabrics.
- SHAVING: it opens the loop of the knitted fabric and equalize the fibrils thus released in order to give the a regular aspect to the surface. This shaving is made with a machine equipped with a cylinder with helical blades and a knife to regularize the cutting height. This operation allows to treat the looped fabric which will be transformed into velvet fabric.
- COMPACTOR: it allows to block the mesh in order to obtain a better stability of the material.
- STENTER: mechanical finishing is made on the stenters from the company. The four machines are equipped with one or two scarves, depending on fabrics specificities which will be treated by these different equipment. The stenters are also used for drying (especially for batches dyed on autoclave machines), prefixing or even the finishing which gives the fabric its final dimensional qualities.
CHEMICAL FINISHING
- IGNIFUGATION
- WATERPROOFING
- SPECIFIC TOUCHES
- REINFORCEMENT / MAINTAINING THE MATERIALS
- ANTIBACTERIAL
- ENCAPSULATION
SOLVENT EQUIPMENT
Our Company owns a solvent extraction machine in a continuous process, which allows degreasing in a full bath of perchlorethylene the ecru fabrics, in order to remove the fats and oils deposited on the fiber during the spinning and knitting process. This allows a much-improved dye quality and prevents these hydrocarbons from being found in the aqueous dye or atmospheric effluents of the stenters.
QUALITY CONTROL
- VISITING: it consists in visually checking the fabric by scrolling on a luminescent table to detect, list
and report any defaults. The whole production of the factory is visited meter by meter. - CONTROL TESTS: During and at the end of the process, a series of tests is carried out to ensure the
quality of the treated materials: coloristic monitoring of the batches, control of the color fastness,
control of stability, weight control, mechanical resistance to wear, friction, sweat, elongation, etc.
All of this work seeks to comply with the specifications of each customer.