MILAN – A Swiss-based dyeing machine builder has launched brand new technology that it claims can dye 100 per cent cotton and blended fabrics using as little as 17.5 litres of water per kilogram of fabric. This is a massive improvement on conventional cotton dyeing – where typically it can take between 50 – 100 litres of water to dye just one kilogram of fabric. The new machine is being used to jet dye open-width fabric wrapped around a rotating beam, which runs at speeds of between 100 – 200 rpm. The centrifugal force generated by the spinning beam extracts contaminated water from the fabric roll during the dyeing process and claims to give significant water, energy and chemical savings. John Mowbray reports from Italy.
