Weko & RotaSpray to exhibit at ITMA Milan in June

“The worldwide textile industry is suffering from COVID-19 impact and the highly unsustainable use of water, energy and chemicals as well as an immense cost pressure,” said Jayanta Sanyal, head of technical sales and processes at Weko.

Weko and RotaSpray have therefore analysed today’s processing in dyeing and finishing mills to find out opportunities to increase sustainability, productivity and profitability.

Today one of the main dyeing processes is discontinuous and consumes a high amount of water, production time and drainage. The existing solutions for continuous dyeing ranges are consuming high energy, chemicals and generating a high load on the effluent treatment plants. Also in a conventional continuous dyeing range a cost and scrap efficient production of small lots is nearly impossible while the market demands for it, the company said in a press release.

This gap could be closed by using a minimal rotor spray application method from German companies Weko and RotaSpray. These technologies combine a lot of benefits such as low pick-up, no tailing (contact-free application), stable and precise production, low drainage, strong reduction of energy costs, no centre-side-variation, no hydrolysis, substantivity or incompatibility issues and single and both side dyeing.

The rotor spray technology could be used for reactive, Sulphur, pigment, VAT and disperse dyeing on fabric or denim yarn stage. The key solution beside the special spray technology is the set up of new processes invented by Weko and RotaSpray. For example, the PS² process instead of the classic PDPS process, or PSB35 instead of CPB and many more.

PS2 process could save up to 1.350 tons of CO2-emission every year and could reduce start-up scrap rate by 90 per cent compared to the classic PDPS process. For denim slasher dyeing a new process of a compact slasher dyeing range was recently developed and will be promoted during the coming ITMA 2023. The latest development along with partners is a continuous Polyester Disperse and Pigment dyeing process using another newly invented technology: Weko-Spray +Weko Dry-E + Weko Fix-E.

The Weko Dry-E and Weko Fix-E technology is a combination of advanced near-infrared (aNIR) light energy, high performance management of the NIR energy and a precisely controlled moisture extraction.

The aNIR principle reacts fast with comparatively low energy. The technology is still proven in a lot of other industries and works with electromagnetic waves which have the highest energy densities and effect molecules of various substances much faster than a cotton, viscose or polyester fibre.

Weko Dry-E and Weko Fix-E are based on a pure electrical power supply. Therefore these units can be easily used with renewable energy sources to realise a carbon neutral production.

The system could be used on diverse dyeing and finishing lines and unfolds its biggest potential by combining it with a minimal rotor spray application system. Think about the energy saving which could be only reached by immediate start/stop function and format setting. Additionally in a lot of processes like typical stenter frame drying the water molecules are extracted up to six times faster. “This could be a real big step forward in textile processing to reduce the carbon footprint,” added Sanyal.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)