Textile Insight

activities, considered by the European Commission to be of zero or negligible risk. In the final stage of dyeing, the dye bath is heated to 95˚C for five minutes, which inactivates all of the microbes. The final wash step removes all biomass, resulting in a sterile, non-GM dyed product. Colorifix waste is compatible with existing waste treatment for the industry and poses no contamination problem. Compared with the standard dyeing process for cotton, Colorifix' technology reduces water consumption by 49 percent, electricity use by 35 percent, and CO2 emissions by 31percent. Based in Norwich, England, the company is currently serving a number of international textile mills. "Our customer acquisition strategy is two-pronged: engaging directly with manufacturers of interest or engaging with brands who then connect us with their supply chain," explains Alexandra Ting, outreach manager for the company. "After product launches with H&M and Pangaia, we are currently working with several other leading retail, luxury and sportswear brands who align with our sustainability values," she continues. "There has been overwhelming interest in more sustain- able and ethical products and practices from both brands and manufacturers (and the end citizen consumer), so the real challenge has been scaling up quickly enough to respond to the demand!" Dyeing Gets Efficient A global leader in specialty dyes and chemicals, Archroma has taken a number of steps to promote more sustainable dyeing, including a range of metal-free acid dyes; sulfur dyeing technologies that replace toxic reduction agents with glucose; aniline-free indigo; and a Love Nature X Earthcolors range of colors synthesized from plant waste. Steve Richardson of Archroma Brand Studio points out that there are misconceptions about natural dyes as they are not necessarily robust enough for functional commercial production, and color palettes are limited. They can require toxic mordants, or be sourced from food competitive crops. "We see the need to educate brands on dyeing technol- ogy. They don't have a baseline as they don't know what is in their supply chain," he believes. The company's One Way Impact Calculator is a process simulation and calculation tool designed to provide cus- tomers with an accurate estimate of the process costs, resource utilization, effluent discharge quality, and CO2 emissions of an existing production process vs. a newly evaluated system. Archroma's System Solutions engineers products to work together to save resources and reduce impacts for dyeing and finishing. For example, Fast Cycle is a particularly efficient Archroma system of disperse dyes that promotes rapid, right-first-time coloration of rPET fibers, using fewer resources and chemicals. "We are dealing with what we have today to take customers forward to better use of resources and tech- nologies," says Richardson. "There is great promise in new technologies, but fashion industry interest is slow. We need big leaps as well as incremental changes for billions of units." l Colorifix biosynthesizes the pigments found in nature. The Twine system digitally dyes small lots of polyester thread and yarn on demand. Photo: Mihaly Koles on Unsplash PERFORMANCE. FUNCTION. FUTURE. MATERIALS. TECHNOLOGY. PROGRESS. co-produced by Incorporated with Integrating Technology. Fueling Innovation. MAY 17 - 19, 2022 Atlanta, Georgia REGISTER NOW

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