The Monforts Advanced Technology Center in Germany is home to cutting-edge machinery, technologies, and chemistries that work together to push the boundaries of sustainable solutions.
Mönchengladbach, Germany — September 24, 2024 —The future of sustainable textile finishing is being mapped out by a partnership that brings together the famous dyeing and finishing equipment from Monforts, the cutting-edge digital spray technology from BW Converting, and the sophisticated chemicals from Archroma to provide sustainable solutions.
The three businesses will work together to support the development projects of dyeing and finishing manufacturers, who are an essential component of the textile supply chain. This will improve the quality and performance of the finished products while optimizing the finishing application process’s productivity and resource utilization.
Monforts will install BW Converting’s full-width Baldwin TexCoat digital spray unit on a stenter frame at its Advanced Technology Center (ATC) at its headquarters in Mönchengladbach, Germany, to kick off the relationship in the second half of this year.
“We already have two complete Montex stenter finishing lines in our ATC, which are designed to handle a wide variety of processes. We also have a Thermex range for continuous dyeing of denim and other woven fabrics, a full color kitchen, and several lab-scale systems for smaller batch trials,” said Saskia Kuhlen, junior technologist at Monfort Associates. It allows our clients to test their own fabrics and technical fabrics in completely private, real-world production settings. Based on the outcomes of these tests, we can also offer suggestions for enhancing a variety of fabric finishes. What we can accomplish will be significantly enhanced by the new TexCoat installation.
By precisely applying chemistry, such as softeners, antimicrobials, durable water repellents, flame retardants, resins, and most other water-based chemicals across the textile surface only where necessary, on one or both sides of the fabric, TexCoat G4 transforms the conventional pad-dry-cure finishing process, which uses a lot of water and energy. Therefore, when compared to conventional pad application procedures, the system can save up to 50% on water, chemical, and energy use.
In order to achieve optimal absorption and maximum efficacy, surpassing the performance of traditional pad applications, the TexCoat G4 installation combines the surface functions, fabric transport, and thermal processing technology of Monforts stenter frames with Archroma’s specialty chemicals, applied with TexCoat’s contactless precision.
Michael Schuhmann, Global Marketing Segment Manager for Technical Textiles, Archroma Textile Effects, stated, “Archroma’s commitment to advancing sustainability solutions for technical textiles has led to a pivotal partnership with Baldwin, where the benefits of contactless precision spray combined with our innovative solutions have helped textile manufacturers achieve greater energy and water savings.” We are excited to bring in a known equipment expert to further strengthen our cooperation. We will collaborate to offer our global clientele the best of our knowledge in sustainable technologies.
“Baldwin has enjoyed a great relationship with Monforts and Archroma over the last few years,” added Rick Stanford, Baldwin’s Vice-President of Business Development for Textiles “Individually, we are working hard to assist our customers to achieve their sustainability and environmental targets, but this is the first time the three companies have committed to working together with a focus on bringing transformative change to the dyeing and finishing space. It will result in significantly lower energy, chemical and water consumption with increased productivity and higher quality. We strongly believe that this partnership will be greater than the sum of its parts.”
Beyond textile finishing, Monforts, Baldwin and Archroma will work together to develop a versatile offering that will include coloration concepts and in the not-too-distant future the partners additionally plan to expand their collaboration to continuous spray dye applications developed by Baldwin.
