The Southern India Textile Research Association (SITRA) and MAK India on Friday launched salt-free dyeing technology (Go Green SFD) for textile processing.
Manickam Athappa Gounder of MAK India told The Hindu that it was working with SITRA for nearly six years to develop the salt-free dyeing technology and signed an MoU with SITRA recently. It has now set up a plant at Karur to process fabrics using the salt-free dyeing technology. “We have completed the tests. We will do trial runs for a few days and then start commercial operations,” he said. The plan is to process nearly eight lakh kg of fabric a day by next June or July. The dyes can be used in cotton and cotton blends.
Minister for Handlooms and Textiles R. Gandhi, who launched the technology at the joint technology conference of textile research associations, said he has urged the company to come out with similar solutions for the leather sector too.
According to SITRA sources, under this technology, instead of catalysts that are used now in the dyeing process, chemicals will be used so that there is no residual salt in the end product too. This can be used in conventional processing machinery also. MAK India will have exclusive rights to use this technology for five years and non-exclusive rights for another five years.
