Thesara specialises in using components of mechanical and technology products to create the ultimate ‘Sustainable Indigo Dyeing and Functional Coating on Fabric’ machine Wisik technology for environmentally-conscious people, says Mr. Prabakar Chetti, Managing Director of Thesara Industrial Technology Private Limited.
Discussing exclusively with Samuel Joseph, Advisor (Editorial & Marketing),Textile Value Chain, Mr. Chetti conveyed a load of information through email interaction about his company & the scope of its technology…
Excerpts:
Overview
Our flagship technology, the ergonomic and user-friendly Sustainable Indigo Dyeing and Functional Coating on Fabric machine enables users to do functional coating and dye indigo on fabrics which will be aesthetically pleasing, more marketable, colouration and functionally correct and environmentally friendly.
The majority of the textile processing industry now spends on pollution control. With the ability to drastically reduce environmental pollutants, water consumption and effluents, our machine helps the textile processing industry to be free from pollutants, chemicals, hazardous wastes and be environmentally friendly.
Our team has already completed the research, and the working model is ready. We are now ready to technology transfer the new product development (machine).
A promising technology that helps mills and conventional dye houses make dramatic savings without the need of extensive investment in new plants. The innovation uses technology that assists dyes getting absorbed by textile fibers more rapidly, using less water and less chemicals during dyeing with zero effluent generation.
This unique set of features is also a very clean process that makes sure high quality results at much lower costs along with improved environmental acceptability and substantially reduces water and energy consumption.
Achievement& Scope
- Grant from Department of Science and Industrial Research (DSIR) Government of INDIA.
- Nominated for Start-up India 500 Award 2022
- Won Innovative Product on Denim Award by Indian Textile Fair 2021.
Many of the world’s largest textile-producing nations such as China, India, Bangladesh and Brazil who face three-pronged challenges.
One is facing acute water shortage and this salinated wastewater cannot be safely consumed orused for irrigation, and is harmful to aquatic life. Two, the public in all the textile-producing countries is becoming vocal about deteriorating water quality and the lack of sufficient clean water for homes and agriculture. Three, the people in the developed countries demand that the garments and textile products are eco-friendly.
This attitude change is putting pressure on brands and retailers to show that their supply chains are clean and transparent. Governments too have reacted by mandating more stringent environment legislation and by more strictly enforcing their pollution laws.
The prospect will be launching the world’s first ever industrial dyeing machine that uses reducing atmosphere (REDOX) to indigo dye fabrics with Wisik technology. The reducing atmosphere used in this process is used for the first time in industry and is safe and does not emit any harmful gases.
On top of that, the technology uses less chemicals and about half the energy of conventional dyeing techniques.
The benefits are huge:
- There is no water consumption, no use of chemicals.
- The investment costs are low, the machine produced lower operational costs and faster processing than traditional dyeing.
Deliverables
Innovative sustainable machine by using Wisik technology as the application medium to infuse colour into fabric with 99.9% less water. This completely eliminates waste in the textile dyeing process and will dramatically benefit the industry in future. We will keep on upgrading the process and improvements in efficiency to reduce the industry’s reliance on water.
The machine has low production cost, uses the existing workforce and uses generic parts available in the market. Even more promising is that this new and existing technology could potentially save more than 820 billion litres of water per year, which equates to 1.3 litres of freshwater per person per day in the major Asian textile processing countries.
Normally conventional functional coating and indigo dyeing involves large amounts of water,energy, chemicals, manpower and time. So, the process is neither cost effective nor environmentally friendly.
Solution
Wisik technology – functional coating and indigo dyeing on fabric (Patented)
- Highly sustainable
- Zero effluent generation
- Reduced health hazards with zero discharge rate
- Wastewater treatment and potential energy savings
- Environmentally friendly and economical
- Greater colour consistency and performance over time
- Highly efficient and easy to handle
This clean technology will speak for itself and it is time to make a difference. We believe in LESS! Is great with respect to Less water, Less Energy, Less Effluent, Less Chemical as we commit to ZDHC (The Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals). This preservation method will make a path for the future generations and shower us with three folded benefits: Planet. People.Profit.
Behind this technology, are experienced innovators in the textile processing industry. Located in Tirupur, with world wide appeal, The sara wishes to transfer technology so this machine can have a global reach in replacing the conventional machines.
Innovation Insight
The innovation relates to textile fabric processing machines, more particularly dyeing and functional coating machines. According to our invention, the dyeing and functional coating processes aid in the production of fabrics and garments.
Generally, most of the textile fabrics are produced either by weaving or knitting processes. The dyeing of textile fabrics is carried out in various forms such as yarn (in the form of hank cheese, cone, warp), cloth (woven and knitted) and garments. Most of the woven or knitted
fabrics are coloured or printed during the fabric stage or during garment production stage. We know there are a few unique processes available in this world admiring fashion. In that, one such unique processed fabric is denim fabrics. As per known denim manufacturing process, the yarn is dyed as rope dyeing or sheet dyeing.
We know that in the present-day denim fabrics dominate the modern fashion world. Irrespective of the gender or age differences, denim fabrics have been accepted by the whole world because of its uniqueness, comfort, etc.
Usually, denim fabrics are manufactured as woven twill structures; in that warp yarns are indigo dyed and weft or filling yarns are undyed cotton yarns. Denim is made from indigo dye referred to as vat dye. In the existing method of indigo yarn dyeing, normally the indigo dye stuff is loosely held as a layer form over the outer circumference of the cotton yarn. Due to the loosely binding nature of indigo dyestuff over yarn, during every washing, the indigo yarn fades differentially and provides a characteristic washed down appearance. This characteristic is pre-determinately expected by an end user in denim fabrics.
Though this package dyeing process is effective in most dyeing processes, the indigo yarn dyeing process is mostly carried out by surface coating method due to its inherent nature of best results. According to the known method of surface coating dye process, the multiple number of raw yarns made as rope or sheet form when passed through the series of indigo dye liquor baths, indigo dyeing is being done. And once the indigo dyed yarns come out from the baths,the dye molecules are oxidized by exposure to air between each bath.
As per this known art, the un-dyed spun yarn is commonly available in the form of ropeconsisting of a large number, for example 350 numbers of yarn threads (known in the art as”ends”) each of 8000 meters in length, wound onto a reel. The “rope” is fed into the series of dye baths as a continuous strip, traveling for example on pressed rollers, so that the rope becomes flattened to expose all the yarn surfaces to both the dye liquor and to the oxidizing air.
After the final bath, the rope is dried on heating means such as a hot roller. Further to impart strength to the dyed yarns, sizing process is being done which helps to avoid breaks during
further processes. It is then usually folded and wound onto a reel-like structure known in the art as a “back-beam”. A number of such back-beams are then wound side by side onto a very large reel referred to as warp beam, perhaps six feet long, having a large number of continuous yarn threads wound thereon in a generally parallel fashion. This is an ideal form and such a reel can then be loaded into a loom ready for weaving.
Whereas during manufacturing denim fabric through knitting, the knitting process will have only single weft yarn only, so, in the knitted fabric both side of the fabric will be dyed and due to the poor fastness of the indigo dye, when wearing a T-shirt our body will exposed to the dye and gettanned by the indigo. As mentioned, the indigo dyed yarn produced in this manner have many drawbacks such as: 1) for knitting process, yarn should be on a cone-type package, 2) more wear & tear between needles that leads to failures due to indigo dyestuff that flies in the shop floor and,3) lower productivity 4) limited shade possibility and shade variation 5) manufacturing feasibility in handling small quantity lots.
Hence considering these drawbacks, the innovation will provide a new method of denim manufacturing through the knitting fabrics and as a main benefit of the innovation, the process of indigo dyeing at the yarn stage is eliminated and redefined to apply the indigo dye over the knitted or woven fabric.
As per the innovation the indigo dyeing is being carried out in the fabric stage instead of the yarn form of existing known art. Then it would be greatly beneficial in various aspects such as yarn dye process elimination, sizing elimination, zero discharge, less water usage, less chemicals. lower production cost, shorter processing time, energy saving, small batch possibility, lesser space, etc,
Objectives of the Innovation
The principal objective of the innovation is to provide the indigo dyeing process by eliminating the existing indigo yarn dyeing process into an improved indigo fabric dyeing process on single side of the fabric, and possibility of dyeing with sulphur, pigment,reactive and vat dye too…
Another objective of the innovation is to provide an improved indigo fabric dyeing process that is suitable for effective indigo dyeing of both woven and knitted fabrics. Functional coatings like Flame retardant, Water repellent, Antiviral and Antibacterial etc., are also on the list.A further objective of the innovation is to provide an improved dyeing and coating arrangement that is simple in construction, ease of operation, better performance, less fatigue, user friendliness and can accommodate any of the predetermined positions in the process line to fulfil the requirement.
Uniqueness and Novelty
The novelty lies in the designing, fabrication and production of a sophisticated system that is ergonomic and user friendly which is able to dye indigo and functional coat onto the fabric surface which will be aesthetically pleasing, more marketable, and correct colouration at the same time being environmentally friendly.
- Direct fabric dyeing. Elimination of Yarn dyeing and sizing process.
- Versatility to apply any kind of dyes such as Indigo, Sulphur, Reactive, Pigment, etc.,
- Versatility to coat any kind of coating applications such as fire retardant, water repellent, antiviral, antibacterial, etc.
- Water consumption is very less. Around 1% is enough.
- Zero extracts discharge.
- Energy saving and Cost of production is significantly less.
- Shorter processing time.
- Small lots can also be done.
- Lesser machine space.
Innovator: Mr V. Prabakar Chetti
A brilliant innovator belonging to the engineering discipline, he is practically a celebrity in theworld of garment production, dyeing and textile processing with a reputation of 30 years touphold. He is kind and honest, and of impeccable ethics and very much interested in researchand developing new concepts in textile processing.
He started a garment washing factory in 1992 which is the first in the city and it ran for 8 years.Along the way, he started silk screen printing and introduced dry discharge over dyed fabric in1996. Also, in 1999 he started a garment dyeing factory where he introduced first of its kind ofpigment dyeing on garments.
Moral integrity is of paramount importance to him. It is for this reason that he found himself keeping up with new and exciting sustainable technologies across textile industries and he also started a dry processing factory where he introduced ‘Peach Finishing’ which is first in the city and at a later stage he also launched Zero Finishing for woven fabric in the year 2002. A promising approach caught his eyes in 2014 and he started R&D on application of indigo dye over knitted fabric and innovated new methodology and the rest is history.
He innovated reducing atmosphere – indigo dyeing on fabric as a platform to bring together new insights and business efforts to address constructive pollution issues in the textile processing landscape by assessing the impact of sustainable technologies, cheaper import substitution machines. He exploited this unique window of opportunity and as the result of his innovation strategies, Reducing Atmosphere – Functional Coating and Indigo Dyeing on Fabric was born. Simultaneously, he also developed a new technique on garment dyeing with pigment and reactive dye on cold process.
His unshakable allegiance to his principles and his ideals is a guiding light for a sustainable dyeing machine – a machine of interaction between environment and human and he used his expertise, training, and instinct to develop it from scratch.
Co-Innovator: Mr S. Senthil Kumar
Mr S. Senthil Kumar is from the background of a textile family who handles textile technology engineering. His experience in garment export helped improve sales leads, productivity and branding.
He built his company to scale by riding on the trend of fabric processing. Back when not, many knew what textile processing was, he capitalized on it by establishing a big facility in Tirupur. He made his business to be more structured and simplified, marketed his facility, and developed aniche for proprietary technology when he joined hands with Mr V. Prabhakar Chetti in the year 2002.
Since then, they have been traveling the road for innovation in textile processing. His knowledge and skills are essentially in technical areas which are vital to dry finishing. Not only that he also pursued his Laser Engraving on denim garments with single minded intensity. A gem of a man,he easily embraces the latest trends in technology and diversifies accordingly and is para mount for the innovation of Reduced Atmosphere – Functional Coating and Indigo Dyeing on Knitted Fabric machines.
Contact: Mr PrabakarChetti, Managing Director. M:+91 94422 57432.
Dr.Ganeshan Palani, Director.M:+91 99 40 750 103.
