From the Sector

Sateri has entered into agreement with Funing Aoyang Technology Co., Ltd. (Funing Aoyang) to acquire its viscose fibre business. The acquisition is part of Sateri’s growth strategy which will bring Sateri’s total number of viscose mills in China to six and total annual production capacity to more than 1.8 million tonnes.

Funing Aoyang is a subsidiary of listed company Jiangsu Aoyang Health Industry Co., Ltd. Its 330,000-tonne per annum mill that will be acquired by Sateri under the agreement, is located in Aoyang Industrial Park, Funing County, Jiangsu Province. Sateri is a member of the RGE group of companies; RGE manages a group of resource-based manufacturing companies with global operations spanning Indonesia, China, Brazil, Spain and Canada.

Allen Zhang, Sateri’s President, said: “This acquisition will boost Sateri’s market footprint and further strengthen our ability to serve customers in eastern and northern China. We will invest in advanced technologies to upgrade the mill so as to enhance its process technology, safety and environmental performance. Through better management and operational excellence, we hope to make a positive impact to the local economy and accelerate the sustainable development of the industry.”

The closing of the acquisition is subject to procedural approvals by relevant authorities.

• The new platform created for b2b / b2c online sales entirely dedicated to the business of denim.

The year 2020 witnessed an acceleration in the importance of online sales. It is now clear to anyone involved the business of sales that e-commerce represents the future.

That’s when the creative idea by Laura Pianazza, founder of DENIMAZING (combination of DENIM and AMAZING), was launched on the platform powered by VELVET.  Its prime objective is to help small and medium sized companies to increase their online sales, focusing on the development of marketing strategies in an omnichannel environment thanks to an intelligent balance between technology and professional experience.

Laura Pianazza derives her professional experience from the editorial sector, where she was active for many years on a European level for a trade magazine specialized in the denim business. Thanks to this background, she was able to develop a strong network of contacts with entrepreneurs, top management and marketing agencies. Her constant interaction with customers shed light on the digital challenges present in most Italian companies: firstly, the fragmentation of services offered online and, secondly, the lack of integration between technology and marketing strategies. The latter is the one most often neglected by firms and Laura recognized many risked not being well prepared for this transformational shift in business by investing little time and at a slow pace.

The DENIMAZING project works side by side with denim fabric manufacturing companies (b2b), finished product brands and distribution companies (b2c), all with the same common denominator: denim. A unique service assisting raw materials manufacturers in finding market niches in companies that create product, who in their own right would like their brand to be seen and sold to a growing customer base. In the b2b landscape, companies can sell their own fabrics by the meter thanks to their own 3D presentation and customers can virtually visit their showrooms. Similarly, brands will have the same possibility to sell their creations as on a real e-commerce site, thanks to virtual tours in their showroom and specific areas for sales and/or chatting/videocalls with end-customers. Instead, for companies providing supply chain services (coloring, washing, etc.), individual virtual rooms will be made available inside the marketplace, in order to speak directly with sales managers from brands and the fabric companies.

The business side is just one aspect of this project. Thanks to its partnership with the marketing and online sales agency VELVET, DENIMAZING grows based upon a series of key tasks during different phases, namely: platform construction, marketing and advertising, both traditional and via web and social medias.

Not only has Laura has added a series of high-level technology/web master courses to her experience, but DENIMAZING also brings together a team of qualified professionals having a longtime experience in different fields of the denim business: sales, entrepreneurs, web design and marketing, while the end-customer will be in direct contact with the headquarters for assistance, customer care and updates.

Devan is launching a new range of bio-based fragrances, named SceNTL®. The range uses traceable raw materials and an external lab has confirmed that the bio-content of the fragrances is above 85%.

SceNTL® is a unique and wide range of encapsulated fragrances that can be integrated onto the fabric and are gradually released over time. Upon release, the fragrances appeal to the senses, promoting relaxation, wellbeing and feel-good sensations.

While synthetic fragrances are composed of synthetic, man-made ingredients, natural scents and oils are created by isolating natural aroma components from raw plant materials. This also explains why every SceNTL® batch can have a slight variation in smell. As natural conditions differ from time to time, every harvest is a little different from the previous one.

Although aromatherapy is still a young and understudied domain, recent studies have shown that essential oils can indeed have neurological effects. Linalool for example, a component found in Lavender and rosewood, is found to enhance sleep, while Limonene, a component found in the peel of citrus fruits, is clinically proven to have an uplifting effect.

At this moment, the SceNTL® range is intended for low-wash items such as mattress ticking, decorative pillows, upholstery, curtains, carpets, etc. It can also be used as a natural ‘masking scent’ for products that have a strong artificial smell caused by the production process. The company is already looking into further development of other scents and broader application use.

• Major Monforts denim customers continue to pioneer new initiatives that are pushing the boundaries of sustainable production.

Recycling their cotton waste has become one way these companies can do more with less, and at the recent Kingpins24 Flash online event, Sedef Uncu Aki, director of Orta, headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, announced a new partnership with leading recycling operation Gama Recycle.

Traceable
“Through this local partnership we will supply the waste from our spinning mills and return around 3,000 tons of premium quality cotton back to them,” she said. “We have established a truly controlled and traceable system and partnering with a domestic recycling centre is important because a lot the carbon emissions associated with recycling usually come from transportation.”

Orta’s ZeroMax range meanwhile uses no cotton at all, being based on Lenzing’s Tencel cellulosic fibre, while the company’s involvement in denim production for a recent launch by Levi Strauss, of jeans made with organic cotton and Circulose – a breakthrough material developed by re:newcell of Sweden and partners – was hailed as a further step forward.

To make Circulose, re:newcell repurposes discarded cotton textiles, such as worn-out denim jeans, through a process akin to recycling paper. The incoming waste fabrics are broken down using water. The colour is then stripped from these materials using an eco-friendly bleach and after any synthetic fibres are removed from the mix, the slurry-like mixture is dried and the excess water is extracted, leaving behind a sheet of Circulose. This sheet is then made into viscose fibre which is combined with cotton and woven into new fabrics.

Circular Park
Omer Ahmed, CEO of Artistic Milliners also announced plans for his company’s new 70,000 square-foot Circular Park in Karachi, Pakistan, at Kingpins24 Flash.

Once complete, this will add three million square metres of additional denim capacity a month to the company’s production and take its total recycled output to a monthly five million metres.
Ahmed observed that there is currently a lack of sustainable fibres that are readily available to use for denim production at scale.

“Organic cotton is too expensive, and in my opinion always will be,” he said. “Cottonised hemp is also not cheap and it’s hard to mix with cotton, while the new regenerated cellulose fibres that are now emerging are promising, but currently in short supply. Recycled polyester is meanwhile still based on petroleum resources which we want to move away from. As a consequence, there are only a few other options for us as a manufacturer and this new project will help us minimise our own waste while significantly lowering our carbon footprint.”

Other Monforts denim customers to introduce cotton fibre recycling operations at their plants recently include AGI Denim, Bossa and Soorty.

Vertical savings
Refresh is the name of the latest collection from AGI Denim – reflecting the company’s significant reduction in water consumption.

The company has just opened new fibre spinning and denim mills at its complex in Karachi, Pakistan.

“Over the years we’ve gone through a series of backward integration steps to become fully vertical,” said AGI Denim executive director Ahmed Javed, at Kingpins24 Flash. “In our latest expansion, we revisited every step of the production processes in order to make resource savings.”

Innovations have included the installation of proprietary robotics for garment finishing, but the most attention has been paid to water savings.

“Pakistan is one of the largest cotton-producing companies in the world and we’re fortunate that the type of cotton that is grown here is well suited to denim production and also helps us lower our carbon footprint, with everything done in close proximity,” Javed said. “In the lifecycle of a pair of denim jeans, however, cotton fibre production contributes 68% of water consumption. While we cannot control how much water cotton needs for it to grow, we can rethink the way we use it in our factory.”

Refresh-branded denims are washed from 100% recycled water as a result of the company’s new wastewater treatment plant, which puts production wastewater through a series of steps beginning with equalisation, followed by aeration and concluding with sedimentation. The water travels through filtration and ultrafiltration systems before being subjected to an activated carbon system and finally a reverse osmosis system to reduce any dissolved salts.

AGI now recycles 4.4 million gallons of water each month – enough to wash a million pairs of jeans.

Sustainable
Monforts has a leading position in the field of denim finishing with its well proven Thermex continuous dyeing systems, Montex stenter dryers and other lines for resource-efficient and economical processing.

“Our denim partners are constantly setting themselves new goals in respect of sustainable production – and more importantly, achieving them,” says Hans Wroblowski, Monforts Head of Denim. “We work closely with them with the aim of constantly optimising processing parameters and achieving further savings in energy, water and raw materials throughout the dyeing and finishing stages of production.”

The latest Monforts innovation for denim is the CYD yarn dyeing system. This technology is based on the effective and established dyeing process for denim fabrics that is now being applied for yarn dyeing. The CYD system integrates new functions and processes into the weaving preparation processes to increase quality, flexibility, economic viability and productivity. A full CYD line is now available for trials at the company’s Advanced Technology Centre in Mönchengladbach, Germany.”

From the drinking water and food industries through water management and mining to the automotive and aviation sectors, mechanical filtration processes are used in almost every industry. As different as the methods, dimensions and special requirements of the filtration process are in each case – technical textiles and often tubular filters are almost always used. This means that tubular filters and narrow textiles by vombaur contribute to the safe and reliable separation or treatment of substances in the widest variety of filtration processes.

Individual solutions
The requirements placed on the textile, the material, the flow rate and the loading capacity of the filters depend on the respective use: a tubular for dewatering soil needs to withstand different forces than a tubular filter for the beverages industry. On the other hand, the latter needs to meet the highest hygiene standards. Because the requirements are so individual, vombaur develops customised filtration textiles for its customers all over the world.

Seamless tubular filters
At vombaur, filter media are round woven seamlessly on unique looms. As a result, they have identical surface properties all around and over the entire length, such as flow rate, loading capacity, shrinkage behaviour or material thickness

Narrow textiles for fabricating filter media
"We manufacture our narrow textiles from a wide variety of high-tech yarns. Sometimes monofilament yarn is used, sometimes multifilament, sometimes spun yarn. Like the type of weave, we select the raw materials depending on the function they need to fulfil," emphasises Gert Laarakker, Sales Manager at vombaur. "So that our filtration textiles reliably perform the job they are supposed to perform. Clean. Safe. Sturdy."

Hologenix, creators of Celliant®, infrared responsive technology, and Kelheim Fibres, a world-leading manufacturer of viscose specialty fibers, have partnered to launch Celliant Viscose at ISPO Munich 2021. Celliant Viscose is a finalist in Best Products by ISPO and will be showcased in the Fibers & Insulations Category for ISPO Textrends, where realistic views and 3-D simulations will be available for each material.

The introduction of nature-based Celliant Viscose will be the first in-fiber infrared sustainable solution on the market and meets a consumer demand for more environmentally friendly textiles. An alternative to synthetic fibers and extremely versatile, Celliant Viscose blends beautifully with cotton, micromodal, lyocell, wool varieties including cashmere. It also has many applications across industries as it is ideal for performance wear, luxury loungewear, casual wear and bedding.

Celliant Viscose features natural, ethically sourced minerals embedded into plant-based fibers to create infrared products that capture and convert body heat into infrared, increasing local circulation and improved cellular oxygenation. This results in stronger performance, faster recovery and better sleep.

Celliant Viscose provides all the benefits of being a viscose fiber — lightweight, soft, highly breathable, excellent moisture management — as well as fiber enhancements from Celliant infrared technology. Celliant’s proprietary blend of natural minerals allows textiles to capture and convert body heat into full-spectrum infrared energy, resulting in stronger performance, faster recovery and better sleep. In addition, Celliant is durable and will not wash out, lasting the useful life of the product it powers.

An Affordable, Long-lasting Solution with Diverse Applications
As opposed to other IR viscose products which are coatings based, Celliant Viscose’s in-fiber solution increases wearability and longevity with a soft feel, durability from washing and longer life. The combination of Kelheim’s distinctive technology and the Celliant additives creates this unique fiber that provides full functionality without the need for any additional processing step — a new standard in the field of sustainable IR viscose fibers. This single processing also makes Celliant Viscose more cost-effective and time-efficient than coatings.

In addition, Kelheim’s flexible technology allows targeted interventions in the viscose fiber process. By modifying the fiber’s dimensions or cross sections or by incorporating additives into the fiber matrix, Kelheim can precisely define the fiber’s properties according to the specific needs of the end product.

Highly Sustainable
Celliant Viscose is a plant and mineral-based solution for brands seeking an alternative to synthetic fibers. It contains natural raw materials that are from the earth and can return safely to the earth.

Nature-based Celliant Viscose is certified by FSC® or PEFC™, which guarantees the origin in sustainably managed plantations, and is part of the CanopyStyle initiative to protect ancient and endangered forests. The production of Celliant Viscose takes place exclusively at the Kelheim facilities in Germany, complying with the country’s strict environmental laws and guaranteeing an overall eco-friendly product.

Backed by Science
Celliant is rigorously tested by a Science Advisory Board composed of experts in the fields of physics, biology, chemistry and medicine. The Science Advisory Board has overseen 10 clinical, technical and physical trials, and seven published studies that demonstrate Celliant’s effectiveness and the benefits of infrared energy.

For more information, visit www.celliant.com/celliant-viscose/

• "Dibella up" records its first big success

Aalten, "Dibella up" is bearing its first fruits. Since the launch of the recycling concept initiated in August 2020, six tons of sorted laundry items have already been returned to Dibella and converted into new ones by the company in farsighted reuse projects. The customer who has been involved in the project from the very beginning is Lamme Textielbeheer from Nederhorst den Berg. The Dutch textile service provider sees the initiative as an important measure for more appreciation of resources.

Dibella has taken the closed-loop approach of the textile service as a model and has taken a step towards a completely closed cycle with the "Dibella up" project. The system includes unlimited reuse and recycling of the fibre raw materials bound in the textiles. To this end, the company's own textile qualities, which are selected from laundries, are taken back and passed on to selected upcycling projects. Polyester-cotton blended fabrics are processed there into high-quality bags. Pure natural fibre textiles as well as blended fabrics with at least 50 percent cotton are chemically converted into an important raw material for cellulose fibre production, while the remaining polyester is still being thermally recycled for technical reasons.

Six tons of laundry from the Netherlands

Lamme Textielbeheer was immediately enthusiastic about the "Dibella up" initiative. The committed company has been involved in various Dibella sustainability projects for many years and recognises the future-oriented character of the new project. "Our will to cooperate was immediately clear after Dibella's managing director Ralf Hellmann presented the upcycling project, because we see it as an important measure for the prudent use of resources," reports Jan Lamme, managing director of the company of the same name. "Within a very short period of time, we therefore jointly started to take back our discarded, no longer usable old textiles. In this way, we have already been able to return six tonnes of laundry for a new product cycle. This corresponds exactly to our idea of upcycling!". "Dibella provides stable, reusable cartons for shipping," says a delighted Frank David, Lamme's Assistant Operations Manager. "This makes collection much easier for us and we don't have to take any means of transport out of our laundry".

Prepared for the mega-trend of recycling management

Dibella would like to build on the initial joint success and further expand the initiative for a closed textile cycle in the industry. "The awareness of sustainability is high in the textile rental service. But the next mega-trend is already emerging. The future lies in closed-loop recycling. With "Dibella up", we are offering our customers the opportunity to get involved now and make resources usable in the long term. We are happy about every new cooperation partner who appreciates the value of textiles as much as we do".

Sicomin’s latest marine collaboration with Sonntag Fins sees its industry leading GreenPoxy® 33 bio-based epoxy resin used for custom carbon fibre windsurf fins - combining speed, fatigue performance and sustainability for some of the fastest sailors afloat.

Targeted at windsurf slalom sailors, racers and speed sailors, each Sonntag fin is a custom made product, tailored specifically to the user based on a discussion about riding style, physical size and weight, as well as how the rider likes to load the fin whilst sailing.  This attention to detail and bespoke manufacturing places a huge importance on the performance and consistency of the raw materials used, with all new materials having to be validated in production, on the test rig in the lab, and on the water by the team riders.

With this in mind, Sonntag Fins approached Time Out Composite, Sicomin’s German distributor,  looking for a new resin system that could reduce cycle times and improve manufacturing output.  Bio-based systems were discussed, but the first product used by Sonntag was Sicomin’s SR1280 laminating system which delivered immediate results, enabling shorter cure cycles, and exceeding all of the previous mechanical test targets.

In 2020, Sonntag and Time Out Composite revisited the topic of a more sustainable epoxy resin system. It was the perfect time for Sonntag Fins, with their new unique bright green UV resistant outer finish, to go green on the inside too with Sicomin’s GreenPoxy® 33 resin.

Test fins were produced with the new material performing well in production trials. Pure resin samples were also tested and post-cured at 140 ̊C, with the new GreenPoxy® 33 samples showing significantly higher elongation at maximum resistance, meaning the cured epoxy was less brittle and susceptible to damage should a customer’s fin meet a rock. With mechanical properties improved, Sonntag switched production to GreenPoxy® 33 in August 2020.

Sonntag fins are manufactured in CNC machined aluminium moulds using GreenPoxy® 33 and a bespoke lay-up of woven, stitched biaxial and heat-set unidirectional carbon fibre fabrics in four steps:
• The first step in the moulding process is the application of Sonntag’s unique green in-mould coating.
• Next, the individual fabric plies, cut using precisely machined templates, are placed into the mould and then wet-out with the low viscosity epoxy. With the laminate stack complete, the mould is closed and loaded into a heated press for around 2 hours to consolidate and cure the fin.
• After curing, the demoulded fins are tempered in an oven at 140 ̊C, then only a light sanding is required to create the final surface roughness for optimum flow characteristics in the water.
• Finally, the fins are cut to the required length and the base adapter is molded to the epoxy-carbon blade in a specific mould.
With each fin being optimized for its rider, it is critical that each piece produced will bend and twist in exactly the way it has been designed to do so, providing the rider with exactly the feel and feedback they want for their board and fin. Each Sonntag fin is tested on a unique CNC controlled servo and stepper motor driven test bench that Joerg has developed, building a database of test results that not only ensures the products perform as designed but also validating the consistency of the manufacturing process and raw materials.
“We produce high-performance windsurfing fins that need to accommodate significant loads during sailing. Fins need to combine flexibility with extremely high torsion stiffness that places high interlaminar shear forces on the resin, especially in our softer fins.” commented Joerg Sonntag, MD, Sonntag Fins. “A key requirement for us is a resin that maintains its mechanical properties for many years, and this is where the Sicomin systems deliver”

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, has been recently ranked number 1 in the “industrial chemicals” list published by the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) for driving transparency in their supply chain.

Archroma also entered the Top 50 of companies in IPE’s Green Supply Chain CITI Evaluation, at the 47th position. The evaluation dynamically assesses brands on the environmental management of their supply chains in China.

With a wide array of products used every day, everywhere, the company is committed to operate along the principles of “The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient, enhanced, it’s our nature”. The Archroma team is therefore committed to sourcing safe and sustainable raw materials and intermediates from like-minded partners.

Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO of Archroma, recently delivered a message at the IPE 2020 Green Supply Chain Forum online, and commented: “As industry leader, we have the responsibility to keep on addressing the climate challenge, and to do everything we can together to reduce our impact on the environment. This is where the approach of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs supports us. They encourage us to challenge our suppliers in terms of safety, health and environment, and to go even beyond our own strict policies and processes.”

• Conservation and Biodiversity Information Now Available

Asia Pacific Rayon’s (APR) Follow Our Fibre is a blockchain-based tool that allows users access to information in real-time on the source of the raw materials in their garments and the origination of the fibre.

Launched in May 2019, the platform is now refreshed to include information of its suppliers’ conservation and biodiversity efforts, taking information transparency and richness to a new level. The refresh comes at a time when the fashion industry, through the Fashion Pact, is beginning to embrace biodiversity as a core focus on its agenda.

Follow Our Fibre now maps APR’s supply chain right down to locations of forest plantation concessions and conservation areas. The textile fibre producer’s suppliers are collectively responsible for the conservation of more than 3.12 million hectares of forests around the world, including boreal and peat swamp forests. These protected forests have rich biodiversity like the elusive Sumatran Tiger and Canadian Boreal Caribou, and provide ecosystem services, including 22 rivers and tributaries totalling over 900km.

“It is vital that we work with our supply partners to protect and strengthen forest landscape conservation areas rich in flora and fauna, and home to threatened and endangered species for today and future generations. These efforts are part of APR’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) 13 on Climate Action, and 15 on Life on Land,” said Cherie Tan, Vice President of Sustainability and Communications.

By providing a snapshot of the forest landscapes and biodiversity, APR hopes to quantify its ecological footprint and, as a next step, seek opportunities to partner its stakeholders to further strengthen forest conservation and enhance biodiversity in areas it sources from. Follow Our Fibre reflects the company’s long-term objectives for sustainable pulp sourcing and responsible manufacturing, and is a tool for its customers and stakeholders to trace finished products back to forest plantation origins, as well as monitor the environmental performance of APR’s supply chain.