By Arun Rao
The China-based Cleantech Solutions International, Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of a line of proprietary high and low temperature dyeing and finishing machinery that enables textile industry operators to meet the latest environmental standards.
Cleantech recently bagged patents for cover components of the hot air circulation system of its low emission air flow dyeing machines. The system helps to enhance the machines’ ability to produce higher quality textiles with a better look and feel.
The patents, issued by the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China to the company’s affiliate, Wuxi Huayang Dyeing Machinery Co. Ltd., provide exclusive use of the system components in the dyeing equipment for a period of 20 years to Wuxi Huayang, whose facility is also ISO certified.
The 1.1 m sq.ft. manufacturing site accommodates forging, fabrication, machining, assembly and finishing workshops to meet the manufacturing needs of an increasingly environmentally-driven, clean technology focused customer base. The facility is in a prime location in Jiangsu province near major transportation routes providing shipping cost savings and good response times to customers. It houses a state-of-the-art forging plant with an annual 50,000 ton capacity and features a 4,500-ton press and ring-rolling mill employing the advanced axial close-die forging technology.
In an exclusive interview to The Textile Magazine, Mr. Jianhua Wu, Founder and CEO of Cleantech Solutions, shared details on the latest environmentally friendly textile technologies offered to customers and the company plans to expand to other markets.
According to Mr. Wu, Cleantech has had particular success in designing and manufacturing a line of proprietary high and low temperature dyeing and finishing machinery that enables textile industry operators to meet the latest environmental standards.
Cleantech designs and produces airflow dyeing machines which use air instead of water. Water is used in the traditional dyeing process, while the air-flow technology is designed to enable users to meet stricter environmental standards, which results in reduced input costs, fewer wrinkles, less damage to textiles, and reduced emissions.
“Our airflow dyeing machine atomizes the water under high pressure. So our products can save two-thirds of water consumed by traditional models. We are also doing research on water-less dyeing machine. However it is still in the early R&D and trial stage, though we believe we have excellent environmentally-friendly solutions for the textile industry,” he explains.
Cleantech also offers after-treatment drying and compacting machine, which is used in the final finishing of knitted material such as cotton and is designed to improve softness, reduce shrinkage and ensure better dimensional stability.
The Chinese company is also currently developing a new garment washing machine for denim. Made of stainless steel and customized for use by Chinese jeans manufacturers, the machine features stone wash, enzyme wash and other water washing techniques.
“We believe that our machines offer superior quality and performance at an attractive price, relative to machines imported from Germany and the US,” Mr. Wu asserts.
Cleantech is also into other non-textile business segments. Asked how important the textile industry is for Cleantech, he said: “The textile industry is an important market for us, and China, our domestic market, is one of the world’s leading textile producers, generating significant demand for dyeing and finishing equipment. This demand has been accelerated by the need to upgrade equipment to meet increasingly stringent environmental policies, and our solutions continue to be an important part of equipment upgrade programs in the textile industry.”
The Chinese technology expert also offers a range of yarn dyeing machines, which feature a high degree of both automation and mechanical-electrical integration and are widely used in dyeing yarns made from pure cotton, cotton-polyester, terylene, polyester wool, poly-acrylic fibre, nylon, cotton ramie and wool yarn.
Cleantech currently operates only in China and South-East Asia, but hopes to extend to other Asian markets after the Shanghai Expo 2015. Mr. Wu believes that the company machines perform to world-class standards and compete in the China market with the very best imported alternatives, and so is optimistic of the machines being accepted in other markets.
Mr. Wu is of the opinion that the Indian market has great potential and the company is currently studying the customer needs and market environment in India. It is also of the opinion that in the future India will become the second largest market for Cleantech, after China.
When quizzed on the dyeing machines market, a highly competitive market with many global companies from Europe, China and Turkey dominating the industry, he said: “We have considerable experience supplying to the China textile industry, one of the world’s largest and an industry that is increasingly required to meet higher environmental standards.”
He added: “We believe our solutions are already ‘road tested’ in one of the world’s largest and most environmentally-demanding markets and our products are technically superior to those of our competitors, and we believe where quality is of a similar standard, our prices are hard to beat!.”