114
|
The Textile Magazine
SEPTEMBER 2011
and finishing. Open-width greige
knitwear is now ‘slit’ and washed
in a Bigwash filter tank prior to heat
treatment through the Monforts
stenter featuring twin padders.
Selvam provides a wide range of
dyed knitwear, including, for exam-
ple, 100 per cent cotton, interlock,
single jersey, rib, honeycomb and
fleece.
The company has also recently
introduced a number of blends in-
corporating polycotton, polyester
or viscose. It is also starting to pro-
vide dyed lycra blends, which de-
mand heat set treatment that can
now be carried out in-house.
Fabric weights handled through
the stenter range from 110 gsm for
single jersey to 300 gsm for fleece.
Using its conventional dryer for
tubular knits, Selvam had been
dyeing up to 7,000 kg/day made
up by 4 t open-width and con-
tracted out for heat setting, plus 3
t tubular knit. “The new 8-cham-
ber Montex stenter will process up
to 15 t/day,” said Mr. Raju. “This
additional capacity will not only in-
clude our own in-house open-width
production but also knitwear from
other local dyers for heat set treat-
ment.”
Producing dyed knitwear for both
ladies and gents fashion-wear, end
customers include GAP, M&S, AG,
Mack and Ferro.
Open-width demand
He said: “We started to notice ex-
porters were beginning to express
an open-width preference in 2009,
offering less wastage. Savings of as
much as 3 per cent can be made
with open-width production com-
pared with tubular finishing. Fur-
ther, with conventional dyeing tech-
niques, the unit can only be used as
a dryer. The Monforts stenter is a
multi-purpose unit offering drying,
heat setting, curing, coating and
finishing.”
Additionally, the stenter can effi-
ciently apply heat setting and fin-
ishing to both sides of the fabric.
During the finishing process, sof-
teners, for example, can be ap-
plied.
“By offering heat treatment in-
house we can guarantee ‘real’
quality with stenter quality control
procedures, with no variation in the
superior quality finish,” Mr. Raju
added.
w
corporate news
Mr. S. Raju,
Selvam Process