422 JSDC DECEMBER 1971 ; BOWDEN

Establishment of Complete Bleaching, Dyeing, Printing and Finishing Plants J. T. BOWDEN

Mather & Platt Ltd, General Machinery Division, Park Works, Manchester

The work done by machinery manufacturers from receipt of an enquiry to installation of a complete beaching, dyeing, printing and finishing plant is described. Two hypothetical plants are used to illustrate the technical and economic factors which must be taken into

account in determining what machinery IS to be used.

The textile-machinery business nowadays tends to be divided into two categories: (1) the supply of single machines for replace-

enquiry, and it is then necessary to determine the requirements by discussion. Important details which are required include:

nient, mode&ation and expansion, and (2) the supply of complete plants. In the U.K., where the textile industry has been shrinking rather than expanding, most orders are for single machines for replacement or modernisation. Complete new plants in new buildings on new sites, which have been established in the spinning and weaving sectors of the industry, have been few and far between, for reasons which are well known.

Overseas, there has been enormous development of local textile industries, and a textile mill is usually very high on the list of investment priorities for a developing country (probably second priority, after the establishment of a national airline!).

Two reasons for the relatively rapid development of the textile industry overseas are (1) it is a means of reducing imports, with consequent savings in foreign exchange and improvements in the balance of trade, and (2) considerable numbers of relatively unskilled people can be employed quickly. Although the textile industry in the U.K. today would probably be regarded as capital- intensive rather than labour-intensive, in countries where labour is very cheap and tariff protection can be given against imports, productivity is not the prime consideration. The establishment of a local textile industry is usually a matter of great local pride and is often considered as the first beginnings of industrialisation.

The impact of these developments over the last few decades on the textile industry in the U.K. can be gauged by comparing the production of woven cotton fabrics in 1913 with the relevant figures for 1969. In 1913, out of a total production of 7750 million yd2, 7100 million yda were exported. In 1969, out of a total of i600 million ydZ, 700 million yda were exported. Thus, exports in 1969 were less than onetenth of those in 1913.

However much one may be tempted to look back with nostalgia at the great days of the production of woven cotton fabrics in the U.K., the trend has been there for the last 50 years for all to see, and developing countries will continue to install their own finishing plants, relying less and less on the importation of lower cost fabrics. However, as their own standards of living rise, their appetite for more expensive and sophisticated fabrics will increase and, owing to the levels of demand and the ‘know-how’ involved, these more sophisticated fabrics will be supplied by imports from the U.K. and other countries which are more technically advanced.

In this paper all references are to complete plants for the finishing of woven fabrics, as it is felt that there is more scope for the discussion of finishing in this sector.

Enquiries for complete plants arrive from a variety of sources and by various routes. In some cases a complete specification is received, whereas in others the quantities of fabrics by type which have to be processed are indicated, and it is then necessary to plan the most suitable plant.

To supply a quotation for a complete plant requires a great deal of work, usually over a long period, and it is not unusual to find the specification changed on more than one occasion after tenders have been prepared.

When the quotation is for a plant for the production of I variety of fabrics for which production figures are given, much information is required. Often this is not submitted with the

(a) All known details about the fabrics to be handled, e.g. grey width, grey weight, weave and fibre or fibres

(6) Colour processing to be carried out, i.e. whether the fabric is l o be white, dyed or printed, together with details of the colourj and styles required for the market

(c) Details of any particular requirements for quality control 0 1 colour or finish, e.g. Sanforized, Teb-X-Cel, Koratron anti colour-, light- and wash-fastness standards

( r l ) Days to be worked per year; hours to be worked per d a y ; shift system to be worked

(e) Site details such as area, shape, altitude and existing or proposed

(f) Service details such as amount, quality and reliability o f water supply, effluent restrictions and fuel supplies available 01- proposed (steam, electricity, gas, oil)

(g) Any conditions of climate, labour or marketing which might influence the layout or efficiency of the proposed plant.

In addition, at this stage, hand samples of loomstate and finished fabrics, corresponding in weave, weight and coloiir styles to the range of fabrics to be processed in the plant, are required. Some of this information may not be available, but I need hardly stress that the economic viability of the plant will depend largely on the accuracy and detail of the process and marketing information made available. Once the information is obtained, the plant specification is produced. From the details supplied, the machinery which meets all needs most etkctively, in respect of volume of production and quality of finish, for optimum capital cost is decided. This will be presented as a plant layout showing fabric flow and preferred processing techniq ties, together with a detailed list of machinery, with costings.

During discussion, machinery requirements, processing flows and plant cost may change, and, at any major change in reqiiire- ments or flows, the scheme will be revised with respect both to technical requirements and costs. There are certain general rules in determining the technical requirements: flexibility of machine layout or use is, in most plants, preferable and, in commission plants, highly desirable; no one machine should be able, by break- down, to impede overall production seriously; the machine balance should be such as to give minimum ‘dead’ time.

When negotiations have reached a favourable state, i.e. agreement has been reached about the amount and type of machinery and services to be supplied by a particular date and at a particular price, the exact details of machinery, services, date and method of payment for them are incorporated in it contract. After thorough discussion and agreement the work is started. With a large or sophisticated plant supplied to an under- developed country, the services mentioned frequently include training of key personnel, particularly engineering workers, in the machinery maker’s own works, It is particularly advantn- geous to deal with such trainees while equipment for which they will be responsible is being assembled and tested, so that they become thoroughly familiar with it.

Successful execution of the order, entailing delivering, erecting and commissioning the plant in accordance with the terms of‘ the contract, which may well involve a ‘penalty’ for late delivery, is not an easy operation and requires very careful planning and strict supervision to ensure that the plan is carried out.

ESTABLISHMENT OF WET-PROCESSING PLANTS 423

In a complete plant there may be machines which must be purchased from another supplier, and for the other machines ‘bought out’ components, some of which have long delivery times, e.g. bearings and gearboxes, will have to be obtained. As soon as the order is confirmed, however, immediate action will be taken to order the ‘bought out’ items where delivery may be critical. Following this, plans will be drawn up, which will be monitored by bar charts or the use of critical-path analysis, to make certain that drawings and lists are available to the works when needed and that materials and ‘bought out’ items are available at the right time to ensure that the machinery is manu- factured, tested and packed for shipment by the date stipulated in the contract.

As one of Scotland’s national poets wryly observed ‘the best laid schemes 0’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley’, and it is essential therefore that all ‘bought out’ orders are followed up by keeping in touch with the outside suppliers at regular intervals and, where necessary, visiting them to ensure that they keep their promises and to hear as early as possible of any late deliveries so that action can be taken to deal with the problem.

Normally the contract would allow for erection of the mach- inery by the buyer’s mechanics, under the supervision of the machinery manufacturer’s fitters, and for ‘dry commissioning’, i.e. mechanical testing of the machines without fabric. ‘Wet commissioning’, involving the processing of the customer’s fabrics to his own standards of colour and finish, would not normally be covered by the contract, but if desired a textile finishing technologist could be provided to assist in starting up the plant and establishing suitable processing techniques.

Occasionally, a client wishes to set up a plant specialising in a particular finish, e.g. flame-resistant, rot-resistant or other chemically based finish, and in most cases it is possible to offer an ‘akin’ contract providing for, in addition to machinery, technical assistance in establishing the plant, operating instructions, specialised personnel training, and a guarantee of achieving an agreed standard of finish. Such ‘all-in’ contracts are, as yet, exceptional, but are expected to increase substantially in number in the next decade.

So far I have only described, in general terms, the organisation and methods of meeting needs for finishing equipment, and now I would like to discuss one or two typical examples of plants. These are hypothetical plants; they do not relate to any existing one. First let us imagine a fabric manufacturer south of the Equator who is making and selling about 3 million m of woven cotton fabric each year. His market has been conservative in taste, demanding only hard-wearing plain dyed fabrics for shirt- ing, blouse wear, dresswear and work-wear, in roughly equal proportions. He expects the market demand to change in the near future towards crease-resist properties for the lighter blouse, shirting and dress fabrics, but not the work-wear fabrics. Although he is currently having his fabric finished on commission, he has decided that a finishing plant of his own would be econ- omically viable.

Having decided this, he asks two or three machinery makers to submit quotations for equipment. He requires equipment only for a bleaching, dyeing and finishing plant that will process per year: 1 million m of white and dyed 100 g/m* singles cotton poplin, suitable for blouses or shirts; 1 million m of dyed 135 g/m* plain weave fabric (cotton) for dresses; 1 million m of dyed 170 g/mz cotton twill suitable for work-wear. Widths of all fabrics to be up to I m finished. The 100 g/ma fabric is to be finished mostly white, with a small proportion, not more than 25 %, dyed to pastel colours. The 135 g/m* fabric is to be dyed in light to medium depths-no whites. All of the 100 and 135 g/mz fabric, but none of the 170 g/m2 fabric, is to be resin-finished. All dyeings are to be ‘fast dyed’, but no specifications are made as to type of colour or standard of fastness. Resin-finished fabrics are not required to conform to any internationally recognised

standard of fmish such as Koratron or Teb-X-Cel. No fabrics are required to conform to Sanforized shrinkage standards. The plant is to be operated 300 days per year, working one 10-h shift per day.

Assuming a 50-min hour to allow for contingencies, such as breakouts and machine stoppages, the production requested entails an average production rate per machine of 20 m/min, and equipment suitable for cloth widths up to 1 * 2 m would be as follows:

Preparation One singeing machine, linked with desize quench mangle and batcher (geared up to five times 20 m/min) One four-compartment open-width washing machine with high- pressure fmal nip and batch delivery (geared up to five times 20 m/ min) One pad-roll impregnating, steaming and batching unit (geared up to four times 20 rn/min) plus three batching chambers One chainless mercerising range, comprising a saturator of capacity 15 m, a stabiliser of capacity 15 m, one acid compartment, one cold- wash compartment and batch delivery (geared up to two times 20 m/min) One set of eight steam-heated drying cylinders, with accelerated drying and combined plaiter-batcher delivery (geared up to three times 20 m/min)

One three-bowl dye padder with large trough and. batch delivery (geared up to three times 20 m/min) One two-bowl dye padder with small trough and batch delivery (geared up to three times 20 m/min) Six jig dyeing machines One squeeze mangle linked with one set of eight steam-heated drying cylinders, with plaiter-batcher delivery (geared up to three times 20 m/min) One cloth-reeling and examining machine (geared up to 20 m/min)

Finishing

Dyeing

One finishing range (geared up to four times 20 m/min), comprising three-bowl mangle with long immersion trough, set of four Fluon- coated drying cans, mounted overhead, weft straightener, clip stenter with 30 ft of hot-oil indirect heating, air cooler, batch-plait delivery Ten mobile batching trolleys One two-compartment open-width washing machine with final high- pressure squeeze nip and batch delivery (geared to two times 20 m/ min) One spray damping and batching machine (geared to four times 20 m/min) One three-bowl frictioning and finishing calender (geared to four times 20 m/min) Two cloth-examining, measuring, and reeling machines (geared to 20 m/min)

The client and yourselves will probably not agree in all respects with the choice of equipment, but I should like to comment on it, as follows: (1) The singeing unit would operate only during a small propor- tion of the total production time. (2) The four-compartment washing range would be used three times-after desizing; after scouring; after bleaching; hence the number of compartments, heavy-squeeze nip and high gearing. (3) Open-width preparation is desirable for these fabrics. Not more than 50% of the fabric would need two-stage preparation, with caustic scouring followed by peroxide bleaching, so that it is doubtful whether the production would justify the use of continuous processing techniques. Pad-roll semi-continuous preparation techniques are indicated, in preference to jig pre- paration. (4) Much of the material will need treatment with caustic soda either to obtain optimum colour yields or to obtain optimum balance of properties after resin finishing. Lustre is not so important for work-wear fabric, so a small chainless merceriser is preferable to a comparatively expensive chain merceriser. ( 5 ) One stack of drying cans is adequate to dry all the fabric once, and this is mounted as a separate machine for flexibility of processing.

424 JSDC DECEMBER 1971 ; BOWDEN

(6) We have assumed that the colours and fastness requirements suitable for these fabrics in this particular market would be satisfied by vat and reactive dyes and that there are no local conditions, such as likelihood of service contracts, which would make continuous dyeing feasible. Accordingly, jig and pad-jig equipment would be sufficient for flexible handling of moderately short runs per colour. (7) The clip-stenter range may seem somewhat large for this plant, but we envisage it being needed to d o the following jobs:

Resin impregnation, pass over cold cans, stenter dry for moist cure on batch (two-thirds of production) Finish-impregnate the cured and washed fabric, part dry on cans, stenter dry and batch (two-thirds of production) Finish-impregnate non-resin-treated fabric, part dry on cans, stenter-dry and batch (one-third of production). These opera- tions will all need to be carried out at speeds considerably higher than 20 m/min to enable the average production speed to be attained on this machine.

(8) A conventional polymeriser is not included in the proposed equipment, but this could be supplied if the client preferred to carry out conventional pad-dry-bake resin finishing. ( 9 ) No shrinking machine is included in the proposals as a range of this type could not be justified for an annual production of 1 million m of work-wear in a market which is not shrinkage- quality conscious. The resin-finished blouse, shirting and dress fabrics can be given adequate shrinkage control for this market without mechanical shrinkage. (10) Mobile large batch trolleys to be supplied as noted. Plaiter trucks to be made locally.

A somewhat different enquiry would be that from an organisa- tion in Latin America intending to establish a commission finishing plant and expecting to receive substantial government backing. The production requirement for this plant is to be of the order of 20 million m of fabric per year, of which half will consist, at tirst, of cotton fabric and the remainder of rayon and cotton-synthetic-polymer blend fabrics. Half of the production of cotton fabric is to be light- to medium-weight fabrics, in widths up to 120 cm, suitable for men's wear, e.g. shirts, slacks and coats. Most of these cotton fabrics will be superseded within five years by polyester-cotton blend fabrics in similar weights, widths and styles, and so the plant must be able to accept this change without major re-equipment. The other 5 million m of cotton fabric is t o comprise a range of medium to heavy furnish- ing fabrics in coloured woven and printed styles and widths up t o 140 cm. A third quarter of the production is to be made up of medium-weight, moderate-quality dyed spun rayon fabric, mostly fairly wide (up to 160 cm) and used for outerwear by the Indians of the hill country. Finally, the seiioras and seiioritas are to be catered for by approximately 5 million m of lightweight dyed or printed blend fabrics in widths up to 1 m.

1Jp to 75% of the men's wear fabrics, whether cotton or polyester-cotton, is to be dyed in light t o medium depths and up to 100% of these fabrics resin-finished. All the wide spun fabrics are to be dyed, in medium to heavy depths, and all resin-finished. Up to 50% of the women's print fabrics are to be resin-finished but none of the printed or coloured woven cotton furnishings, which will all be mechanically finished, t o Sanforized-shrunk standards. Moderately good standards of fastness to light and washing should be attained on all these fabrics.

I shall not attempt to enumerate every piece of machinery required for a plant of this size but just mention and comment on the major items, Prqxration*

( ( I )

( I ) )

(c)

One singeing machine plus desize quench mangle and hatcher (geared LID to 150 ni/min) dne open-widththree-compartment washer, heavy final nip, large batch delivery (geared to 115 m/min) One open-width high-pressure continuous preparation range coni- prising caustic-peroxide saturator,single-roller-bed Vaporlocpressure

'All machines suitable for widths up lo 1.8 m. unless stated otherwise

chamber (Mather & Platt), threecompartment washer, heavy tinal nip, large batch delivery (geared to I15 m/minJ One double-mangle, clip-chain mercerising range with 5 0 4 stenter, four-compartment washer, large batch delivery (geared to 80 m/niii i and for widths up to 1.4 m) Water mangle and drying cylinders, plaiter-batch delivery ( I 8 cylinders in three stacks with accelerated drying, geared to 1 I5 m/min)

Dyeing? One pad-steam dyeing range comprising three-bowl dye paddeI, hot-flue dryer, two-bowl chemical padder, roller steamer, developing and washing range, batch delivery (geared to 80 ni/min) One thermofix dyeing range comprising two-bowl horizontal dye padder, infrared predryer, hot-flue dryer, polymeriser, cooler. batch delivery (geared to 45 m/min) One three-bowl dye padder with separate batch lake-off in line with hot-flue dryer (both geared to 45 m/niin) Three dye jiggers Three winches Water mangle and drying cylinder (16 cylinders in two stacks) (ge i i~ -d to 80 m/min)

Printing$ One brushing, stretching, balching range (geared to 80 ni/niin) One rotary-screen printing machine with eight screen units and hi)!- air dryer One rotary-screen printing machine with six screen units and hot-ail- dryer One universal festoon steamer of capacity 200 ni, suitable for hoth high-temperature steaming and saturated steaming, with t w o plaiters (suitable for two widths of 80cm fabric or one width ol' 140 cm) (geared up to 100 m/min) One five-compartment open-width soaping and washing range wilh heavy final nip and drying cylinder (eight cylinders with acceleratcd drying) (geared up to 80 miniin)

Finishin&:* * One range with three-bowl pad-mangle, weft straightener, pin-clip chain with 40 ft of circulated hot-oil heating, cooling, plaiter-halcli delivery (geared to 80 m/min) One range with three-bowl pad-mangle, predryer with six k'luon- coated drying cylinders, clip chain with 3 0 4 steam heating, hatch delivery (geared to 80 m/min) One steam-heated roller baking stove of capacity 120 cm, plaitel batch delivery (geared to 80 m/min) One brushing and damping unit (geared to 80 nilniin) One three-bowl frictioningandfinishingcalender (geared to 80 m/riiin ) One controlled compressive-shrinking range for widths up to I .4 111 (geared to 80 m/min)

The reasons for suggesting this equipment can best be outlined as follows: (1) Although rope preparation would be feasible in the first few years of the plant's life, the declared policy of moving towards a substantial proportion of polyester-blend fabrics makes opcn- width preparation equipment preferable froin the outset. The considerable amount of cellulosic or cellulosic-blend fabrics means that a high-speed continuous high-pressure preparation range capable of handling cellulosics, or their blends, in alkalinc scouring o r peroxide bleaching (or both) would be preferable on the grounds of process requirements and cost. This unit would be able t o handle the indicated production, giving the men's cellulosic wear a two-stage caustic-peroxide treatment, the rayons a single-stage alkaline scour and the furnishings and some of the blends a single-stage combined caustic-peroxide scour-bleach. (2) All the men's cellulosic wear, most of the furnishings and probably half the women's wear would need mercerising, i.c. 12-13 million m per year, which would justify a medium-length clip merceriser operating on three shifts. (3) The quantities of fabrics for dyeing (5 million in of men's wear, 5 million m of spun rayon outerwear, and up t o 5 million i n of women's wear and cotton furnishings) indicate that continuous dyeing techniques are preferable if the runs per colour are moderately long. In this market the runs for men's wear and rayon outerwear will certainly be long, and the types o f fahric tall machines suitable for widths up to 1 . 6 in. unless stated otherwise $All machines suitable for widths up to 1.4 m, unless stated otherwise **All machines suitable for widths up to 1.6 m

ESTABLISHMENT OF WET-PROCESSING PLANTS 425

would be most profitably handled by a small pad-steam range for vat dyes, a small thermofix range for disperse dyes and a moderate amount of batch dyeing equipment for direct, reactive dyes, etc. (4) Selection of printing equipment is difficult as in this plant the proposed production-5-6 million m per year of cotton furnish- ings and lightweight dress goods-is hardly sufficient to warrant a fully equipped, competently staffed printing department. Although the proposed qualities would be handled well by con- ventional roller printers, we consider that the printing production will have to be increased substantially within ten years, to be economic, and would suggest initially two rotary-screen machines. ( 5 ) Only one versatile steamer can be envisaged for the initial production and for that reason we are suggesting a universal

steamer suitable for vat, reactive and direct dyes on cellulosics as well as disperse prints on synthetic-polymer fabrics. (6) The pin-clip stenter range is included to handle eventually the setting of cellulosic-polyester fabrics at about 40 m/min (on clips) as well as resin-impregnation and drying of men’s wear (on clips), rayon outerwear (on pins) and prints on women’s wear. (7) The clip-stenter range is to handle the non-resin finishing of the furnishings and prints on women’s wear. (8) None of the resin-finished fabrics is to be washed after curing. The market does not demand it and indeed the hill-country Indians find the odour of formaldehyde attractive.

The two plants described are typical of the type of projects with which machinery manufacturers become involved. (MS. received 1 April 1971)

Discussion Mr J. S. SCHOFIELD: Has the necessary emphasis on export

business by British textile machinery manufacturers contributed to a lack of development for British customers? In recent years there has been a growth in the import of textile machinery and almost all the most striking developments in knitting, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing have come from abroad.

Mr BOWD~N: Although I would not agree entirely with Mr Schofield, I think that he is right in suggesting that the necessary emphasis on export business has created problems for the British textile machinery manufacturers as far as development is concerned.

A healthy and expanding home market is normally a pre- requisite for a successful machine-manufacturing industry. In the U.K. the difficulties of the textile industry over the last decade or so have created problems for the machinery manu- facturer, particularly when one considers that most of the machin- ery exported has been sold to developing countries4ounlries where cotton is still predominant.

However, as Mr Buxton said in the previous paper, developing countries insist on the most advanced and sophisticatedmachinery and indeed one of the many reasons for our recent success in Libya was the design of our latest open-width washing machines. Water consumption is obviously very important in such a country, particularly when the water available is extremely hard and costs a lot to treat.

In short 1 agree with Mr Schofield that it is not easy for mach- inery makers to develop machinery if most of their business is overseas. However, some British manufacturers have managed to do this despite the difficulties and I think most recognise that development is the key to future success.

Dr J. V. BUTCHER : In the context of co-operation in machinery manufacture and development, I would like to say that we, for our part, have enjoyed excellent support from our U.K. suppliers no less than from our overseas suppliers.

Mr M. A. S m r L E Y : Developing countries will eventually invest in textile machinery manufacturing companies; how does the speaker expect to combat this challenge?

Mr BOWDEN: Developing countries have already invested in their own indigenous machinery industries. Many years ago our best markets in the world were Brazil and India. Both are virtually closed to us now either by extremely high import tariffs or by total prohibition of imports.

As a company we have met this challenge in the only way possible---by establishing our own manufacturing units abroad. This isn’t always easy owing to the size of the local market and problems in company capital structure and the remittance of royalties or profits from overseas.

However much we machinery makers regret this development, it is one that we have had to face for some years now.

Mr P. G. NOBLE: This question links with the paper given by Mr Buxton. Both the previous speakers have been dealing with the impact of simple cloths produced on a large scale and at low cost in developing countries upon the textile industries of the developed nations. It is the very large yardage of low-cost products which has the dramatic effect and often the low cost is due partly to low labour cost and modern machinery, but also to the pressure for these countries to obtain currency to enable them to buy equipment for their own internal development. In fact, many of these countries require the cloth themselves for the well-being of their own population and require currency for international trade. The problem is also one calling for consider- able international generosity and planning, whereby the cloth from these territories reaching the world market should be sold at prices similar to those in the using developed countries, with thedifference beingaformoftariff ear-marked for the international trade of the producing country. This would, of course, mean some form of central purchasing control and the use of existing margins, for example in the U.K., for distribution at this higher price. Be- sides increasing the money value of the exports, it would consider- ably reduce the amount of cloth exported, thus leaving more for use in the poor nation. The effect of this form of indirect taxation upon the economies of the developed countries would be very small, as at present one frequently feels that many of the benefits of imported low-cost cloths are not wholly received by the ultimate purchaser, the housewife.

Mr BOWDEN: Mr Noble has made a very interesting suggestion and one that I have not heard before. My immediate reaction is to suggest that market forces are so strong that the law of supply and demand will operate regardless. Unfortunately, however philanthropic the motives you will always find someone breaking the rules.

We have tried various means of reducing overseas customers’ dependence on hard currency for machine purchase. Barter and switch dealing are ways of doing this, but, although we do business this way, it is not easy, as one generally finds that people only want to barter goods for which there is no ready market. (After all, if we can get hard currency for the goods it is likely that the customer could also have done so.)

The problem of cloth export by manufacturers overseas and the effects on the home industries in western countries is an extremely vexatious one. The more thought that can be given to it the better and Mr Noble’s suggestion is certainly an interest- ing one.