Jet exhaust dyeing, dye baths, and others, these are all the rage when it comes to traditional textile dyeing methods. Textile manufacturers have been using these conventional dyeing techniques for hundreds of years. However, such traditional textile dyeing processes are increasing your operational expenditure (OPEX), directly impacting your bottom line. Here we will identify how traditional textile dyeing methods struggle with OPEX.
Hidden Inefficiencies in Traditional Textile Dyeing
Water and Chemical Overuse
Traditional textile dyeing methods are notorious for their high water usage. For instance, methods like jet exhaust dyeing involve submerging textiles in large vessels of water combined with dye solutions. With excessive water compared to the amount of textile in the vessel, jet exhaust dyeing wastes 72,000 cubic metres of water every year. Not only is jet exhaust dyeing demanding of local water resources but also increases associated costs, including water procurement and wastewater treatment.
Traditional dyeing methods struggle with high OPEX due to the significant costs associated with waste management. In traditional dyeing, dyes are fixed to fabric using chemicals and other fixative agents. These chemicals degrade water quality, causing large quantities of unused dyes and chemicals to be discharged as effluents. In addition to the environmental impact of effluents degrading water quality, it also results in you incurring additional waste management costs.
High Energy Consumption
The need to heat large volumes of water for both jet exhaust dyeing and dye baths to achieve desired dyeing results leads to substantial energy consumption. Jet exhaust dyeing involves heating vessels of water to temperatures of up to 135 degrees Celsius (often using fossil fuels), for both dyeing and washing. Whereas dye baths heat vats of water to temperatures up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit via direct heating with gas or electricity, steam injection, or heat exchangers. With the prolonged durations that these dyeing methods are in use for, combined with the fluctuating cost of energy supplies, lead to variable but high OPEX and a larger carbon footprint.
Labour Costs
Whether its managing machines in jet exhaust dyeing or monitoring dye baths, manual intervention is needed to oversee respective textile dyeing processes. The number of people required can vary per process and the hourly rate of pay for a textile factory worker varies per country. Ranging from over $3 per hour in Brazil to around $8 per hour in Portugal and averaging approximately $3 per hour across South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Taiwan). Such costs are driven by economic factors and ultimately add to your overall OPEX when dyeing textiles. What’s more, these costs will only increase considering the possibility of inconsistent colour quality and any reprocessing necessary.
Sustainable Textile Dyeing Alternative
Digital textile dyeing presents a more profitable, sustainable alternative to traditional textile dyeing methods. Transforming the textile industry and addressing the inefficiencies of traditional dyeing. By adopting our digital textile dyeing technologies you can reduce your total OPEX by up to 50% and labour costs by up to 60%. These are achieved by streamlining the dyeing processes digitally. Read more about it here.
Through our patented, unique digital technology, in both our digital lab dip Discovery and production-line Endeavour™ systems, you can dispense digitally defined nanolitre droplets of dye and penetrate fabrics. Enabling you to precisely apply the appropriate amount of dye, while ensuring consistently high-quality results. By implementing digital technology, there is minimal water and chemicals used in our digital textile dyeing processes, which significantly reduces your wastewater treatment costs. Leading the way in transforming a historically high polluting industry into a clean-tech, sustainable industry.
Traditional textile dyeing methods may seem like a convenient solution, but they come at a high cost - impacting both profitability and the environment. While OPEX costs for dyes, energy, and labour fluctuate based on economic factors and market demands, digital textile dyeing offers a smarter alternative. It challenges the status quo of high OPEX while aligning with the industry’s shift toward sustainability and clean-tech solutions.
Transition to cleaner, more profitable sustainable textile dyeing. Discuss with us at enquiries@alchemietechnology.com.
