Huntsman and Brueckner symposiums in Pakistan

Being held against a backdrop squeeze on processing margins, environmental issues and  steep increases in costs of raw materials, utilities, power and labour, besides the perennial bottleneck in processing, the symposiums made an effort to highlight “Innovation” as the solution to the problems faced by the textile processing industry.

The symposiums outlined the recent innovations made at HUNTSMAN with respect to both the dyes and chemicals and the successful branding concepts created around this platform of Innovation.  Huntsman is represented in Pakistan by Swisstex Chemicals (Pvt) Limited.

The Reactive dyestuffs developed specifically for continuous processes (Novacron C) and it’s advantages over the conventional Reactives were elucidated and highlighted.

The recent blockbuster breakthrough innovation from Huntsman – Reactives with shades and behaviour similar to Vat Dyes, ie. Novacron NC – specially for “Earth Tones” which makes use of the Non Contrasting concept (Yellow, Brown, Olive & Grey) in place of the conventional & contrasting hues of Yellow, Blue & Red held the audience in rapt attention.

The above innovations, which also result in considerable savings in water, energy and salt costs coupled with complete reproducibility and reliability was much appreciated by customers.

On the finishing front, the features and advantages of the new Global Branding concept – High IQ, launched across different platforms like Easy Care Plus, Cool Comfort, Freshness, Active Comfort, Sun Protection, Sun Protection for Kids and Lasting Colors were explained.

Besides the competitive advantages to the customers arising out of Huntsman’s alliances with Invista (DuPont) for branded oil & water repellency (Teflon), with Schoeller Technologies (for branded double sided effects – 3XDRY) and with Thomson Research Associates (for Silpure antimicrobials based on Silver chemistry) were also highlighted.

Bruckner is represented in Pakistan by Nazer Industries. The symposium was conducted by Axel Pieper,  Uwe  Kunze and Volker von Eitzen and Abbas Mooraj

The Brückner Group has established itself as the worldwide leading technological systems partner for complete finishing and coating lines for all kinds of woven, knitted or technical textiles.

Today the brand name “Brückner” stands for “Quality made in Germany”. So far more than 5000 machines are installed all over the world.

The Brückner experts highlighted during the symposiums the unique features of their state-of-the-art technologies.

Their new Continuous Dyeing range has set new standards in continuous dyeing. Brückner has completely reengineered the two core machines of the continuous dyeing process:

v     The infrared pre-drying unit POWER-INFRATHERM and

v     the hotflue POWER-COLORTHERM.

Both machines can be considered as the most modern and sophisticated machines of their kind.

The benefits of this new technology for the textile finisher are: maximum colour-uniformity across both width and length, elimination of colour shade variations and migration, crease-free production, and 100% reproducibility of quality results thanks to full automation of all machine parameters.

The Brückner POWER-COLORTHERM is suitable for all dyestuffs: vat, vat-disperse, reactive and reactive-disperse.

For reactive dyes Brückner can also offer the ECO-STEAM configuration. In this dyeing process the colour fixation takes place in a humid environment with 25% relative humidity and a temperature between 120-130°C. The benefits of the ECO-STEAM process in comparison to other well known dyeing processes are given on the next page.

Besides its new technology for continuous dyeing, Brückner also presented its innovations for functional and technical textiles.

Both functional and technical textiles are highly innovative fields, which can offer great opportunities for textile producers to differentiate themselves from their competitors via value added products.

As a provider of complete systems solutions, Brückner can offer all the necessary application and coating technology as well as the technological know-how transfer and process technology.

Universal Coating Range with Double-Face technology

HUNTSMAN and BRÜCKNER have jointly developed chemical recipes and machine concepts for the “Double-Face Technology”.

This new technology involves a new universal coating line with can produce multiple functional effects in one machine pass saving thus energy and costs. Typical examples for Double-Face textile effects are:

Such textile effects require special impregnation and coating machinery like: padders, kiss roll applicators, knife over air / knife over roller coating heads, rotary screen printing machines or others.

All Brückner ranges, whether Continuous Dyeing Ranges, Stenters, or machines for Coating or Technical Textiles are tailor-made to meet every specific requirement of discerning customers.

The symposiums received overwhelming response from  over 150 participants including the “who-is-who” of the Textile Processing industry attending at either of the various locations. 

The great interest reflects that the cooperation between the chemical industry and the textile machine manufacturer is the right concept to provide value added products and services to the textile industry.

Dr. Michael Effing from Huntsman and Mr. A. Aziz Nakhuda from Swisstex Chemicals also spoke at the occasion.

Other speakers include Mr. Abbas Mooraj, Abrar Mooraj and Mr. Luqman Mooraj from Nazar Industries and Mr. Axel Pieper, Uwe Kunze and Volker von Eitzen and Ulrich Gassan from Bruckner Group

Mr. Azhar Majeed Chairman of Arzoo Textile and Mian Mukhtar Chairman of Sadaqat Textile Mills Ltd with Abbas Mooraj at Faisalabad event.	Mr. Abbas Mooraj with Mr. Aslam Parvez. Commercial Officer, Swiss Consulate General in Pakistan and Aziz Nakhuda.	Mr. Axel Pieper and Mr. Nadeem Mazher  with Mr. Manfred Schulte-Austum, Mr. Idrees (Textile Commissioner) and Mr. Abbas Mooraj in the background.

Special thanks to Mrs. Petra Lehner from BRÜCKNER Trockentechnik GmbH & Co. KG for editorial coverage.

Mr. M. Idrees Ahmed Textile Commissioner comments

Mr. Mohammed Idrees Ahmed, Textile Commissioner of the Government of Pakistan, was the chief guest at the symposium on re-engineering in textile processing.

According to Mr. Idrees, the textile and clothing trade has a very promising future. The trade has increased from US $ 212 billion in 1990 to US $ 530  billion (textile 218 and clothing 312) in 2006. The clothing trade is growing at a faster rate. Pakistan exported textiles worth $7.47 billion and clothing worth $3 billion in 2006.

Developing countries now account for half of world textile exports and almost three quarters of world clothing exports. The future market shares would depend on price and quality advantage where efficiency would be the main driving force. Simulation results have shown that Pakistan will be one of the few developing countries which will retain its competitiveness in international textile trade.”

Mr. Mohammed Idrees said that the textile industry will continue to be the main driving force in the industrial and agricultural area. It contributes above 66% to the total export earning of the country, accounts for 46% of the total manufacturing and provides employment to 38% of the manufacturing labor force.

He also mentioned that “Pakistan’s textile industry has proved its strength in the global market during the last four decades. It has, however, to be facilitated to exploit its full potential. The current scenario poses challenges firstly to sustain its global positioning and secondly to increase its market share by both incremental exports as well as increase in unit values.”

According to Mr. Idrees, the unit value can be increased only through “marked improvement in quality, market tie-up, image building and change in business philosophy. This requires up-gradation in human skills, both in manufacturing and marketing, investment in new technology, and up gradation in production management.

The focus should be on development of large scale units, which could concentrate on R&D, technical innovation, product development on one hand and brand and market development on the other.”

Mr. Idrees felt that the recent shift to value added goods within textile sector requires developing capability in design, processing, inventory management, marketing and keeping track of the fashions and changing demand and adapting products to meet this demand on time, while maintaining the quality.

“The textile industry,” he said, “has also to take advantage of a high rate of growth in the volume of trade in synthetic textiles. As the U.S. and European firms become uncompetitive in textile and apparel business, Pakistani firms can enter into joint venture agreements with them for technology transfer and marketing.

Mr. Luqman Mooraj, Mr. Abbas Mooraj and Mr. Abrar Mooraj.

This combination of natural comparative advantage, renewal of capital equipment, investment in training and skill up gradation and joint ventures with the Western firms should enable Pakistan to have a sustainable development on one hand and increase in global share on the other.”

“Investment in new technology and human resources has always been beneficial. It has been helpful in innovation, product development and diversification. The industry has made investment of US $7 billion in the last seven years creating about 550,000 new jobs and incremental export surplus. It has helped in reshaping competitiveness. Pakistan needs to modernize its textiles and clothing sector. Modernization does, however, inevitably lead to the introduction of somewhat more capital intensive technologies than the outdated technologies currently in use.