Waterless and Reduced-Water Dyeing Technology Enablement
topic
Digital process control for supercritical CO2 dyeing, foam dyeing, and spray dyeing systems uses precise pressure, temperature, flow, and concentration measurement and control to maintain the narrow process windows of these water-reduced alternatives to conventional aqueous dyeing, with supercritical CO2 systems requiring precise pressure control above 74 bar and temperature above 31 degrees Celsius for CO2 to exist in the supercritical state required for disperse dye solubility.
Role
Enables the commercial implementation of fundamentally water-reduced dyeing technologies through the precise process control infrastructure required for technologies with narrow operating windows that cannot be managed with the control precision of conventional dyeing equipment, with digital control being the enabling technology that makes supercritical CO2 and foam dyeing viable at production scale where the environmental benefits of near-zero water consumption justify the investment in precision process control systems.