If you make clothing, yarn for knitting, seat fabric for cars or high-end fashion material, you will need an efficient boiler for hot water and high temperature Steam. There are a number of applications within the process which will require Steam, making it an essential part of the process.
It begins with the pre-treatment phase, one of the most important stages in textile manufacturing, which involves the removal of dirt or impurities from the fabric, while whitening it. This pretreatment stage also increases the materials absorbency preparing it for the dyeing and printing stage.
Next comes dyeing and printing, or wet processing, which involves adding pigments or dyes to fabrics to color them. Even though dyeing can occur at any stage during the process, it primarily occurs after the yarn manufacturing or fabric manufacturing stage is completed. The transfer of dye, or introduction of color to the fabric, requires a precise amount of moisture and heat provided by steam. It is during this finishing stage that chemical properties such as anti-pill, soil release, flame retardant, and others may be added to enhance the fabric quality. Steam at a controlled and specific temperature is required to dye the fabric in exact color.
Up next is printing. The printing stage is similar to dyeing, but rather than one solid color being added, patterns or designs are added to the fabric. Steam and heat prepare the ink and help it to penetrate and adhere to the fabric.
The last step in the process is designing and sewing the final garments. This is followed by spot removal and ironing, a process that once again demands a constant supply of steam, before packaging and transport to end users.
Throughout the process high quality clean steam is required at a steady constant pressure. Installing a Clayton Steam Generator which can quickly respond to fluctuating load demands is paramount. Many plants do not operate constantly, so a boiler which can be started and stopped quickly or shut down overnight is a huge cost saving, making Clayton’s rapid starting steam generators a perfect choice for the industry.