Environmental Protection Becomes the Trend for Dye Industry Transformation

Digital printing， green and environment-friendly dyeing auxiliaries become focus

As one of the top exhibitions for global dyeing industry， the 12th China International Dye Industry Pigments and Textile Chemicals Exhibition was held on April 11， 2012 in Shanghai. In the exhibition， as the key fields for recent two years， environment friendly dyeing auxiliaries and printing equipments continued to be hot issues. Environmental protection for textiles and textile production was attached much importance， and non-toxic， non-polluting “green fabric” has become the mainstream for production and consumption.

Many exhibitors such as BASF， Tastex， Ssuta， M. Dohmen， Lonsen， Transfar， Dymatic， expressed that， environment friendly dyeing auxiliaries have been focuse of enterprises’ technical development， and developing environment friendly auxiliaries aims to realize clean production， and to replace high pollution， toxic and hard to process auxiliaries with less polluting， non-toxic ones and easy treatment alternatives.

In the 12th Five-Year Period， textile industry will make breakthrough progress in 50 essential technologies， covering new method of yarn manufacture， weaving， dyeing， high performance industrial textile processing and other fields. Traditional printing enterprises are seeking ways for the upcoming upgrade and transformation， so they closely watch the industrializing trends in digital printing technology. An exhibitor from Hangzhou said， “Now the fashion cycle is shorter， the pattern changes vividly， and more and more consumers pursue distinctive fabric patterns. To meet market demand， textile manufacturers develop a large number of patterns for clothing brands， thus force plants to accept small-scale orders of more varieties.” Traditional printing process needs time and cost for plate making， and small orders will push up the costs for fabrics with traditional process， making it harder to accept orders. Digital ink-jet printing has not only accurate color， but also natural and smooth color transition. Although the cost is a little higher than usual flat screen printing， but it seems to be cost-effective and acceptable for fashionable consumers. Even many online p2p dealers have “digital printing” as key words for clothing commodity.

Transformation is inevitable for textile industry， upgrade of dyeing industry shall follow up

Rising prices for raw materials and labor costs， weak brand innovation ability， financing difficulties and many other problems are challenging textile industry this year. During the NPC and CPPCC in March， NPC members and committee members from textile industry suggested to reduce tax burdens on enterprises， secure healthy development of small and mini-sized enterprises， improve enterprise employment， and take the help from government to have a better innovation and development. They agree that adjustment and transformation of textile industry in China is imminent， and it is a necessary and must. As to dyeing industry that is close to textile industry， speeding up the industrial upgrade is an effective way to work out. It is important for enterprises to advance energy conservation and emission reduction， improve technical level and reduce resource consumption， in order to survive and realize sustainable development. According to Li Jinbao， chairman of China Dyeing and Printing Industry Association， in 2011， new environmentfriendly textile dyeing and printing technology and innovative water-saving and emissionreducing printing and dyeing technology for cotton fabric， two National Key Technology RD Programs， passed the acceptance check by the Ministry of Science and Technology， while research and industrialization of key technology for cotton cold pad-batch dyeing process won 2011 Second Prize for National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2012， in order to speed up industrial upgrade， the sixth “China Dyeing and Printing Industry Advanced Energy-saving and Emission-reducing Technology Recommendation Catalogue” has been released， and it will continue to provide technical support for enterprises， help enterprises carry out energy diagnostic check， and ensure a high efficiency and low emission operation.

The exhibition had a total exhibition area of 30，000 square meters， attracted 550 exhibitors from 14 countries and regions， covering various advanced environment friendly dyestuffs， organic pigments， auxiliaries， intermediates and environmental sound equipments， textile printing products and equipments， etc. The proportion of foreign exhibitors continued to expand. For example， Indian pavilion expanded by 20% from last exhibition， including nearly 60 Indian companies. Meanwhile， companies from Netherlands， Spain， Singapore， England and other foreign countries came to the exhibition for the first time， marking an active market exploration in China and even in Asia.