India-based knit fabric commission dyer and finisher Sri Gayathri Colours recently installed a
Montex 6500 tenter and Matex 6500 wet-in-wet padder system from Germany-based A. Monforts
Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG. Sri Gayathri Colours will use the machinery in its heat-setting
and finishing operations. Founded in 1990, the plant traditionally processed tubular knitwear, and
wanted to add open-width finishing capabilities.
“I recognized the savings in wastage that could be made by introducing open-width finishing
techniques, which were beginning to be requested more and more by our exporters,” said R.
Loganathan, founder and owner, Sri Gayathri Colours. “To meet this initial demand meant that we had
to outsource the greige fabric for heat setting. We therefore needed to find complete solution
in-house.” The installed Montex 6500 has eight chambers, a working width of 2,400 millimeters and a
6.1-meter inlet assembly so that accessories such as the steam box, edge gumming and edge trimmer
may be incorporated.
The Matex 6500 guarantees even pressure at 3 to 4 bars across the fabric width by using an
extended shaft within the roller. Sri Gayathri Colours uses the Matex 6500 to apply finishing
chemicals including softeners to the open-width fabric. Regarding the decision to add the Matex
6500, Loganathan said, “Even though the first dewatering/squeezing padder would have been
sufficient, I wanted the Montex unit to ensure even more superior quality for customer
satisfaction.” Monforts reports using its equipment to process knits in open-width form reduces
waste by up to 3 percent compared to processing tubular knits, while achieving improved fabric
quality.
April/May/June 2011