Cititex’s Droide Les 01 runs continuously with a production capacity that can reach 10
meters per minute and can create open-work motifs, degraded designs or shadings.
I
taly-based Eurofiniss S.r.l. is a fabric-finishing company started by Adelio Gatti in the
early 1990s after nearly 40 years of experience in the sector. At present, Eurofiniss employs 40
people who produce approximately 60,000 meters of fabric per day in processes including coating,
calendering, sanforizing, embossing, chintzing, wrinkling, laminating and burn-out. Silk, flax,
viscose, polyester, nylon, Lycra® and fine cottons are fiber types commonly processed at
Eurofiniss. The company has approximately 600 customers that operate in a variety of application
fields. Brand names the company supplies include Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and Etro. “Most of
these articles are destined to high-end apparel, for customers who supply the best-known names of
the ‘Made in Italy’ brand,” Gatti said. “We also finish fabrics for furnishings and for other
technical applications.”
In all cases, and whatever the intended end-use, conforming to customers’ needs is essential. “
Customers expect that we present ideas, innovations, variants and diversifications from
conventional standards; this is because novelties in name and in deed are always demanded to
stimulate, in their turn, the market with original introductions, and to act as an effective
impulse for the new collections,” Gatti said.
Eurofiniss recently purchased from Italy-based Cititex S.r.l. a Droide Les 01 laser-engraving
machine, a revolutionary machine selected to add to the company’s innovation capabilities.
Italy-based Eurofiniss selected Cititex’s Droide Les 01 laser-engraving machine to add to
its innovation capabilities.
Laser Technology
After a slow ITMA 2003 in England, Andrea Citi started investigating the market to ferret out
some kind of machinery or instrumentation with features and performance decidedly different from
the usual established finishing machines.
“At last, on the occasion of a fair in Spain, we perceived the sign of a substantial
attention to a fledgling technology, which was still in the experimental stage, so much so that no
specific machinery was available,” Citi said. The technology centered on an innovative finishing
process using a laser.
Convinced of the effectiveness of the project, Citi decided to take the plunge, and moved
from agent/seller to trading operator. He singled out laser-sector market specialists who were
associated with the textile production chain through the development of the Droide Les 01. This
machine already is operating at several companies — including Eurofiniss, which, like others, has
just placed another order barely six months after its first order with Cititex.
At ITM 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey, the Droide Les 01 was demonstrated in cooperation with
Italy-based Ferraro S.p.A., a new partner in the global project.
The new Cititex-Ferraro joint venture displayed the Droide Les 01 at ITM 2006 in Istanbul,
Turkey, targeting the machine to specialists devoted to denim production.
Machine Operation
The Droide can laser-engrave or cut a variety of woven and knitted fabrics including denim
and automotive. The laser technology is a heat process that etches the material by locally melting
it, or by steaming it in the desired points. The laser CO2 is a gas discharge device with such
power that it can etch a carbon steel blade with a penetration of up to 2.5 centimeters. The
machine is available in a 1,800-millimeter (mm) or 2,300-mm cutting width and is powerful enough to
engrave and cut in one process on a continuously moving bed.
Software developed by Cititex to control the laser’s speed and power offers precision and
reproducible results every time, while also reducing costs. Movements between the axis and the
fabric being processed can be programmed at will. The design is carried out by reflecting the laser
between two mirrors, one for the x axis, and the other for the y axis. An active focusing system
ensures the laser is directed to the working plan in all the areas concerned by the operation.
Droide Les 01’s software features the ability to import the most common image formats,
including JPEG, TIFF and bitmap; color reduction to the 64 gray scale, ready for output conversion
to the laser scanner; possibility of adding selected areas to the images; and structure
identification from image colors to the laser’s output functions.
September/October 2006