Simon Kew | Managing Director | Alchemie Technology

Alchemie Technology, a UK-based company, is at the forefront of transforming the textile manufacturing industry through its clean-tech digital dyeing and finishing processes. Simon Kew, Managing Director, highlights the company's commitment to significantly reducing the environmental impact of textile production while enabling digital transformation within supply chains. The global market for textile dyeing and finishing equipment exceeds $20 billion and is experiencing a CAGR of over 5%, indicating substantial growth and demand for innovative solutions. Alchemie Technology has developed two key technologies: Endeavour and Novara. Endeavour focuses on digital dyeing, utilizing an advanced digital colorant application and fixation system. This technology applies liquid colorants to fabrics using a non-contact, high-energy jetting of nanodroplets, ensuring exceptional homogeneity and penetration. The colorants are then fixed using a proprietary digitally controlled process, resulting in high color fastness in a single-pass roll-to-roll operation. Novara, on the other hand, employs a similar fluid application method to apply typically colorless finishes to fabrics, followed by optional drying or curing to impart specific properties such as anti-viral, water-repellent, or flame-retardant characteristics. A significant advantage of Novara is its ability to apply finishes precisely where needed, including single-sided coatings or 2D patterning, and to deliver multi-functional finishes for high-performance textiles. Both systems are open platform, compatible with various commercial chemistries and a wide range of dyes (dispersed, pigment, reactive, acid, vat) and specialty colorants for diverse substrate types. Novara has been successfully demonstrated with numerous finishes, including anti-viral, water-repellent, flame-retardant, and anti-odour treatments, and can also be used for post-treatment applications like softeners. Digital powder patterning, another innovation from Alchemie, allows for the creation of innovative 3D texture patterns using thermally fusable powders and digitally controlled technology. This enables textile manufacturers to produce surface textures and impact-resistant coatings for various applications, including sportswear, apparel, and home furnishings, catering to brands seeking structural surface patterning and textural effects. This technology provides an avenue for design innovation, particularly in areas like home furnishing where unique textures and patterns can enhance aesthetic and functional qualities. The textile dyeing and finishing industry is a major contributor to environmental pollution, accounting for over 20% of global water pollution and 3% of global CO2 emissions, according to a World Bank Report. Alchemie’s digital dyeing and finishing processes aim to eliminate wastewater from textile dyeing and reduce energy consumption by over 85%. This drastic reduction in environmental impact and operating costs also allows dyeing operations to be established in water-scarce regions. The development of Endeavour and Novara technologies involved five years of intensive research, combining expertise in chemistry, machine design, and digital manufacturing to create sustainable manufacturing solutions. These technologies are broadly applicable to a wide array of fabrics, colorants, and finishes, supporting both single-sided and double-sided applications to minimize waste. The company has also demonstrated multi-functional finishes, with different treatments applied to different sides of the fabric. Alchemie Technology addresses a growing demand from textile manufacturers and brands in apparel, sportswear, and home furnishing sectors for waterless manufacturing methods that offer sustainability, lower costs, and reduced carbon footprints. The Novara solution is particularly valuable for technical textiles, enabling the use of specialized coatings for anti-viral and water-repellent applications. There is notable demand for anti-viral finishing in medical and upholstery contexts, where reducing surface contamination is crucial, such as in communal areas like plane and train seating. These markets also benefit from multi-functional coatings that combine water-repellent and flame-retardant properties. The company is actively developing the Endeavour process to extend its waterless, low-energy digital dyeing capabilities to cotton, nylon, polycotton, and other blends, further expanding its cost-saving, production capacity, and environmental benefits across a broader range of textile fabrics. For manufacturers in water-poor regions, Alchemie’s digital solutions are particularly beneficial, achieving over 95% reduction in water usage. This leads to a significant decrease in environmental impact, operating costs, elimination of wastewater emissions, and over 85% energy reduction, ultimately resulting in a more than 50% reduction in cost base, increased production flexibility, and enhanced dyeing capacity. The Endeavour system’s on-demand dyeing process can handle over 2000 square meters per hour, making it suitable for high-throughput industrial production, while also offering rapid color changes and cost-effective short-run manufacturing. At the World Congress on Textile Coating, Alchemie highlighted its Endeavour Waterless Smart Dyeing technology for solid color dyeing and Novara digital textile finishing technology for multi-functional 2D patterned finishes, emphasizing their role in eliminating wastewater and achieving 85% energy reduction. The company also presented its low-energy Novara finishing solution for anti-viral fabrics, developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which allows for more sustainable and cost-effective application of treatments like HeiQ Viroblock compared to traditional methods. Alchemie Technology is currently focused on aggressively rolling out its commercial Endeavour and Novara solutions globally, anticipating a significant number of installations by the end of 2021. The substantial interest in their technology is driving this expansion, along with the establishment of a global distribution network to ensure comprehensive customer support worldwide. This strategic expansion aims to make clean-tech digital textile manufacturing accessible to a broader market, reinforcing the company's commitment to sustainable and innovative textile production. #TextileDyeing #CleanTech #DigitalManufacturing #SustainableTextiles #WaterlessDyeing #EnergyEfficiency #TextileFinishing #EnvironmentalImpact #AdvancedMaterials #TextileDyeing #CleanTech #DigitalManufacturing #SustainableTextiles #WaterlessDyeing #EnergyEfficiency #TextileFinishing #EnvironmentalImpact #AdvancedMaterials