Italy-based Master S.r.l. reports it has combined its IndigoRope rope-dyeing machine with the new Genius/C integrated dyeing module to create the IndigoRope Genius/C dyeing machine for ecological indigo dyeing. The new technology improves upon traditional rope dyeing machinery with the addition of the Genius/C dyeing vat module — an inert environment in which dyestuff diffusion and fixation take place under leuco conditions using adjustable heat activation and variable timing. The module also immerses the yarn in the dyestuff and squeezes the yarn to eliminate excess dyestuff. According to the company, the machine is mechanically versatile; and by altering the physical and chemical characteristics of the dyebath, special dyeing methods can be achieved as well as traditional indigo dyeing.
Master reports the new module offers the following ecological and economical advantages over traditional dye vats:
fewer dyeing vats with improved indigo and sulfur dye penetration, higher diffusion and better fixation in the fiber; decreased dyebath volume; an approximately 50-percent reduction in hydrosulfite and soda consumption; decreased washing water consumption; increased dyeing output — up to 40 percent when using sulfur dyestuffs; and decreased sulfites and sulfates in the wastewater.
According to the company, the leuco dyeing environment results in total indigo chemical reduction, which may even eliminate the need for a fixing agent.
In summary, by using the Genius/C module Master has taken the repeated three steps common to traditional indigo dyeing methods — soaking the yarn with dyestuff, squeezing the yarn to eliminate excess dyebath and air leuco oxidation — and combined them into a step that involves the hot leuco diffusion and fixation with yarn immersion and yarn squeezing in an inert environment.
