The dyeing of polyester textile materials, used commonly in automotive, with disperse dyes presents a number of practical problems to the textile industry. These problems are principally associated with unevenness, lack of reproducibility, and bare effects, essentially coming from the structural non-uniformities of the polyester yarns. During numerous manufacturing and processing steps prior to dyeing, this material is subjected to various thermo-mechanical treatments which may give rise to variations and non uniformities in structure. The aim of the POWER project is to introduce into the European market improved colored textiles produced by using an environmental and innovative dyeing production step based on atmospheric plasma technology. A plasma system prototype was already built and demonstrated. Based on that, an industrial scale plasma module to enhance the wettability of fabrics and to improve their finishing will be built to demonstrate the applicability of the technology at an industrial level according to the requirements of the final product. This challenging outcome will be reached by considering several aspects for an effective market uptake, including the up-scaling of atmospheric plasma processes, production steps and their integration into production lines. CIP-EIP-Eco-Innovation-2012-332996
Project funding:
European Commission Research & Innovation