Israeli start-up Twine has developed a new technology inspired by Print-on-Demand technology and it’s called Digital Thread Dyeing System.
This technology will help the garment manufacturers to colour white yarns by feeding the raw materials into a textile-specific digital printer only when required.
According to Yariv Bustan, Vice President of Product and Marketing at Twine, the traditional method of dyeing consumes 70 litres of water per kilogram of yarn. “The waste from the dyeing process consists of toxic chemicals. The textile industry, at present is responsible for polluting 20 per cent of water globally,” says Bustan.
Twine, with the help of new technology consumes no water whatsoever. Once the colour of the yarn to be dyed is decided, the yarn is sucked into the Twine digital printing system and from the other end, a proper shade yarn is obtained.
Moreover, when the dyeing process is moved from a supplier in far-away India or China to the manufacturing plant, there’s no need to ship anything; that saves on transportation costs and reduces the industry’s overall carbon footprint.
Nowadays customers are looking for not just a luxury shirt or shoes but a unique shirt or shoes and they don’t want to wait for three to six months to get their order delivered. This level of customisation and lesser lead time can be made possible with dyeing-on-demand.
Twine’s digital printing system is currently limited to polyester but according to Bustan it’s all fine as polyester is 50 per cent of the market. They are also working on optimisation of the system so that they can make use of different fibres such as cotton, nylon, etc.
