New technology to cut cloth production cost significantly

Jasim Uddin Haroon Bangladesh has revolutinalised its dyeing technology through innovating a new method which will cut cloth production cost by at least 25 per cent, textile experts said. This will make Bangladesh-produced fabric more competitive among the readymade garment making nations, they added. Dr Wolfram Engel, a German-born textile engineer who has been working in the country over the past 16 years, invented the new technology along with his four local colleagues. Mr Engel presented a keynote paper on his new method in presence of the country's leading garment manufacturers at a city hotel Friday. "Actually we need a revolution to start saving waters," Mr Engel added. He also said this technology will save water, energy and time significantly. The new technology is now under process of optimising, using salt-free dyes. This will require only 50 per cent time of the existing process. This process will require 2-3 hours instead of 8-10 hours in usual processes. He said local fabrics manufacturers now need 80 litres of water to dye a kilogramme (kg) of fabrics. This usage of water has been depleting the underground water table fast, he added. "My technology is to reduce 20 litres of water to dye a kg of fabrics," he added. He said the technology which is being implemented in phases will require less than 15 litres of water to dye a kg of fabrics by 2015. He said, "for the next generation we should save water." Pioneers said the technology will be sold to other garment making countries including India, China and Taiwan. Mr Engel said the current trend in Bangladesh is that local manufactures are using enzyme wash to get clean and smooth garments. He said enzyme wash is costly as it needs 0.50 dollars to wash a kg of fabrics. Besides, it affects the health of the workers. Ashraf Hassan, managing director of Grameen Knitwear which is now adopting the technology, has told the FE that this is reducing the use of enzyme dramatically and saving water. He said Bangladesh will be more competitive among the garment-making nations as it is reducing total production cost.