Taiwan-based Kingwhale, a bluesign®- and Oeko-tex®-compliant vertically integrated manufacturer of performance apparel fabrics and finished products, has developed Low Impact Technology (L.I.T.) to reduce the use of energy, water and dyestuffs in its manufacturing and dyeing processes. According to the company, the dyeing technology uses 22-percent less electricity, 20-percent less water and 15-percent less dyestuff than traditional dyeing processes to achieve comparable results.

The technology is designed to conserve energy and raw materials from the start of manufacturing and includes a process to modify the polyester molecules during fiber manufacturing to enable the yarn to take up the dye more quickly than conventional polyester yarn, thereby requiring less dyestuff to be used and cutting the amount of process energy and water needed as well.

"Often recycling is looked at as the best way to control waste, but we all need to take it a step further - to actually find a way to manufacture what we need while using less resources and materials in the first place," said James Huang, president, Kingwhale. Huang noted that although the process itself may be more costly with regard to mechanics, time and man hours required, those costs are mitigated by the reduced resource and material costs, so the fabrics processed using the technology are competitive price-wise with comparable fabrics on the market.

Kingwhale’s fleece products will be the first to be dyed using the L.I.T. process, and the company hopes eventually to use the process to dye all of its products.