Able to print and dye 18 million metres of fabric a year, Altoteks' plant already houses two Monfortex ranges, together with a Montex finishing line and related equipment, all from Monforts, of Mönchengladbach, Germany. Altoteks specialises in the dyeing and finishing of para- and meta-aramid fabrics and blends, the double-dyeing and -printing of polycotton and polyamide (PA) and cotton blends, and special processes for ripstop camouflage materials. It also colours modacrylic fabrics and flame-retardant cotton and viscose blends. All of its products must meet the exacting standards of military and civil defence services.
The owner of Altoteks, Mehmet Ucar, says: “Specialised equipment and know-how are required to achieve the high durability, colour-fastness and performance standards required of the woven fabrics for the markets we serve, and Monforts Thermex technology is one of the cornerstones of our expertise. We use the Thermex ranges for continuous, disperse and reactive dyeing processes and they are generally preferred for technical textiles and long-run reactive dyeing.”
Installed in one month, Altoteks new two-metre-wide Thermex line consists of three linked Thermex units for continuous dyeing and thermosoling, together with gas-powered infrared predryers, which provide high evaporation rates in a minimum amount of space, and cold pad batch (CPB) winding.
The line is also able to carry-out a simple, quick and economical one-pass pad-dry-wash-off continuous dyeing process called Econtrol, developed by Monforts and Dystar, of Singapore. Using Econtrol, fixation using reactive dyestuffs takes place in two-to-three minutes. Ucar says: “The Econtrol process provides a significant advantage for our company, allowing for faster and more economical production in high-volume reactive dyeing. For Altoteks, the new machine will significantly improve production processes in terms of speed, quality and operational efficiency."