A  Monforts Toptex shrinking range has recently been installed at the UK’s Pincroft Dyers and Printers facility in Chorley, Lancashire, UK to ensure precise control of compressive shrinkage for the company’s range of camouflaged military uniforms and industrial contract workwear.

Pincroft dyes and prints over 40 different camouflage designs for military forces around the world as part of its extensive programme which also includes fabrics for contract workwear, upholstery and canvas tarpaulins. Flame retardancy is regarded as one of the company’s key strengths – an essential requirement extending beyond the military to first responders and industrial workers in all sorts of challenging situations.

On average – over just 4.5 day shifts, Monday to Friday lunchtime – Pincroft produces some 600,000 metres of finished fabric every week. And for accuracy and reproducibility, the company relies on the advanced technology of companies like Monforts.

Consequently, it took delivery of a new Toptex sanforizer – through local Monforts representative Colplan - for the precise control of compressive shrinkage in fabrics, after a long evaluation period of potential options.

“Over 80% of production is for our subsidiary company, Carrington Workwear’s internal sales team, with the remaining 20% commission finished for commercial customers,” explains Pincroft Managing Director, Neil Dowds. “So if there are any problems, we probably get to hear about them sooner than the companies whose customers are not directly on their doorstep.”

While 30% of the company’s business is with UK customers, Mr Dowds estimates that at least 90% of its production is then exported to be made up into garments.

Customer demands

Tighter specifications, driven by both European Standards and demands from customers, motivate Pincroft to offer increased assurances in respect of shade consistency and the physical performance of its products such as strength and durability, and increasingly, of shrinkage.

“We are a long-standing customer of Monforts, employing their stenters, and we were aware we needed more control over shrinkage than our existing sanforizer provided,” Mr Dowds explained.

The machine was installed earlier this year and after a subsequent six-month evaluation period, it is now being fine-tuned and ‘tweaked’, based on the exacting internal findings of Pincroft’s operators.

Operating at speeds of between 20-100 m/min and processing fabrics with weights of up to 550 gsm, the sanforiser has been the subject of a number of improvements in recent years to provide increased residual shrinkage at higher production speeds.

These include precise and automatic grinding of the rubber belt to increase its efficiency and life, along with greatly reduced water consumption for cooling.

Simplified belt removal – possible in just a single shift compared to the industry standard two days – is accomplished by an integral lifting device to lift up the rollers, rather than having to completely remove them.

Automatic vision system

In addition, Pincroft has installed an advanced automatic vision system on the sanforizer for detecting fabric faults, which not only calculates and optimises the necessary cuts required to minimise waste, but also flags up minor faults that would otherwise go undetected and could potentially indicated latent production problems building up.

“For a Grade 1 fabric, it’s still permissible to have up to ten faults per one hundred metres of fabric, so often if there are just three of four, nobody looks at them,” Mr Dowds said, “Our optimised process allows us to analyse and prevent any such faults which may lead to problems in the future.”

Enviromental standards

For over 115 years, the water feeding down from the West Pennine Moors to the River Douglas has supplied the means for a mill to operate at the Pincroft site in Adlington, but the days of such plants operating in the UK without strict control and guidelines are long past.

Today, high environmental standards are also critical to Pincroft.

“Our commitment to reducing the impact on the environment plays a major part in the way we develop and operate our business,” says Mr Dowds. “We firmly believe that good environmental performance and the efficient use of resources makes for a better business.

“We are committed to measuring, reviewing and continuously improving the environmental impacts of our operations, using resources such as water and energy efficiently and minimising waste wherever possible. As a consequence, we will continue to invest in the ground-breaking technologies required to stay out in front, developed by reliable partners like Monforts.”