A number of member companies of the British Textile Machinery Association (BTMA) are making a critical but seldom-acknowledged contribution to a more sustainable textile industry – giving existing machines out in the field an extended life.

At this year’s ITMA 2023, BTMA CEO Jason Kent noted that many new technologies are being developed to reduce resource consumption in the textile industry, but many textile companies are not in a position to invest in new capital-intensive projects.

“Outdated but mechanically sound machines used to be simply scrapped, with few other options, but this has now completely changed,” Kent said.

One BTMA member company, Adaptive Control Solutions, is working to extend the life of jet dyeing machines. The company’s Plant Explorer central control system sets the standard around the world for automation, with powerful features and ease of use.

“We have successfully automated many makes and types of dyeing machine and found that the flexibility of PC-based controllers has allowed us to help customers in other parts of the dyeing and finishing plant as well, including with stenter frames and dryers,” says managing director Richard Armitage.

Another BTMA member company, Garnett Controls, has been a pioneer in the retrofit market since 1990. The company offers a wide range of retrofit solutions for textile and nonwoven machines, including blending, carding, nonwovens, and spinning.

“We’ve been installing the most advanced retrofit drive systems internationally for many years and we continue to develop our products as new technologies emerge,” says managing director Mark Baldwin. “Our retrofit systems are fully supported internationally by an experienced team and customers have reported achieving energy savings of up to 40% depending on the type of machine.”

Tatham is another BTMA member offering retrofit services for OEM carding machines, crosslappers, needlelooms, blending systems, spinning frames, and twisting and winding units.

The company’s TS Drive System is designed to run the motors at their optimum performance levels enabling considerable energy savings in the region of 30% to be achieved

“TS Drive Technology is the most advanced product on the market for synchronous drive applications,” says director Tim Porritt. “It provides superior performance and accurate speed regulation even at low speeds.”

Streat Drycom is a BTMA member that specializes in moisture measurement and control systems. The company’s Drycom system is retrofitted onto a wide range of production lines to measure the moisture content of textiles and nonwovens during production and automatically controls the energy and/or speed of ovens and dryers in order to maintain the optimum moisture content.

“Most machines already in operation worldwide function flawlessly mechanically and BTMA members can offer many options via upgrades and automation to secure their production going forward, ensuring a sufficient margin of profit is retained by keeping them going,” Kent said in conclusion. “The cost-effective longevity of retrofitted machines makes sound and sustainable sense.”