Stenter

In the dyehouse every batch is dyed to the quality and colour the customer asks for; the stenter is the final step that holds the fabric to width, weight and handle as it comes off the wet process. The full 1,350 tons knitted on 250 machines at the factory pass through this line; no roll goes to the warehouse undyed or unfinished.

The line runs 7 professional stenters. That capacity lets us take dyed fabric on without it waiting, which speeds the process up; batches do not pile into a queue, and the goods are ready for dispatch quickly. Colour and weight stay the same from roll to roll, because we set the line to the sample and keep it the same batch to batch.

This is where the reliability sits: we run stretch, temperature and speed by recorded settings; if a batch is off-colour it goes back, it does not ship. If the customer’s line is running, the fabric is on the loading bay on its day.