Revolutionary instant thread colouring technology for industrial embroidery

Industrial embroidery is a large and growing industry, used for fashion, sportswear, leisure wear, apparel and other applications. Every year approximately 750 000 embroidery heads are produced globally. More and more the embroidery production is moving back closer to the end market including Europe.
The target of ITC is to develop, industrialize and market a machine for instant thread colouring that fits to all these embroidery heads. The project is based on the innovative and patented Coloreel technology owned by the Inventech Europe AB company.
The Coloreel machine uses an undyed base thread and special thread colouring inks and colours the thread directly on top of the embroidery machine. The produced thread is fulfilling all normal thread quality criteria such as wash ability, UV resistance and more, although is being finished in a few seconds instead of several hours.
The Coloreel machine have a very strong value proposition to the textile producers and embroiderers:
• Amazing embroidery design. By adapting colouring directly to the actual stitch design, it is possible to create embroideries unheard of before with shaded and patterned areas.
• Improved embroidery quality. The use of one single thread instead of multiple thread reels removes the need for ugly locking stitches, enhancing the quality and tactile feel of the embroidery.
• Improved logistics. Since almost all colours of thread can be produced from one single base thread you always have the right colour of thread on stock. Today a standard assortment of thread contains 300-500 different standard colours. If you need a special colour, that needs to be ordered specially. This means that it is very difficult to always have the right colours on stock for your orders, or that you have a very large stock of thread that you very seldom use.
• Improved productivity. By not needing multiple thread reels you remove the thread reel changing time on the embroidery machine. An even larger effect come from that the embroidery machine does not need to slow down and make locking stitches for each individual colour change. Altogether this improves productivity with 50% for a normal embroidery production in e.g. Europe.
• Water pollution and thread waste. As the machine is a closed system there is no polluted process water coing out. In addition, since you only produce the thread you use, the waste of thread compared to all the various thread reels used to day is minimized.

So far seven contracts with existing, independent distributors of embroidery and printing machines have been signed which will then drive the volume sales and give the necessary service support. These seven distributors cover 21 countries in Europe. More discussions are ongoing with other potential distributors in Europe, US, Canada, South Korea and Japan. We did the product launch of the ITC unit at Avantex in Paris, which is the International fair for innovative textile and many requests to buy the revolutionary product were made. It was a great success. We have done different activities that are leading us to consolidate our business plan. We have done a quick progress towards the industrialization phase and key partners has been added to complete and strengthen this process.

The overall plan was to develop, industrialize, produce, market and sell the new product, as well as securing the related IP.

Key milestones delivered so far, sorted by functional area are presented below:
Service analysis, tests and qualification reports, preparation for industrialization and final commercialization, promotion and communication. More details can be found in reporting of deliverables D1.3 D4.2 D5.2 D6.3.

An overview of the results and their exploitation and dissemination are shown below:

• A preliminary manual guide for the ITC machine (and its software) has been drafted.
• The ITC manuals will be provided to our distributors and users in order to understand how to operate the units and provide service
• Based on our feedback and tests made with the ITC, we have been able to gather valuable information that represents the characterization of the ITC capabilities in terms of process speed range, colour quality/fastness, colour effect possibilities, energy and ink consumption.
• The user manual for the ITC have been developed.
• We have done a quick progress towards the industrialization phase, considering supply chain and work flow.
• The key partners that has been added to complete and strengthen the industrialization process are part of a strong production and supply base to ensure quality through their high competence and experience in the field.
• We have carried out, during the 2nd part of the project, several activities towards the ITC´s commercialization stage, attracting the interest of the targeted customers, the industrial community and public in general. We have worked with the finalized Business and Marketing strategy, and a list of activities
linked to the publication and promotion of the project’s progress
• Product launch has been done in Avantex Paris, which is the International fair for innovative textile. Embroidery producers, digitizers, designers and apparel manufacturers including high-level brands were very impressed by the Coloreel unit and many requests to buy
• seven contracts with existing, independent distributors of embroidery and printing machines has been done
• These seven distributors cover 21 countries in Europe. More discussions are ongoing with other potential distributors in Europe, US, Canada, South Korea and Japan
• We have done different activities that are leading us to consolidate our business plan

By launching a product that fulfils the value proposition of amazing embroidery design, improved logistics and productivity and reduced water pollution and thread waist, this will create a profitable and quickly growing European based business and production for the company and it’s distributors in EU. In addition, this is supporting at general trend of moving back textile production closer to home markets, and b that European production.

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ITC (Revolutionary instant thread colouring technology for industrial embroidery)

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