Gildan / Twine | Digital Yarn Dyeing

Julia More, Morgan Mase, Natalie Young, Rachel Drum

Gildan’s product development team is constantly pursuing innovative ways to accelerate timelines and reduce the carbon footprint of their design process. One innovation that Gildan believes could help accelerate their sock prototyping process is the TS-1800, a state-of-the-art digital yarn dyeing system. This technology, created by an Israeli company called Twine Solutions, can quickly dye polyester yarn samples in a variety of colors without using any water in the dyeing operation. Our Senior Design team’s goal was to determine whether this novel technology could help Gildan accelerate their color development process and reduce yarn and water waste.

Our team delivered a technical analysis, a productivity analysis and a business feasibility assessment to Gildan. The goal of the technical analysis was to understand the capabilities and limitations of the yarn dyeing system. We learned how to operate the system and collected data on color matching, uniformity, colorfastness, repeatability and general machine limitations. The productivity analysis aimed to quantify the time, yarn and water required by the TS-1800 in order to develop quantities of dyed yarn sufficient for Gildan’s sock prototyping (and in the correct color). We compared these values to a simulation of the traditional disperse dyeing process, which uses package dyeing. Finally, we prepared a business assessment that addressed the question: is the machine worth the investment? We detailed the advantages and disadvantages of adopting this novel technology, as well as recommendations for Twine Solutions regarding how they could work to improve their product to be competitive in the global market.