News

CAROLINA COTTON WORKS INVESTMENT IMPROVES PRODUCT QUALITY WHILE PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

09/08/09

Gaffney, S.C.—Carolina Cotton Works, Inc., one of the largest and most flexible commission jet dyers in the U.S., has installed a new inspection and automated packaging system that significantly improves product quality and service to the company’s customers, while also reducing the need for environmentally-harmful polyethylene film by 50%.

Installed at Carolina Cotton Works (CCW) in April 2009, the system is capable of marking and mapping defects without stopping on an array of fabric styles including knits, wovens, nonwovens, tubular and open width. The rolls are automatically wrapped in the film and heat-sealed, rather than the traditional use of loose bags.

“Not only do the finished rolls look more professional,” says Bryan Ashby, vice-president of sales and chief financial officer, “CCW uses half of the polyethylene it would otherwise use in bags that ultimately go into our customers’ landfills.”

The equipment tags fabric defects on the edge of the roll so the cutting operators can easily see them. From the machine’s database, CCW can generate defect maps and send to customers before the fabric rolls are shipped so they can more easily plan their fabric cutting. The reports include in each roll, the number and types of defects, as well as specific locations within the roll.

Custom built to CCW’s specifications, it can process tubular and open with fabrics as narrow as 18 inches and as wide as 100 inches.

“Our company tagline is ‘Success Through Quality and Innovation,’” Ashby says. “There is no better example of our commitment to success than this investment. It’s a remarkable system, and we have been very pleased with the initial response from the market.”

Visit Carolina Cotton Works at Booth # 523 at Material World
For more information, call Bryan Ashby or Stacey Bridges at Carolina Cotton Works
864-488-4824

About Carolina Cotton Works
Started in March 1995, Carolina Cotton Works is a family-owned company specializing in piece dyeing, tubular and open-width finishing. Growth has come from its entry into open width finishing, allowing it to compete some non-apparel markets, but also from its mainstay, which is dyeing and finishing a wide variety of natural and synthetic fabrics that ultimately go into apparel.