TECHNOLOGY CORNER
Itema rapier R95002denim: the experience of Sharabati Denim
Sharabati Denim is among the most renowned denim mills in the world, featuring a customer portfolio that includes globally famous fashion brands and mass retailers and exporting its fabrics to 27 countries worldwide. With production facilities in Egypt and in Turkey, 3.000 employees around the world and commercial offices in many strategic locations, Sharabati Denim is a fully integrated company encompassing all the production stages: from cotton processing, to yarn preparation, down to finished denim and gabardine fabric.
The long standing partnership between Itema and Sharabati Denim started with the installation in the Egyptian plant of the first projectile weaving machines and has been constantly renewed over the years through the purchase of Itema’s latest machine models.
Ever since committed to respecting environmental sustainability, Sharabati Denim introduced process optimizations to decrease water and energy waste and to promote responsible employment of chemicals.
Fundamental driver of the mission of the Company is, in fact, the tireless pursuit of solutions for sustainable production with the aim of reducing the environmental impact, to provide customers with sustainable fabrics.
Precisely because of this vision, immediately after the market launch of R95002denim in 2018, the Itema rapier weaving machine exclusively dedicated to weave denim, Sharabati Denim was among the first in the world to install a first bunch of this machine model.
The R95002denim performance was very satisfactory – the best in its category – and led to a repeat order both for the Egyptian and the Turkish plant. Beside the excellent performances in terms of production speed and fabric quality, the R95002denim has been chosen for its unique features in terms of environmental sustainability, namely the reduced machine power consumption and iSAVER® – the device that, unique-in-the-market, completely eliminates weft and warp waste on the left side of the fabric.
We had an interesting discussion with Mr. Nehad Set Alyaman, Sharabati Denim General Manager to deepen the company strategy and to discover more about their experience with the Itema weaving technology.
Itema: How would you describe Sharabati Denim history and evolution in the market as a leading producer of denim fabrics?
Sharabati Denim has a long history with regional innovation and evolution. We started out in Aleppo, Syria as a fabric manufacturer, and within our first decade, we established the first denim production line in Syria. In the early 2000’s, we established the first flat fabric production line in Egypt. In the 2010’s, we expanded by establishing a complete production facility in Turkey. This placed us in two countries on the Mediterranean that give us an effective advantage to reach several markets with ease. Our strong points, such as flexibility and experience in production allow us to jump ahead with new projects, assimilating within the new market quickly and evolving our processes continuously in order to stay ahead of the curve.
Which are the main characteristics of the fabrics you produce that make your products unique in the market today?
Our product line is one of extensive range, allowing us to satisfy a wide range of customers and providing value-for-money. We have several different concepts that have varying characterisitics, but what remains the same is the ability to maneuver our production lines to respond to a specific need, not compromising our quality all the while. This is especially applicable to the need for sustainable fabrics, of which we have an expanding category.
Itema rapier R95002denim: which are the machine’s characteristics that you like the most? Compared to other rapier machines and previous models, which are – according to your valuable experience – the highlights and strongest points of R95002denim?
The R95002denim has a lot of strong points over its predecessors for us. One being the long product lifecycle of its spare parts, thus decreasing the consumption of spare parts and decreasing the environmental footprint of the machine. The model also has a productive and efficient high speed, increasing our production capacity. The weft insertion is suitable for a wider range of yarn materials. But the highlight of the R95002denim is that we can run much more complex weaving patterns and articles of any type, due to the new design of the SK UltraLight Rapiers.
Sustainability is a strong value point when considering fabric – and especially denim – production. Which are the actions that Sharabati adopted in this regard?
Sharabati Denim has adopted several sustainability measures. Our crown jewel is our very own recycling factory ‘Tadweer’ which recycles several types of textile waste, producing yarns that loop back into our fabrics. ‘Tadweer’ has roots going back to our previous headquarters in Syria in the early 2000s. We have also integrated natural fibers including Tencel, Modal, Linen and Hemp, as well as certified organic cotton. Last year, we introduced a new sustainable dyeing process we have named ‘Sahara’, insuring we save up to 60% water and 50% energy from conventional dyeing processes. Moreover, our factory has a water treatment plant that redirects treated waste water from production to a specialized government lab, and a caustic recovery plant that recycles caustic soda and thermal energy to be reused in production.
With the introduction of the unique in the industry device iSAVER®, Itema defined a new benchmark for sustainable weaving. As a pioneer in worldwide denim production, Sharabati Denim has been one of the early adopters of the new Itema technology. Which is your feedback about iSAVER® and which are according to you the main advantages that this device guarantees to denim weavers?
At Sharabati Denim, we are open to all possiblities in our processes that can lead to a more sustainable future for the industry. The iSAVER® has been a wonderful and impactful innovation in weaving, shown in the fact that it significantly reduces production waste. iSAVER® has led to never-seen-before cost savings, allowing us to save from 650kg to 900kg in waste yarn per year.
