How to Plan and Manage the Lab Scientifically in Printing and Dyeing Factory?

The planning and management of laboratory in printing and dyeing factory usually start from several aspects, such as blank fabric sampling, color sample management of customer, color card management of dyeing factory and color swatch formula confirmation, in order to improve the accuracy rate of the swatch. So how to plan and manage the laboratory scientifically in order to improve the production efficiency of printing and dyeing enterprises and increase the competitiveness of products?

★ Factors that Restrict the Development of Printing and Dyeing Factory

For most printing and dyeing factories, the lack of management ability is the primary reason for low production efficiency, low efficiency makes less profit, and less profit makes it difficult to improve technology and equipment and enhance product competitiveness, which is a vicious circle. It is mainly in the following aspects.

1 Relying on manual color swatch, not making good use of testing instruments, inadequate scientific management, low efficiency, seriously restricting the delivery time.

At present, many printing and dyeing factory laboratories are doing color swatch and re-sampling work, and if the customer returns, they will re-swatch until the color sample is confirmed to start making large orders. Due to a variety of factors, such as changes in light, the state of the color master, color master’s ability, etc. will affect the quality of color.

For example, the same piece of color, morning and afternoon or even evening, he may give a large difference in the prescription, because a busy day of color grasping, easy to produce visual fatigue. In good condition, the color may be adjusted two or three times, and in bad condition, it may be 5 or 6 times to be adjusted. This seriously affects the delivery time and the credibility of the company.

2 There is no detailed analysis of the performance of the dyeing and chemical materials used, and the process conditions or flow formulated mainly rely on the accumulation of experience, without scientific design, and it is uncertain whether it is reasonable or optimized, so it is impossible to achieve refined production.

3 We do not have a comprehensive understanding of the quality of dyeing and chemical materials used and the performance of fabric blanks, which leads to simple and rude problem solving when harbor disease occurs. Such as the solubility of reactive dyestuff, salt and alkali resistance, the spotting of disperse dyestuff, high and low temperature dispersion, the hardness and pH of the water used, printing and dyeing factories generally do not pay attention to.

4 The use of relevant instruments involved in the production or testing process is not standardized, and it is not clear whether the temperature and pressure of the equipment used are accurate, leading to deviations in dyeing.

5 In addition, the innovation ability of new technology and new material is not enough, which seriously restricts the development of the enterprise.

The above aspects are the main problems that restrict the development of printing and dyeing factory. We can only avoid the mistakes of empiricism or blind men feeling the elephant by scientific planning management laboratory, collecting and analyzing data and putting forward practical improvement measures so as to improve the success rate once.

★ Composition and Job Duties of Laboratory in Printing and Dyeing Factory

According to the problems encountered in the above practical work, I think the laboratory of a printing and dyeing enterprise should be composed of three parts.

• First, the color matching laboratory, the main work is to play color swatch sent to customers to confirm, as well as the first cylinder of new color re-sample work, which basically every dyeing factory has, but at present most still rely on manual color mixing, a variety of factors affecting too much, seriously restricting the delivery date.
• The second is the technical R&D laboratory, which is the core of the whole technical system and bears the important responsibility of personnel training and the future development of the enterprise. On the contrary, the laboratory is not available in many enterprises, a very small number of large high-quality enterprises.
• Third, the quality inspection laboratory, which is generally in the business of doing high quality will have, is also a very key auxiliary laboratory, but most of the enterprise quality inspection laboratories just do batch product QC inspection, such as the color fastness, strength, etc. Ignore the implementation of other work, such as the pre-dyeing materials into the batch testing.

The following describes the work responsibilities of each of the three systems in the laboratory

1 Work duties of color matching laboratory work duties

1.1 Laboratory proofing work

According to the technical data of dyeing and chemical materials provided by the technical R&D center, we can reasonably arrange the combination of dyestuffs of different color systems and different color fastness requirements. We use computerized color matching technology to provide customers with satisfactory color samples as soon as possible and in the most optimal cost consideration.

1.2 New color repeat proofing work

Most companies are doing the work of repeat proofing of new color, but they often do not do well for several reasons: the stability of the dye combination, the rationality of the design of the process conditions, such as the design of the temperature rise and fall rate. Process flow: post-treatment, finishing, etc. to achieve the whole process and the production of large orders consistent, each step after the completion of the quality is consistent or meet the needs of the inspection.

2 Work duties of technology R & D experimental laboratory

The work of the Technology R&D Center is summarized in three major focuses, and the actual work content is relatively large.

2.1 The use of computerized color measurement and matching technology

With the development of computerized color measurement and matching technology, if enterprises do a good job of developing computerized color measurement and matching work, it can well solve the problem of repeated proofing and color mixing, which can not only reduce the degree of dependence on the color master, but also greatly reduce the workload and improve the delivery time of enterprise samples.

We all understand the benefits of computerized color matching, but in fact, the computerized color matching is used by very few enterprises, many enterprises have computerized color matching instruments, but only use its color measurement function (color detection).

The main reason is that the quality of dyeing and chemical material enterprises varies, the incoming batch testing is very critical, not simply the color light and color depth testing can be satisfied, a penny is worth a penny, the same color light and depth of the product in the same time offer big differences, there must be a reason. Many companies are OEM, the quality of the embryo fabric and even the content of the composition is not clear and no specific analysis, brought to dye.

In addition, the vast majority of dyes are now mixed dyes, unlike a decade ago, many dyes are single dyes, which also brings complexity to the current computerized color matching technology, how to adjust the coefficient is the key.

2.2 Optimization of dyeing processes and procedures

In production, certain auxiliaries, not the more dosage the better, and even not essential, the more varieties of auxiliaries, in fact, the greater the risk, such as whether they meet the compatibility between them will affect the actual role. At the same time, each additive in different companies have different requirements for the use of different products or process conditions, and not the supplier is right. For example, some problems can be optimized through the process such as dyeing process rationalization technology can both reduce costs and improve quality.

2.3 Analysis of defects in the production process and development of new products

Many companies find the problem and then go to solve the problem as soon as possible, but seldom analyze the problem, how the defect occurred, how to avoid re-occurrence is the key.

At the same time, the development of enterprises must keep pace with the development of the market, and even to walk in front of the market development, it is inseparable from the development of new products.

3 Work duties of quality inspection laboratory

The work of the quality inspection laboratory is much more than the so-called QC testing, it runs through the entire product quality control.

3.1 Raw material incoming inspection

The incoming inspection of raw materials will directly affect the success rate of workshop and production cost and profit. For example, the oil content and sizing rate of white gray cloth will provide the prescribers with reasonable pre-treatment prescriptions, which can not only reduce the cost but also obtain stable quality.

Dyeing and chemical batch incoming inspection, as already mentioned, you get what you pay for, and at the same time the dye manufacturer will have failed batches in the production process, these problematic products can neither be eaten nor thrown away, how to use? We have to think about it. Therefore, the incoming inspection of dyeing and chemical materials is also a top priority and should not be ignored.

3.2 Daily quality testing of water

Nowadays, we advocate environmental protection policy, and there are many kinds of water for workshop goods, such as river water, tap water, reuse water and hot water, etc., while the laboratory water is basically one kind, tap water, and the quality index of water quality, such as hardness and PH value, will directly affect the stability of products, especially in the pre-treatment and dyeing stage.

3.3 Periodic calibration of laboratory and workshop instruments and meters

Instrumentation of regular testing is very important, but many companies are waiting until the instrument is found to have problems to repair or replace, such as temperature and pressure instrumentation of many problems is a process, that is, in the discovery of its need for replacement before there has been a certain period of time, so that the quality of the pre-products is a direct impact.

3.4 Quality testing of finished products in the workshop

This work is a little scale and quality requirements of enterprises are basically doing, the use of textile testing instruments to feedback on the quality of finished products, such as the color fastness, strength, etc., to better play a normative role in guiding.

Summary: the importance of laboratory system establishment

To sum up, how to establish a good laboratory technology system and how to effectively control every detail of the laboratory is directly related to the stability, efficiency and profitability of the workshop’s big goods production that executives are most concerned about. A qualified laboratory technology center is actually a small printing and dyeing enterprise, involving all aspects of the whole process, far from a simple sampling agency, it is about the long-term development of the enterprise.