2022.12.05What is Solution Dyed Fabric? Better for Environment & User

What is the cost of your color?

Color is the first criterion that defines the visual impression of any fashion apparel or even reflects your mood and taste. But most conventional dyeing processes still use lots of water and chemicals to make the synthetic fiber colored, ensuring that the colors will bind to the fabrics and won't fade out. Textile dyeing is one of the most polluting and energy-intensive processes involved in making our clothes, responsible for water pollution and carbon emissions.

What is solution dyed mean?

Normally, fibers without dyeing are between gray and beige, called greige goods. There are two different ways that fibers are colored.
The solution-dyed fabric is also referred to as dope-dyed, waterless-dyed, or top-dyed fabric.
Unlike traditional processes where yarns are produced and then dyed(an entire roll of greige good is dyed in a large vat), Solution-dyed means yarns dyed into specific colors before being woven. In a nutshell, the solution-dyed is colored throughout (color locked into fibers) but the piece dyed is only colored on the outside. So the color pigments can be absorbed into the yarns permanently, avoiding future loss of color from wash to wash. With this approach, dyeing can be done without immersion in water, reduce CO2 emissions, and uses less produce energy. The use of solution-dyed yarns is an environmentally friendly and sustainable option. It helps to improve the environmental balance of textiles throughout the product life cycle.

Why should you choose solution-dyed fabric? Is solution dyeing a better technique than other dyeing techniques?

Choosing this eco-friendly fabric not only benefits to environment but also the user!

※This eco-friendly fabric provides the following advantages for the environment:

1. Reduce the consumption of water (No additional dyeing is necessary)
2. Reduce the discharge of wastewater containing chemicals(such as formaldehyde, arsenic, sulfur, etc.)
3. Reduce the carbon dioxide emissions.
4. Reduce energy consumption (power and thermal energy).

※This durable fabric provides the following advantages for you (the user):

1. Colorfastness: keep their vibrant colors for much longer than traditional dyeing.
2. Stain Resistance: it's difficult for stains to adhere themselves to the fiber(no empty dye sites), and repeated cleaning won't affect the performance of the fabric.
3. Bleach Resistance: you can use harsh chemicals to take out stains or mildew easily without worrying about ruining them.
4. UV Resistance: highly resistant to UV fade and shade changes.
5. Consistent Colors: fully uniform in color between different batches.

There are a few drawbacks to solution dyed fabric:

One downfall with solution-dyed fabrics is that colors typically not as bright and clear as yarn-dyed fabrics. The colors are almost bland and have fewer options. With the increasingly popular multicolor visuals, this eco-friendly dyeing technology comes a long way, colors available today are much brighter than before.
The other drawback of solution-dyed fabric is that the delivery date may wait longer. From a business perspective, manufacturer likes to keep a big inventory of greige goods more than solution-dyed fabric(color fixed). Because greige goods can dye into any color which the customer wants at any time. Now HONMYUE get the idea from CMYK and proposed a project called NüPalette H.T. to solve this problem, want to know more? View here.

Reference
https://www.dura-contract.de/en/latest-news/news/sustainability-of-solution-dyed-yarn-34
https://alittledesignhelp.com/what-is-solution-dyed/
https://www.thespruce.com/understanding-solution-dyeing-2908808
https://www.u-long.com/en/category/Solution-Dyed-Fabric/Solution-Dyed-Fabric.html
https://www.outdoorcoverwarehouse.com/a/solution-dyed-fabric.html
https://www.thespruce.com/understanding-solution-dyeing-2908808