Given the announced community directives that will soon impose in many countries the reuse of resources and the reduction of waste, the circular economy and recycling are topics of very high interest nowadays, with increasingly widespread applications in all industries, but above all in the world of textiles.
In addition to its main functions (teaching, R&D, sampling), various stakeholders, including apparel manufacturers, renowned brands, R&D laboratories, and new startups, are increasingly considering the Mesdan Mini-spinning line as an integral part of recycling projects. These entities show significant interest in utilizing Mesdan lines for laboratory or small-scale production purposes, specifically for recycling old clothes, fabrics, and yarn waste, as well as recovering valuable waste fibers.
In recent years, various research institutes around the world have included the Mesdan Mini-spinning line in their textile recycling projects. The required equipment for this kind of assessment includes the card with the attached sliver web condenser, the drawing frame with the flyer for better resistance and uniformity of the roving and the ring spinning machine. Some have completed the line with the addition of machines for the production of twisted yarns (assembly winder, twisting machine) or a knitting machine, all in lab scale.
The novelty that Mesdan presented at the ITMA 2023 in Milan is the laboratory scale Shredding machine. Its versatility, flexibility, and high performance define the machine, attributed to the capability to customize and save various settings. This includes modifying the machine’s working parameters such as work cylinder rotation speed, product feeding speed, and suction of the finished product.
A “standard” mechanical recycling process can be simplified as follows:
- selection and sanitization of the textile to be recycled,
- removal of non-textile parts (metal or plastic parts, such as buttons, zippers, etc),
- cutting of incoming material and Shredding,
- fiber mixing (with the possible addition of other non-recycled fibres) and carding,
- drawing plus spinning to obtain the final product (yarn with desired % composition, count and tpm)
Medium-small sized companies are showing interest in the laboratory Shredding machine as a stand-alone recycling tool, considering its production capacity of approximately 1kg/min (60kg/h). This interest extends beyond applications intended for reuse in spinning mills to various technical applications like non-woven materials, thermal/acoustic insulation materials, padding, etc.
Source: Mesdan