Largest Columbian textile firm invests in Monforts sanforising line
Fabricato SA (founded in 1920), known as Colombia’s largest textile company producing more than eight million meters per month of finished fabric, is about to terminate a two year investment programme of USD 30 million and with the installation of six Monforts sanforising line
The investment further included a Monforts Montex stenter and Thermosal line plus 105 air jet looms, a sizing unit, an eight colour rotary printing, a bleaching , a pad steam line and laboratory equipment.
Fabricato’s Head of New Projects, Carlos Alberto Rueda, acknowledges that the company might not be able to compete with its Asian competitors on price, but insists that Fabricato is beating them on quality, directly attributed to the many years’ experience, particularly with denim. He adds: “ A principal change in the philosophy is that before 2009 production, regardless of cost had been a key objective, today it has become more orientated towards the customer, with a reduction of production costs.
The Columbian company entertains a 50 years of friendship with German Monforts, at that time it installed the first Monforts product. Today there are eight Montex Stenters, , six Sanforisers and a Thermex. The order was placed with Monforts local representative Servimtexa.
Nine business lines provide at Fabricato a wide range of textiles, including yarns, flat woven fabrics such as denim, twilled, poplin and wool, knitted fabrics and nonwovens. Home textile products include bed sheet sets, mattress and pillar covers, towels table clothes and kitchen wear. Knitted fabrics for fashion wear include 100 % cotton, polyester/cotton, cotton/viscose, nylon/cotton, 100 % viscose polyester/viscose and cotton/linen. Monforts machines feature in all the woven fabric lines. Fabricato currently exports 25 % of its fabrics and following the recent FTA’s Free Trade Agreements with the USA and EU this means to increase this figure in the near future. Especially the U.S. require finished garments and since the Columbian company produces a limited amount, it will look for garment making partners.
Fabricato has recently put more emphasis on denim production, making it a key product, together with military and police uniforms. Up to 60 % of production is now devoted to denim working with 250 to 420 gm/m2 denim weights, the norm is 300 gm/m2. Currently, the latest Montex stenter line is finishing both denim and military uniform fabrics, on completion of the new sanforising line, supervised by Heinz Wengert from Servimtexa, the stenter and sanforiser will be used exclusively for denim finishing and the anticipated production will be almost 2.6 million m/month. Uniforms will then be transferred to a second line using poly/cotton, 100 % cotton and cotton/polyamide with a 250 gm/m2 weight. A very thin 100 % polyamide is also used for uniform production.
Another line makes use of a two-chamber Montex in a coating range in front of a pre-dryer to apply waterproofing and “breathability” coatings to uniform fabrics.
The new Montex has replaced two older lines operating previously at 20 m/min in order to provide increased 30 to 50 m/min operation, depending on fabric weight and process.
The recently introduced Monfortex 8000 Sanforiser – the second in Colombia – offers a 750 mm dia drum, compared with the previous 500 mm ensures increased capacity. The new Sanforiser allows faster rubber belt changes taking just a single shift, compared with the industry two days standard. Belt grinding is also considerably improved to ensure that a minimum of rubber is ground, at the same increasing efficiency and life of the belt.
The Thermex 6500 was installed in combination with a Fong’s pad/dry steam range and offers a production speed of 40 to 50 m/min, featuring three chambers with the third heating up to 190 – 200° C for heatsetting, and ensuring shrinkage treatment. The Thermosol line is used for 100 % cotton and reactive dyeing whilst the pad steam unit is used with the line for poly/cotton blend fabrics.
Two boilers, supplied by Monforts for the Fabricato installations supply 2.5 million K calories for the new Montex and a smaller one million K calories for the Thermex. Both boilers are configured for gas or oil power.