Fong's National Engineering Co. Ltd., Hong Kong, reports that Saffron Philippines Inc. — a Philippines-based dyer, printer, finisher and producer of apparel — has installed eight sets of Fong's TEC Series high-temperature piece-dyeing machines at its production facility within an eight-month period.

Saffron has been in business for more than 18 years and employs 438 people at its facility, which dyes and finishes 40 to 45 tons of fabric, prints 10,000 yards of fabric and produces 10,000 apparel pieces each day. Fong's reports the company — whose clients include Abercrombie & Fitch®, Ralph Lauren®, Jockey®, Hanes® and Wal-Mart — plans to increase its daily capacity.

According to Saffron Chairman Tomas de los Santos, the company already had been using Fong's Jumboflow dyeing machine in its operations for a few years prior to the launch of Fong's TEC series at ITMA in 2011. In November 2011, Saffron ordered its first TEC Series set including 300-kilogram (kg) Jumbotec2-1T, 750-kg Miditec2-3T and 400-kg Minitec2-2T models.

Following installation of the first unit, Saffron conducted trials on various fabrics that were dyed using the machinery. Santos reported the TEC Series offers benefits including a reduced liquor ratio; shortened salt preparation and injection time; an efficient and consistent rinsing process; reduced effluent and energy costs; increased flexibility in attaining improved loading efficiency, resulting from a range of machine capacities; easy-to-use controller; and ground-level machine operation.

Saffron subsequently placed three more orders for Fong's TEC Series.

October 16, 2012