The fashion industry is responsible for producing 20% of global wastewater and 10% of global carbon emissions. By reducing the volume of wastewater and energy consumption, textile testing solutions provider James Heal has created a solution to improving the sustainability of water repellency testing in textiles.
Water repellency is an important function of technical fabrics from a safety and comfort perspective, for example garments intended to protect the wearer in wet conditions. The 'Bundesmann' test is the established industry-wide method of providing artificial rainfall, simulating the natural outdoor environment to determine the water repellency of different fabrics and garments. These instruments have a high environmental impact through heavy water usage and energy consumption, which adds up to high running costs, they also suffer from a reputation of being difficult and messy to use.
The next generation Bundesmann tester, TruRain, has been developed with a water recirculation unit. In comparison to the traditional testers, the system uses 99% less water during testing based on a weekly program of conducting 150 tests, reducing consumption from 2,100 l to just 23 l for the week. TruRain is the only Bundesmann tester of its kind that reuses water during testing.
In addition, TruRain from James Heal Ltd., Halifax/UK, makes significant energy cost savings over a typical 8-hour shift which sees an 83% total cost reduction, highly important in the current climate of high energy costs. Productivity is also increased through greater ease of use than a traditional Bundesmann, tests can be run continuously for a week without the need to change the water. An innovative automated shower guard that protects the operator from getting wet during testing.