Ulster Carpets’ Brand New Dye House

Ulster Carpets’ have just showcased their brand new state of the art dye house and energy centre, situated at the company’s headquarters in Portadown, Northern Ireland. The Plant will not only facilitate a number of manufacturing efficiencies, it will also bring with it many environmental benefits in line with the company’s sustainability policy.

A dedicated building, state of the art technology and a complete move to package dyeing from hank will increase capacity and improve the efficiency of the whole process providing faster response times.

The new dye house will deliver 20% more efficiencies than the building and processes that it has replaced. This mainly due to a new automated dispensing system that allows more accuracy on the weighing of dyes and chemicals.

New technology has meant that cycle times will be reduced by eliminating the requirement to neutralise each dye lot as it is processed, therefore producing more dye lots per day.

Package dyeing uses considerably less water (40%), heat (25%) and chemicals (5-10%) per kilogram of yarn processed, and the system’s capabilities means a greater amount of dye lots can be produced in one day, making the new dye house more energy efficient.

At present, while much of the water used in the dye process is taken from Ulster’s own borehole, the rest comes from the local town supply. A reduction of 40% in water requirements will minimise usage from the town supply reducing the environmental impact of the dye house on its local area.

The building has been designed and constructed by local businesses. This is a deliberate strategy by Ulster Carpets, supported by Invest NI, to continue to invest in Northern Ireland’s economy and to support local jobs.

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