ITAC have been designing and toll manufacturing coatings for technical coated textiles applications for many years. These include coatings for inflatables, hot air balloon fabric, food conveyor belting, promotional signage, and cargo stowage. The application of a primer is often required to prevent the coating bleeding through the fabric. The protective properties of the main coating are then maintained to provide the fabric’s UV, moisture, heat, abrasion, and/or chemical resistance as required. The primer also ensures good adhesion of the coating to the fabric surface.
The primer required for our customer’s end coating application requires a resin to be dissolved in two speciality solvents. Before approaching ITAC, they worked with a toll manufacturing specialist located in Europe who managed the dissolution process for this. Approximately eighty bags of resin would need to be transported 132 miles from a regional supplier for the solvents to be mixed before being transported back to the UK for application – a total distance of 1,740 miles!
To secure continuity of supply, and to optimise value from this supply route, our customer would need to order at least eighty drums of solution per month, (14 pallets +). The drums were single use hence adding further financial and environmental costs into the supply chain. The approximate CO2 emissions for supply each month was 2,537 kg.
This toll manufacturing partnership was becoming jeopardised as a result of the global supply chain issues seen by many companies in 2021 . ITAC were poised to help and soon took ownership of the dissolution process required for the specified coated textiles application.
Having provided confidential toll manufacturing partnership services to a wide range of organisations for decades, ITAC already possessed the mixing capabilities, equipment, and experience to satisfy our customer’s requirements. Our mixers are capable of handling complex dissolution processes that require particular residence times, conditions, and procedures. Equipment is frequently calibrated to ensure repeatable batches and uniform performance, and we have developed a reputation for understanding and controlling critical function process parameters
With this in mind, ITAC was chosen as the ideal toll manufacturing partner for ensuring continuity of supply for our customer’s coated textiles application.
ITAC manufacture and supply our customer with primer material in smaller but more frequent deliveries. It is much easier for them to handle and store the smaller quantities of material more, and the drums are now all multiple use rather than single use. This has resulted in significant financial and environmental cost savings.
What is most significant however, especially amidst growing concerns about Global Warming, is the huge reduction made for our customer in terms of their global footprint. Monthly CO2 emissions have dropped from roughly 2,537 kg to 145 kg: a massive difference of 2,392 kg per month for this part of the manufacturing process. A huge result in its own right we believe!
As members of the British Coatings Federation, the team at ITAC are committed to making a positive contribution to become a more sustainable business and sector throughout the roadmap to achieve Net Zero by 2050. We also recognise the role coatings play in their own right to create products and infrastructure with longer life cycles, and are proud to be part of this essential sector.
We would be pleased to hear about any of your current or future application challenges. Please call 01204 573736 or email info@itac.uk.com and we will ensure your enquiry is promptly dealt with.
