Introduction
Denim was first introduced in 19th century as durable clothes for workers. Initially, definition of the Denim persists to be made of cotton; where warp remains indigo dyed cotton & weft undyed in a twill fabric construction. Over-a-period of revolution in fashion industries, Denim has now become a fashion product; being utilized for different segments like Casual, Formal, Office and Party wear. Fabric construction as well as fibre contain of Denim; nowadays varies based on the application & need of fashion.
New denim trends and contribution of Birla Fibres
Concept and fashion in Denim has been changed and some of the new concepts are as below.
• Recycled Denim: Recycling of denim / other industrial cotton fabric waste is converted into fibre through mechanical recycling process. Recycling process like beating of hard waste and converting into fibre leads to high short fibre content, shorter average fibre length, lower fibre strength & higher fibre neps. Birla Excel being strong, soft and uniform cellulose fibre, its blend with recycled fibre ensures biodegradability, better quality, performance and aesthetics of denim with desired hand-feel as well as durability. This is one of the emerging products associated with RCS OR GRS certification and brand acceptance
• Reprocessed Denim: Cotton yarn spinning industries produce 10 to 30% soft waste, which is being used into coarse yarn applications; like denim and home textiles. For denim application, industry needs certain quality standards which is being ensured by blending Birla Excel to improve product quality, performance as well as desired USPs like hand-feel, appearance and durability. This product is widely being produced and accepted by market due to cost effectiveness
• Sustainable Green Denim: Sustainable process and product is a need of industries, and hence, textile industries are now exploring different sustainable & greener cellulose fibres like flex, linen, jute, ramie, banana, pineapple and grass. Blend of such natural needs support of strong & uniform cellulose fibre to improve product performance and to sustain fabric hand-feel as well as appearance. Birla Excel, being a strong, highly uniform, soft and cellulose fibre, its blend with natural cellulose fibre ensures fabric comfort, hand-feel and durability
Structural and hand feel benefits with Birla Excel
Initially, denim was introduced for heavy & durable workwear garment, which was associated with harsh fabric hand-feel. Over a period and through product innovation, denim has now become a fashion product for all kind of applications with an improved hand-feel and fabric weight (Grams per Square Meter). Nowadays, soft and extra soft denim is in demand for kids, ladies wear & denim tops.
Birla Excel is New-Man made-Cellulose fibre with high uniformity in fibre length, denier, strength, elongation & whiteness. Following properties of Birla Excel ensures improved quality & aesthetics of denim.
• Strength: Birla Excel has higher fibre strength than cotton. It supports spinner to reduce yarn twist requirement, which finally translate into fabric softness. Higher fibre strength also ensures denim durability for end consumer
• Fibre Length: Being a New-Man made-Cellulose fibre, Excel has high fibre length uniformity. Uniform fibre length ensures better softness due to need of lower yarn twist during yarn spinning. Length uniformity also improves denim smoothness due to improved yarn quality
• Fibre Denier: Compared to cotton, Excel fibre denier (linear density) remains highly uniform and ensures denim smoothness and softness with improved yarn quality
• Fibre Elongation: Compared to cotton, Birla Excel has higher fibre elongation, which improves yarn/fabric elongation followed by better fabric stretchability & softness
• Dye-Ability: Birla Excel has higher dye pick-up and saturation than cotton. It reduces need of coloration, effluent load and finally supports sustainability
Listed properties of Birla Excel improve softness, smoothness and sustainability compared to 100% cotton denim.
Birla Excel with close loop process
• Birla Cellulose has state-of-the-art technology with closed loop process for the production of Birla Excel fibre
• During the production of Birla Excel fibre, only one Non-Hazardous solvent is being used for fibre regeneration, and that is being recovered at 99.7 % level
• Sustainable credentials of Birla Excel are as below:
• No gaseous emission
• No use of hazardous chemical
• Shorten regeneration process compared to other MMCF
• Minimal solid waste generation
• Minimal water wastage
• Fibre from sustainable forest with FSC certified pulp
• Fibre with traceability feature
• Enabled with recycled pulp
Birla Excel in denim
With a fast changing fashion demand, nowadays, denim is possible with 10% to 100% Birla Excel blend based on application. Some of the examples are as below:
• Cotton X Excel
• Excel X Cotton
• Cotton X Cotton: Excel blend
• Cotton: Excel blend X Cotton
• Excel X Excel (recent fashion product)
• And above options with the blend of other natural as well recycled cellulose fibres
Birla Excel with traceability
Sustainability is a core value of Birla Cellulose, and hence, we follow Responsible Sourcing, Responsible process, Sustainable products, Valuable Partnerships and Social Responsibilities. With an aim to produce sustainable product, Birla Cellulose has Excel fibre with FSC certified pulp and traceability feature.
Birla Cellulose also providing Green Track interface to value-chain partners for their product traceability and sustainable credentials. Apart from that, Birla Excel tagging is also feasible for final product / garment made of Excel fibre.
Other benefits with Association with Birla Cellulose
With an objective to have long term collaboration and cooperation, Birla Cellulose offers different value-added services:
• Customer technical services: At any point of value-chain, customer can avail Birla technical services for process and product quality as well as performance improvement
• Research & Innovation: Birla Cellulose has world class research centres starting from Seed to Fashion and extend support for innovation, product development, and initial product sampling as well as product analytical supports
• Joint promotion of partner’s product is one of the core strength of Birla Cellulose
• Birla Cellulose highly qualified teams for Customer services, Sales, Branding, Business development and research to extend end-to-end assistance to value chain partners
