In this article, I will be discussing shade variation. Being Head of Production, I’ve seen first-hand how shade variation can cause major obstacles in the production cycle.
Initially, I would like to explain why shade variation happens and where it comes from. The spinner buys the cotton from lots of different countries and regions. In different areas, different types of cotton are produced. Some suppliers of cotton forget to separate the different cotton types and so these different types can get mixed up in sipping.
Some yarn producers then start spinning yarn without taking precautions to separate the cotton types before beginning this process. This leads to different shades of yarn being produced. If the yarn producer makes the yarn in intervals, for example if he created a 2k bag of yarn from cotton produced at two different times, this can also lead to different shades being made. In other words, the span in the production can cause different shades to be created in one lot of yarn.
Different shades of fabric can also occur when weaving the yarn. Yarn suppliers all have different size variations of yarn, so it is possible that when the weaver buys the yarn, the combination of different sizes can cause some shade variation. Yarn can come in different sizes because not all suppliers use the same machines. Shade variation caused by weaving often occurs the weaver weaves the fabric on the looms without taking the time to consider the sizing of each piece of yarn.
Furthermore, greige fabric being processed without batching the different greige fabric deliveries by type or by supplier can also cause different color shades. Difference in supplies such as energy used or chemical used (such as dyes) can also lead to different color shades.
Machine malfunctioning can occur when bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing the yarn. If a machine has an issue and becomes inoperative for any reason that causes it not to function well, this can cause shade variation.
Insufficient supply of energy can also be another reason why different shades are produced. An insufficient supply of energy affects the production process because it can cause machines to stop or break mid-way through production. If a technician is made aware of this fault before dying and printing then the fabric can still be 100% recovered. If the technician is made aware of the issue after dying or printing the fabric then usually only 60-70% of the fabric can be recovered. The rest of the fabric will be rejected due to streaks or pilling which would have been caused by the insufficient supply of energy.
All of the above reasons are why shade variation occurs in production. Now we will discuss different solutions to reduce the shade variation in bulk production.
The first option involves fiber and yarn. Separating the different types of fiber and yarn is essential to handle the shade variation. For example, if the weaver had to wait a long time to be able to produce 128k MTRS of fabric by getting half of the yarn in one month and the other half in the next month, he should warp and weft half of the quantity simultaneously to avoid shade variation. The other half of the fabric should be made upon receiving the first half. If the weaver uses half of the quantity required and then waits for the next half of fabric to use in weft then it will produce different shades in the whole 128k MTRS of fabric.
If the shade variation comes from either how it was made or machine malfunctioning then it will need to be re-processed. Printing one color can’t be fully or partially adjusted due to the limitation of the other color. If one design has a combination of light and dark colors, the light color will be affected more than the dark color during re-processing. Hence, the decision of reprocessing or not will depend on the color that needs to be treated.
For example, one design consisting of white and dark navy print, the white can be amended without affecting the navy print but the navy print can’t be amended without affecting the white colour. In this case there would only be two options. One would be to accept the fabric as it is and the second option would be to reject the whole quantity and re-print the fabric.
Most factories shifted all chemical usage automation and maintained the color palettes linked with their software, allowing it to pick the correct chemical based on the desired color.
After all of these processes have been completed, it is time to move the fabric to the folding department for rolling and checking. It should be rolled and packed by shade to make the different types clear to the cutting and sewing department. If the folding department moves the fabric by shade to the cutting and sewing department then this will lead to them successfully packing the goods by shade.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to talk to us and I am sure we will find a solution.