Compressed Air in Textiles: Powering Efficiency and Innovation in Apparel Production

In today’s world, you’d be hard pressed to find a manufacturing facility that doesn’t use compressed air. It may be easy to name a handful of industries where compressed air is used for packaging or powering pneumatic air tools, but what about its use in textiles? Yes, textiles. Compressed air helps fuel the ~$12 billion U.S. apparel industry where American families spend close to $2,000 each year on clothing.

How are compressors used in textiles?

To bring their beautiful creations to life with sophisticated colors and patterns, fashion designers rely on compressor-powered weavers or spinners for faster production. In clothing manufacturing, compressed air is also used in:

• Air jet weaving
• Spinning – ring, open and air jet spinning
• Man-made fiber production – partially oriented yarn (POY) and fully oriented yarn (FOY)
• Texturizing
• Winding and dyeing nonwoven textiles
• Pneumatic transport for PET chips
• Wastewater treatment

Oil and clothing don’t mix

Because compressed air touches clothing fabric throughout the production process, it’s recommended that manufacturers use oil-free compressors. Any risk of oil coming in contact with the fabric can cause fabric-darkening grease stains and damaged/unusable end products.

Investing in Class 0 certified equipment not only reduces risks of rejections, but it also optimizes production with less downtime and extends service intervals. If you’re interested in learning how oil-free compressors can impact your textile manufacturing plant, leave us a comment below, and an Atlas Copco expert will reach out to you.