The recycling of textile materials from end-of-life clothing or from processing waste plays a primary role in the general framework of an increasingly driven research towards the environmental sustainability of production processes and the exploitation of natural resources. For this reason, Next Technology Tecnotessile has developed Daedalus, a system for sorting fabrics based on color, fabric structure and fiber composition.

Sorting fabrics based on color, fabric structure and fiber composition

> 60 garments/min

Simultaneous analysis

The composition and color classes were chosen based on arbitrary criteria and

can be customized according to customer needs. A machine training phase is required to acquire a set of standard samples. Once the learning algorithm has a sufficient data set to guarantee the required level of reliability, the system is ready to start the sorting process.

The process

The operator checks for accessories such as buttons, zippers, pins, etc. to be removed. A dedicated camera captures an image of the samples and determines their color.

Meanwhile, the textile waste is also exposed to the structure sensor, which captures a frame from the samples and determines the structure of the fabric.

The textile waste is illuminated and exposed to the sensor to identify the composition of the fabric.

Spectrum acquisition is done with a hyperspectral camera, which takes “snapshots” of the field of view and acquires a spectrum for each pixel in the frame.

Complete Tailor Made System

This system is completely customizable in terms of composition and colors to be classified, it acquires the entire garment (or the fabric cutout) and displays the reconstructed image on the monitor.

Recognition occurs through a comparison between the analyzed textile waste and the set of data acquired during the training phase. This methodology has the advantage of being able to be trained, at any time, to recognize new colors or composition classes.

After recognition, the system can be equipped with modular unloading cells, served by a single conveyor belt that moves the analyzed fabrics. The modularity of this system allows you to add or remove unloading stations depending on specific needs. For example, it is possible to position a series of collection baskets near the conveyor belt, one for each color/composition/structure combination. The movement of the fabrics from the belt to the specific basket can be obtained by means of a jet of compressed air.

This system has significant advantages: