Facing the challenges of “standards” and “testing”, how should textile companies respond?
For different buyers and clothing companies at home and abroad, the quality requirements and standards are also different. Large foreign buyers often have their own procurement standards, and the test items, methods, and quality requirements related to this standard are also different. Textile raw materials are used in different places and have different requirements. Europe pays more attention to the testing of ecological and environmental protection projects, while the United States focuses on functional safety testing. The reporter interviewed many experts in the industry and answered questions from different perspectives for textile manufacturers on “standards” and “testing”, two core issues related to product quality and life.
Pay attention to intrinsic quality
Zhang Cuizhu, deputy director of the Quality Certification Department of the National Textile Product Development Center, believes that whether it is a buyer or a clothing company, the quality requirements usually have the following three aspects: First, external Quality requirements: pay attention to defects, color differences, specifications, etc. of textiles and clothing fabrics; second, intrinsic quality requirements, which are reflected in the following aspects: 1. Color fastness, such as color fastness to washing, color fastness to dry cleaning, and color fastness to dry cleaning. Color fastness to perspiration, color fastness to rubbing, color fastness to ironing and sublimation, etc.; 2. Dimensional stability after washing, surface appearance after washing, seam appearance, crease appearance, etc.; 3. Physical properties: such as Breaking strength, tearing strength, bursting strength, pilling and abrasion resistance, etc.; 4. For textiles with special functions, the degree of functional performance needs to be verified, such as water repellency, oil repellency, antibacterial properties, and UV protection. Performance and more. In addition, environmental protection and ecological requirements are increasingly focused. With the improvement of consumers’ living standards, both producers and consumers are paying more and more attention to the safety of textiles and clothing, such as pH value, residual formaldehyde, harmful dyes, auxiliaries (APEO is currently of great concern), etc. At present, textile companies in my country usually pay high attention to external quality, but they do not pay enough attention to the latter two aspects. Especially for intrinsic quality, foreign countries have very strict requirements in this regard, but a considerable number of enterprises in our country have not paid attention to it.
“Total quality management” improves product quality and quality stability
Peng Hui, manager of the Beijing branch of Silaiya Tailas (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., pointed out that at present, most domestic textile and garment companies The understanding of quality is still at a relatively early stage, and quality control (QC), certification and other links are mistakenly regarded as “quality control” one-sidedly, so that the effect of quality control cannot be demonstrated, which makes corporate managers have no idea about “quality control”. “Doubts arise, which ultimately leads to the failure of quality management work.
Quality does not come only from inspection, manufacturing, or design, but from the guarantee of the quality culture of all employees. In order for quality management to achieve the purpose of improving business results, all employees must work together to form a system that can be understood through common understanding and is easy to implement, standardize work, and effectively implement various plans formulated to enable market research, research, and development , design, procurement, manufacturing, inspection, testing, shipment, sales, service, the quality of each stage can be effectively managed, this is Total Quality Management (Total Quality Management).
The biggest problem with quality management in domestic production-oriented enterprises is that the process control during the production process is imperfect and the rigor needs to be improved. Yang Ping regretfully said: This is due to poor communication with upstream raw material suppliers, downstream finishing links and buyers.
Mr. Raimar Freitag, the Secretary-General of the National Environmentally Friendly Textile Association, and the leaders of various member organizations have decided that in the future they will still firmly implement the quality management measures that have been adopted and further strengthen these measures if necessary. For example, quality management measures include random inspections of certified products at the expense of the International Environmentally Friendly Textile Association, with the number of random inspections being at least 15% of all certified products.
Ecological textile testing is becoming increasingly strict
Feng Zhaoyan, manager of TESTEX Swiss Textile Testing Co., Ltd., said that buyers and clothing companies in Europe and the United States mainly use Oeko-Tex Standard 100 to evaluate the ecological performance of textile products. Reflection, including: pH value, formaldehyde, heavy metals, pesticides, chlorinated phenols, organic tin compounds, azo dyes, allergenic dyes, chlorinated benzene and toluene, related color fastness, etc. In addition, individual buyers will require APEO test results. For raw material and semi-finished product companies, controlling the source and use of raw materials, dyes, and auxiliaries is the key to ensuring the ecological performance of products. In mass production, every link of the enterprise should cooperate with each other and insist on producing products with a range of materials to meet the needs of customers with ecological requirements. The company’s quality assurance system should fully play a supervisory role in this process, and random testing during production and before shipment should be adhered to in order to cope with quality fluctuations in different batches of raw materials and chemicals.
Huang Haibin added in detail, Oeko-Tex&nbThe sp;Standard 100 standard updated some content in 2007. The new version of the standard has been revised to varying degrees in many aspects. For example, “Disperse Orange 149” has been included in the list of banned dyes, and the pigment Disperse Orange 149 has been included in the list of banned dyes. The substance cannot be certified because it contains 4-aminoazobenzene, which is prohibited by law. In the future, undyed polyamide materials (spandex) need to be tested for the carcinogen arylamine, and the content limit shall not exceed 20mg/Kg. This is because tests have shown that it contains carcinogenic free amines, which are derived from certain polyamide substances (spandex). Products in direct contact with skin (Class II products): Strengthened restrictions on the use of phthalate esters. The restricted content of the three plasticizers DEHP, DBP and BBP in phthalate esters does not exceed 0.1%. These substances may cause cancer. These three substances were banned by legislators in 2006 from being used in infant toys, regardless of whether the infant would put the corresponding toys in their mouths. The detection of phthalate esters DINP, DNOP and DIDP will continue to be retained in the detection range of Class I products. From now on, all materials will be tested for levels of the heavy metals mercury and arsenic.
The REACH regulations remind companies to improve their ability to avoid risks
Huang Haibin introduced that the REACH regulations distinguish the companies involved according to its regulations: chemical manufacturers and importers; manufacturers and importers manufacturers; chemical users and goods manufacturers such as: textile finishing and dyeing plants; ready-made garment manufacturers; retailers and importers of semi-finished/finished textiles. Enforce regulations in accordance with their respective jobs and roles. Under the terms of the REACH regulations, chemical manufacturers must provide comprehensive and detailed safety data information in the new safety data forms of chemicals. For manufacturers and importers from non-EU countries, when textiles are produced outside the EU, they need to take the initiative to declare and register hazardous substances. Therefore, when textile finishing plants and dyeing plants use chemicals, they must consider and check whether the chemical substances used have been fully described in the safety data sheet. At the same time, companies must also ensure that their suppliers adapt to the changes in REACH regulations through a lot of communication work.
Yang Ping reminded enterprises that REACH regulations, like “green barriers” or technical trade barriers, continue to spread rapidly, which will inevitably affect the pattern of my country’s textiles and apparel in the fierce international market competition. Domestic enterprises should improve their prevention awareness and risk avoidance capabilities, and prepare in advance for the full implementation of some trade barriers. From the textile industry to clothing and fabric companies, they must improve early warning systems and standardize trade practices. Industry associations also have responsibilities and obligations to try their best to play a linking role and achieve data sharing and cost sharing through joint registration and other methods. In addition, related downstream industries such as chemicals, textiles and clothing urgently need to continuously improve their independent innovation capabilities, accelerate product structure adjustment and the pace of research and development of alternative products, improve production processes, improve technical levels and product environmental performance, and compete with international advanced levels as soon as possible. Connect.
Dr. Wakeman, President of the Materials Testing Department of the German Hohenstein Institute, also responded: For companies that have passed Oeko-tex 100 certification, such as textile finishing plants, processing plants and garment manufacturers, Retailers, etc., REACH regulations will not have a serious impact. AASDFWETGD
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