The new Diresul Smartdenim Blue, a liquid sulphur blue dye designed to mimic indigo’s behaviour, here applied using Archroma’s Advanced Denim technology. © Archroma

Archroma, a leader in colour and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, has launched its new Diresul Smartdenim Blue, a liquid sulphur blue dye designed to mimic indigo, at the ITMA exhibition, last month.

The new product will be the core of Archroma’s Indigo Reflection, a coloration system that behaves like indigo, with an even more sustainable and efficient application process compared to indigo. With this new innovation, Archroma says it completes its spectrum of eco-advanced denim coloration solutions, from this new indigo-mimicking Diresul Smartdenim Blue, which is aniline-free and can be used in Archroma’s water-saving Advanced Denim technology, to its recent launch of the purest indigo, the aniline-free pre-reduced liquid Denisol Pure Indigo liquid.

The sulphur-based Diresul RDT Indicolors dyes have been introduced by Archroma back in 2007 to offer a water-saving alternative to indigo for blue denim, especially when applied with Archroma’s recommended Advanced Denim application processes, Denim-Ox and Pad-Sizing-Ox.

Diresul Smartdenim Blue is a liquid sulphur dye that behaves like liquid indigo in elegant neutral-green blue tone and in the most common wash-down processes. It has been especially designed to address the limitations of the Indicolors earlier technology. The new Diresul Smartdenim Blue has a greener shade, better fastness to minimise back staining, and allows to create overall wash-downs much closer to actual indigo than any other dyestuff, whilst avoiding greyish cast especially in bleaching with hypochlorite, the company explains.

Diresul Smartdenim Blue can be applied in all the standard dyeing methods recommended for sulphur dyes, including pad-ox, pad-steam, exhaust, denim in all its variations (colour denim, bottoming and topping of indigo), as well as in the Advanced Denim procedures (Denim-Ox, Pad-Sizing-Ox).

The innovation is the brainchild of the Global Competence Center for Denim & Special Dyes experts in Archroma’s Castellbisbal plant, near Barcelona, Spain, where Diresul Smartdenim Blue is produced.

The new liquid meets the requirements of the major brand and retailer manufacturing restricted substances list (MRSL) and eco-labels such as C2C, and it is aniline free. “In the current context of tight availability of indigo precursors, Archroma offers with Diresul Smartdenim Blue an alternative dyestuff to create new blue denim articles that is aniline-free and light in water consumption, but also offers a reliable supply source,” said Albert Llort, Head of Archroma’s Global Competence Center for Denim & Special Dyes.

www.archroma.com