Waterless Dyes: The New Green Technology

For apparel and textile makers looking for ways to conserve water in the apparel-production process, Bill Grier thinks he may have found a solution.

Grier, the founder and chief technology officer for Critical Mass Manufacturing, has developed a new process for dyeing fabric that does not require any liquids or water, which could potentially revolutionize apparel manufacturing.

“We don’t have any water-waste facilities or water usage other than the bathrooms,” he joked.

Grier is a self-taught scientist and retired Marine who has worked in a number of apparel and digital printing businesses. Although he has been working on his own to develop waterless dye technology for the past 16 years, his company, Critical Mass, officially launched in February after he was able to successfully achieve the results he wanted.

The business is based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., with 14 employees, including scientists, graphic artists, production staff and paid student interns from California State Polytechnic University.

Grier’s technology is devised around a single principle: The fiber itself contains enough energy to conduct colorization from the energy stored in the fiber, rather than requiring external chemicals to create color, Grier explained.

“What we found is that there was energy stored in the fiber when it was man-made that we could release at certain frequencies,” Grier said.

Currently, his research has been limited to man-made polymers, such as nylon and polyester.

Beyond the environmental benefits of conserving water, the new technology also helps conserve resources by enabling users to use demand manufacturing, which negates the need for over-production, Grier says.

Most fabric dyeing requires mass production through multiple factories, which often results in excess fabric from over-estimating production, Grier explained. His technology enables him to dye, print and imprint only the amount of fabric needed, all on one machine and on a much quicker schedule, instead of a designer having to place an order overseas to separate dye houses and printing manufacturers, Grier said.

“We’re trying to tie the manufacturing speed directly to consumer takeaway speed. That way, there’s no extra production. We can produce a one-off for the Internet for the same price as mass production,” he said.

Grier said this technology could help bring the textile industry back to the United States instead of relying on large-scale mass printing and production overseas.

“Four out of every five blouses produced overseas is not sold at retail price. That means we’ve produced four blouses more than we need for the marketplace, and the water use is somewhere around 100 to 150 gallons of water per blouse, so if we don’t produce four of them because the technology is closer to the consumer, we’ve saved water and pollution,” he explained. “Water is becoming a precious commodity, especially in California, and without waterless technology we lose the ability to control our own destiny on the products we produce in California.”

Victor Almeida, a textile engineer for Buhler Quality Yarns, said he isn’t familiar with Grier’s process but that there are other waterless dye technologies that currently exist, such as digital printing on textiles, where fabric is printed just like paper, using computer printers and graphics.

There could be ecological benefits of waterless technologies from either conserving water or smaller fabric runs, but sometimes different gases or chemicals have to be used that could be more detrimental than using water, Almeida explained.

“You have to look on the other side at how is it being accomplished and if other negative things are being used,” he said. “It’s very hard to say without knowing the system.”

Right now, Critical Mass primarily creates various military textile products, such as mission-specific camouflage, and cut pieces for the mixed martial arts market.

Grier said the company is at a key point in terms of growth and that he doesn’t know what the future holds.

“My dream is that we bring the industrial base in textiles back to the U.S. by doing demand manufacturing,” he said. “Our purpose is to make the technology or products available to people who need them on a wider scale.”—Deidre Crawford