FLOWTEX, fostering circular innovation and technology transfer in the textile district in Prato

Title FLOWTEX -DYNAMIC FLOW DIAGRAMS FOR CIRCULAR TEXTILE.

Location Prato

Duration 12 months

Lead Partner COM.I.STRA SRL

Partners Lanificio Nova Fides Spa, Filatura Omega Srl, Tintoria Martelli Srl

Framework PRISMA – PRato Industrial SMart Accelerator, House of Emerging Technologies, City of Prato

Funding Ministry of Economic Development

Context

The PRISMA – PRato Industrial SMart Accelerator – project aims to create in Prato, a new infrastructure totransfer  technology towards enterprises. PRISMA’s main activity is to investigate the innovative potential of emerging technologies, including Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and 5G, and to apply them to the textile and fashion and Made in Italy sector.
PRISMA therefore aims to foster the creation and acceleration of new businesses and transfer the solutions developed to companies in the textile sector.

Indeed, the textile district of Prato is involved in the new paradigms of digitalization and sustainability on which the competitive advantage of companies and supply chains will be based. The variability of inputs and the modularity of phases and productions characterizing the textile district, including those productions made with recycled materials, make the supply chain flexible and responsive to the demands of principals and customers (constituting a strength), but at the same time it all makes Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), which are increasingly requested by principals and fashion brands, unrepresentative. Life cycle studies and the measurement of environmental related impacts to manufacturing processes are also fundamental for industry certifications, among them Global Recycle Standard (GRS).

The FLOWTEX project, funded under the framework of PRISMA , promotes the collaboration between textile companies in the Prato district and PIN -Polo Universitario della Città di Prato in an applied research activity that aims to respond to the needs of companies in terms of circular innovation and circular economy.

General Objective

Through the experimental research, FLOWTEX aims to realize a new organizational model of textile production chain, with fibers created from mechanical recycling, through the creation of an innovative IT platform. This platform will be able to combine process data and their characterizing environmental impacts, returning flowcharts and data for life cycle studies.

The pilot IT platform can be implemented in the future to carry out comprehensive LCA studies that, with a standardized calculation methodology, will be able to combine inventory and real time process data in order to obtain outputs consistent with daily textile production.

The Circular Innovation & Sustainable Commodities Unit is involved in the project to develop the IT platform and foster its implementation in the pilot enterprises.

Our contribution

The Circular Innovation and Sustainable Commodities Unit is involved in the FLOWTEX project to:

1. Foster the digitization process of enterprises in the textile district.
ARCO will conduct a pilot study to create and optimize the IT platform. The platform will combine process data so as to highlight the characterizing environmental impacts of an individual production resulting from the mechanical recycling system of textile fibers.

2. Obtain dynamic flow charts of circular textile productions, capable of representing the complexity and fragmentation of the Prato supply chain and its production processes.

3. Facilitate dialogue with accredited certification bodies to issue GRS certification.
The availability of process data resulting from the above activities, together with the in-depth study that will be done on the specific certification standards, will allow unambiguous answers to be formulated at the textile district level, avoiding discordant interpretations.

 

Read more on our Circular Innovation &Sustainable Commodities Unit