Third Montex for Indonesia’s knitwear specialist P.T. Pelinitra Gunawan

Founded in 1990 in Jakarta by Rudy Chan – who today still maintains a daily presence in the business – P.T. Pulau Intan Lestari produced knitted fabric from bought in yarns, while P.T. Pelinitra Gunawan maintain the textile colouring and finishing. When the factory was severely flooded in 1995, the decision was made to move to Cikampek, some 98 km away. By 2000 the company opened its own dyeing and finishing facility purchasing its first Montex and a Monforts relaxation dryer for the in-house produced circular knitwear increasing production to 280 t/month. Three years later further expansion saw a second Montex installed and a Monforts compactor increasing production further to above 330 t/month. Late last year a third Montex was delivered and installed by DKSH, increasing production up to 500 t/month.

Pic: Production Manager, Anthony Chan

“Not a large scale operation but efficient, quality driven and meeting timely deliveries,” said Production Manager, Anthony Chan.

Up to 80% of production today is cotton and its blend of primarily 65:35 and 50:50 cotton/polyester. Other blends feature viscose, tencel and polyester lycra. For cotton/lycra blends of 5 – 12 % lycra maximum are produced. Fabric widths of 50 – 86 inch are produced from 85 – 380 gsm – the latter generally baby-terry knit for jackets. Principally knitwear of 110 – 210 gsm is produced for men’s, ladies casual and intimate fashion wear for the Japanese and German markets.Indirect export, through local garment make up and Indonesian agencies for customers such as Uniqlo, Asics, S Oliver, Esprit and Massimo Dutti account for 50 % of production.

Latest Montex
The recently installed Montex, according to Andreas Arya, DSKH Product Manager-Textiles, introduces the latest technology to Pelinitra Gunawan and includes heat recovery to make the line more than 30 % more energy efficient; thereby significantly reducing energy costs.

“It is also more user friendly, offering easy to use programmes,” confirmed Anthony Chan. All three Montex stenters have the capability to provide a variety of finishing processes including anti-bacteria, anti-yellowing, quick dry and others.

Independent compactor
Alongside the latest Montex, the felt compactor has been installed for independent operation rather than in line offering increased flexibility. Featuring a felt belt it offers according to Anthony, “good hand feel and lustre.” “It also offers good ‘bulky’ feel if required” he added.

A 6 m long stretching field infeed to the compactor also ensures stable, precise and constant width dimensions.

Working 24 hours six days a week, the company places great emphasis on day-to-day routine maintenance to ensure trouble-free operation.

In concluding Anthony Chan confirmed that the company associated Monforts machinery with good German engineering precision. He added, “We have therefore stayed with their finishing machines with the latest delivery.”

Pic: The Monforts Compactor features a 6 m long stretching field infeed to ensure stable, precise and constant fabric width dimensions.