Oerlikon and Haelixa collaborate for sustainable supply chain

Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Solutions is teaming up with Swiss company Haelixa to enhance the transparency and sustainability of the entire textile production process. Together, they offer a solution for comprehensive traceability of products, aligning with the requirements of the European Green Deal.

The key to this solution is Haelixa’s DNA marker technology, ensuring complete traceability of materials throughout all production stages. These markers, designed for each project, establish a unique identity for the material, making it resistant to falsification or alteration. The DNA is seamlessly integrated into the material during production.

The DNA marker is incorporated into the spinning process, for example, with the preparation oil. The preparation system is adjusted accordingly, and additional feeding options are being developed. Complementing this, Oerlikon’s digital platform, atmos.io, records and analyzes extensive production and process data during yarn manufacturing. This platform provides the yarn with a digital identity from melt to package, allowing for effective monitoring of the production process. Atmos.io helps identify and rectify deviations in process parameters and yarn data promptly, ensuring stable yarn quality and minimizing waste.

By combining Haelixa’s DNA marker technology and Oerlikon’s atmos.io platform, the yarn’s traceability is ensured throughout downstream processes. This means that the components, qualities, manufacturing conditions, and origin of the yarn are unquestionably traced in the finished garment. The unique DNA, digitally recorded in atmos.io, is carried into the consumer’s everyday life.

The resulting textile end products meet the requirements of the EU’s digital product passport, providing essential information for assessing life cycle and circularity. Initial long-term tests have demonstrated 100% traceability of yarns in the spinning process. For yarn manufacturers using the atmos.io platform, adapting production systems to incorporate DNA markers is relatively straightforward.