Archroma unveils breakthrough washing-off auxiliary for outstanding color fastness and resource efficiency in reactive dyeing

Pratteln, Switzerland, July 14, 2025 – Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals, today launched CYCLANON^® XC-W e, an innovative washing-off auxiliary that improves productivity and reduces resource consumption in cellulosic dyeing while delivering outstanding color fastness, even in difficult high-electrolyte or hard water conditions.

“With CYCLANON^® XC-W e, we are building on our proven trio-polymer platform to give mills a way to meet rising brand expectations for durable, high-quality casual wear with a lower environmental footprint – all at a cost profile comparable to conventional washing-off agents,” said Dhirendra Gautam, VP Global Marketing and Strategy, Archroma.

Conventional polyacrylate or copolymer washing-off agents often struggle to fully remove unfixed dye from fabric, especially when a high concentration of salt remains on it from the dye bath or under hard water conditions. This can lead to excessive rinsing and multiple washing baths. Ineffective washing-off may result in quality rejections due to backstaining or uneven shade development.

Archroma’s trio-polymer CYCLANON^® XC-W e was designed to overcome these challenges, delivering high performance, improved productivity and water and energy savings, with minimal added cost compared to conventional polymer-based products.

Exceptional wet-fastness with measurable water, energy and time savings

CYCLANON^® XC-W e delivers outstanding wet-fastness by minimizing the substantivity (or ‘attraction’) of unfixed dye for the fiber. This allows more effective dye removal, reducing backstaining and improving color fastness, even with the deepest shades.

With easier unfixed dye removal, mills can reduce pre-rinsing and the number of washing baths to achieve shorter washing-off cycles and save time, water, energy and chemical inputs compared to conventional polyacrylate or copolymer washing-off agents:

• Up to 15% shorter process time
• Up to 20% less water used in the washing-off stage
• Up to 20% lower CO₂ emissions through reduced energy consumption
• Up to 20% reduction in chemical use

Significant productivity gains for competitive advantage

These efficiency gains also translate into higher productivity. By shortening washing-off cycles and reducing rework, CYCLANON^® XC-W e helps mills process more fabric with existing equipment.

• Up to 15% increase in throughput with the same machine set up

For example, a knit production plant producing 10 metric tons (MT) of dyed fabric per day could increase daily output by 1 MT, without expanding capacity, by using CYCLANON^® XC-W e to eliminate two washing baths and reduce quality rejections.

Part of the SUPER SYSTEMS+ portfolio

CYCLANON^® XC-W e is part of Archroma’s SUPER SYSTEMS+ portfolio and can be combined with the Blue Magic all-in-one pretreatment and NOVACRON^® EC/S reactive dyes to create an end-to-end solution for high-quality dyeing of 100% cotton fabrics.

The system is categorized as an IMPACT+ solution within Archroma’s SUPER SYSTEMS+ Impact Matrix. This means it delivers the highest level of resource savings, high wash durability and beyond-compliance chemicals – as compared to standard FOUNDATION processes with ZDHC Gateway MRSL Level 3 compliance.

CYCLANON^® XC-W e complies with the latest regulatory and brand requirements, including stringent MRSL and RSL standards. Registration for bluesign^®, ZDHC Level 3, and GOTS 7.0 are underway.

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