Shengze, The "Smart" Manufacturing Makes The Ancient Silk Town A Fashionable City

Along with the countdown to the opening and operation of the whole Shanghai Suzhou Lake high-speed railway line, Shengze, an ancient silk town with a history of 1000 years, will usher in the "era of high-speed railway". From fabrics to materials, from industrial silk to civilian silk, from production and manufacturing to fashion design and brand creativity, Shengze has accelerated the construction of a world-class high-end textile industry cluster. With silk as the source, it has created a complete textile industry chain of "from a drop of oil to a piece of cloth" and "from a piece of silk to a brand". This textile town strives for "innovation", turning from "the city of fabric" to "the city of fashion", giving the "code of renewal" for high-quality development of traditional industries.

Illustration: Overlooking Shengze

　 "One silk" to achieve perfection

How thin can "one silk" be? How thick? How to achieve perfection? Hengli interprets the high performance of industrial fiber. Industrial yarn is characterized by high strength, good abrasion resistance and is suitable for various harsh environments. Lala Hengli produces high-strength industrial silk. A silk thread slightly thicker than hair can easily lift a 10 kg weight.

"The reason why this silk is so strong cannot be separated from our independent innovation and research and development." In addition to the ultra-high strength series, the ultra-low shrinkage, creep resistance and other series of products are also at the leading level in the industry. The relevant responsible person gave an example, saying that its preparation method "an ultra-low shrinkage polyester industrial yarn and its preparation method" was awarded the silver medal of the China Patent Award. The stability of the fiber prepared by the patented technology is significantly improved, and its comprehensive performance is significantly higher than that of similar products. In addition, the application field of this product is also expanding, from coated fabrics such as advertising light box cloth, membrane structure, canopy cloth, military materials, to transportation, transportation, geotechnical construction, environmental protection and other fields.

Illustration: Hengli Intelligent Workshop

Today's Hengli, from a drop of oil to a piece of cloth, promotes the iterative updating and technical upgrading of industrial silk and other products through the close connection between upstream refining and downstream chemical fiber and exchange of needed goods. At the same time, the annual production capacity of 800000 tons of industrial silk supports one third of the global supply of industrial silk.

As the "leader" in the field of civil silk production, Shenghong Holding Group is mainly engaged in the development and production of ultra-fine fibers and differential functional fibers, with a product differentiation rate of over 90%. It is the largest manufacturer of ultra-fine fibers and recycled fibers in the world. "The thinner the fiber, the softer, more breathable, and more comfortable the woven fabric is, which is mostly used in high-end clothing and sportswear." The relevant person in charge of Shenghong Holding Group said that the island microfiber developed and produced by Shenghong is close to 1/100 of the diameter of the hair, breaking the "world limit".

Illustration: Shenghong Laboratory

Not long ago, Shenghong built the world's first "carbon dioxide to polyester fiber" industrial chain, which uses carbon dioxide emitted from industrial production as raw material to produce polyester fiber, reducing carbon emissions by 28.4% compared with the original fiber. The project won the "International Textile Federation Sustainability and Innovation Award".

　　 Traditional skills enable industries to "update"

"In 2006, Song brocade was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists. In 2012, we successfully developed the world's first electronic jacquard loom that conforms to the traditional Song brocade weaving process and various technical parameters." According to Wu Jianhua, chairman of Suzhou Shangjiukai Silk Technology and Culture Co., Ltd, "In the past two years, the 'national fashion' represented by 'new Chinese style' clothing has become increasingly popular, which has brought fresh flow to Song brocade." The price of Shangjiukai Song brocade fabric currently ranges from 800 yuan to more than 2000 yuan per meter. Although the price is expensive, it is still popular in the market, such as the "black gold butterfly", "Zhai bird", "Bada halo" and other patterns that we have dug deeply into Chinese traditional culture, They are all hard to find.

Illustration: Song brocade hand loom

"At present, we keep up with the new national trend, continue to launch the Song brocade series loved by young people, and inject traditional techniques into modern innovation, creatively applying them to many fields such as luggage, scarves, clothing, home textiles, etc." In Wu Jianhua's view, only by skillfully combining the fashionable elements with the Song brocade culture can we be recognized by the market, In order to truly achieve the ultimate goal of intangible cultural heritage protection - live inheritance.

Suzhou Xinmin Silk Co., Ltd., which was established in 1958, is an old brand silk enterprise in Shengze and is well-known in the industry. Over the 66 years since the establishment of the factory, Xinmin Silk has made this traditional industry, which has a history of over 1000 years, still shine today by means of continuous equipment updating, technical transformation and new product development.

Illustration: Xinmin Silk Textile Workshop

"All the conventional silk varieties that can be seen on the market are not produced. We seek to produce new distinctive fabrics in a differentiated way so that we can survive in the field of silk fabrics." Gu Yiming, general manager of Xinmin Silk, said that through countless tests of combining various new materials with silk, the enterprise independently developed more than 100 new products and developed thousands of fabrics. Last year, we tried to combine low temperature polyester with silk. The fabrics produced by us have high strength, wrinkle resistance and other excellent properties, which are highly praised by young customers.

In Shengze, more and more enterprises use "differentiation" to achieve lane changing overtaking. Hengli's industrial silk, Shenghong's superfine fiber, Shangjiukai's Song brocade technology, and Xinmin Silk's room temperature dyed polyester... Now, Shengze's large, small and medium-sized enterprises have shown their abilities, relying on years of continuous technological breakthroughs, to constantly explore the categories and applications of new fiber materials, textile composites, and industrial finished products, It has become the supporting force for the green development of the textile industry.

(Source: Tang Wenyi, reporter of Xinmin Evening News)