Development of a novel process to improve the quality & competitiveness of British woollen cloth (S2S)

该项目旨在开发一种创新的制造系统，使用英国羊毛生产的羊毛纺织品的质量逐步提高，使其能够作为高价值产品出口到日本、美国和中国（服装、家居和汽车家具）。英国奢侈品行业是一个不断增长的市场，约78%的产品销往海外市场。该项目将使现有的英国羊毛布多样化，这些羊毛比用最先进的进口成本更高的澳大利亚羊毛生产的布质量更粗糙，使其能够用于新的高端出口市场。我们的主要创新在于将现有的激光和真空蒸汽技术应用于纺织领域，提高羊毛纤维的柔软度，缩小其直径，使织物的质量与进口羊毛相匹配。该项目将提高英格兰西部的制造业生产力，并逐步提高我们的竞争力，因为我们将生产更高价值的英国纺织品，增加出口潜力。该项目还将为整个英国供应链带来经济效益，其中主要是中小企业，包括农民、羊毛加工商、织布工、布料精加工商和布料加工厂，他们将布料加工成一系列产品。

The project aims to develop an innovative manufacturing system that produces a step change in the quality of woollen textile manufactured from British wool enabling it to be incorporated into a number of sectors (apparel, home and automotive furnishings) for export as high value products to Japan, US and China. The British luxury industries is a growing market with around 78% destined for overseas market. The project will diversify existing British wool cloth that are of coarser quality than cloth manufactured from state of the art imported higher cost Australian wool enabling it to be used for the new high end export market. Our principle innovation lies in the application of existing laser and vacuum steam technologies into the textile sector to improve the softness of the wool fibre and reduce its diameter to enable cloth which matches the quality of imported wool. The project will result in an increase in West of England’s manufacturing productivity and a step change in our competitiveness as we will manufacture higher value British textiles with increased export potential.. The project will also see financial benefits to the whole UK supply chain which are mainly SMEs from farmers, wool processors, weavers, cloth finishers and cloth converters who turn the cloths into a range of products.