Master every shade with dystar’s stability and compatibility edge
DyStar Group continues to strengthen its reputation for innovation in sustainable dye solutions with the launch of Remazol Chai Brown SAM, a patented ternary dye designed to address the challenges of achieving critical pale and medium shades. Known for its stability, levelness, and compatibility, this dye offers significant advantages in both pad applications and exhaust processes. In this interview with Fibre2Fashion, Ayhan Ozkan, Product Manager for Reactive/ Direct, Global Marketing Coloration at DyStar Group, shares insights into the development, performance benefits, and industry relevance of Remazol Chai Brown SAM.
What inspired the development of Remazol Chai Brown SAM, and what gap in the market does it address?
Remazol Chai Brown SAM is a brand new, patented ternary dye for pale and critical shades in pad applications and exhaust processes.
The development was driven by increasing demand for more reliable and sustainable solutions for pale and critical shades such as sand, brown, and khaki—shades that are notoriously difficult to reproduce consistently. DyStar identified a clear market gap for a robust reactive dye that could deliver excellent fastness, compatibility, and process efficiency while meeting the growing requirements of brands and mills for improved reproducibility and environmental responsibility.
Could you explain what makes Remazol Chai Brown SAM a ‘ternary dye’ and why this is significant?
In reactive dyeing, colours are developed based on a combination of yellow, red, and blue. These combination dyes must have similar dyeing properties for good dyeing reproducibility and shade stability. Remazol Chai Brown SAM is a good red component for critical shades, together with its combination partners Remazol Yellow SAM and Blue SAM.
How does this dye perform when used for pale and critical shades like sand, brown, and khaki?
Remazol Chai Brown SAM is an excellent choice for pale and medium sand, brown, and khaki shades. It offers excellent shade stability, levelness, and process robustness, allowing dyehouses to achieve high Right-First-Time rates with minimal shade variation.
What are some of the key challenges in achieving consistency in critical shades, and how does Remazol Chai Brown SAM help overcome them?
In textile dyeing, critical shades refer to colours that are particularly sensitive to even slight variations in the dyeing process, whether in temperature, pH, salt concentration, dye compatibility, or time. These shades are challenging to reproduce consistently and are prone to shade variation, unevenness, or batch-to-batch mismatch, resulting in increased production time and cost.
Remazol Chai Brown SAM is, however, able to overcome these challenges due to its chemical stability, excellent levelness, and process robustness, helping to achieve best-in-class Right-First-Time dyeing.
Could you elaborate on the dye’s performance in terms of shade stability and levelness?
Shade stability and levelness performance are characterised by good compatibility with the shading dyes and good stability to dye bath variations. Remazol Chai Brown SAM shows excellent robustness performance with Remazol Yellow SAM and Blue SAM.
How does the dye's stability to nitrogen oxides (as per ISO 105 G01) benefit users in tropical or high-pollution regions?
The polluted air contains a high amount of nitrogen oxides, which leads to colour fading of the textiles, especially under tropical conditions. Remazol Chai Brown SAM meets these requirements perfectly and contributes to long-lasting colours.
How does Remazol Chai Brown SAM compare with other reactive dyes in terms of light, perspiration, and weathering fastness?
Many reactive dyes show limitations in perspiration light, or weathering light fastness. In contrast, Remazol Chai Brown SAM performs strongly across ISO 105 B02 (artificial light), B04 (weathering), and B07 (perspiration light).
What is the compatibility of Remazol Chai Brown SAM with other dye ranges such as Remazol SAM and Levafix CA?
It has been designed to be highly compatible with both Remazol SAM and Levafix CA dye ranges. This compatibility ensures flexibility and efficiency for mills looking to use it within existing dye systems.
Can you share more about its suitability for both exhaust and continuous dyeing processes?
Remazol Chai Brown SAM was thoroughly tested for its suitability in both exhaust and continuous dyeing processes. For exhaust dyeing, various dyeing temperatures were applied to identify the optimal conditions for dye uptake. In continuous dyeing, several methods were evaluated, including Pad-dry pad-steam, Econtrol, Pad-dry- thermofix and Cold pad-batch. Remazol Chai Brown SAM was identified as a dye with high robustness to process variations and very good dye-liquor stability.
How well does it integrate into dyehouses using the Cadira Reactive process?
The Cadira Reactive process is a water, energy and time-saving module in which selected Levafix and/or Remazol dyes and Sera Process auxiliaries are recommended. Remazol Chai Brown SAM is fully applicable in the Cadira Reactive module, ensuring that mills can save valuable resources without sacrificing performance.
How does the dye support DyStar’s broader sustainability goals, particularly under the Cadira programme?
Remazol Chai Brown SAM contributes to DyStar’s sustainability roadmap by enabling cleaner and more efficient dyeing processes. When applied with selected Cadira modules, the dye supports a lower carbon footprint of the textile supply chains.
Could you walk us through the resource savings (water, energy, wastewater) achieved when using Remazol Chai Brown SAM in Cadira Reactive processes?
The Cadira Reactive module with Remazol Chai Brown SAM delivers higher fixation yields, leading to reduced dye waste and lower wastewater pollution. Optimised dyeing and special wash-off procedures further reduce energy and water usage.
Compared to conventional reactive dyeing, the Cadira Reactive module can potentially reduce electricity consumption by 22 per cent, steam production by 31 per cent, wastewater production by 28 per cent, and at the same time, achieve a reduction of 24 per cent in process time.
While actual savings depend on the process setup, mills typically benefit from measurable reductions in both cost and environmental footprint.
What environmental certifications or performance benchmarks support these claims?
Remazol Chai Brown is listed on the bluesign finder and will therefore soon be visible on ZDHC Gateway.
How does this product reflect DyStar’s commitment to combining performance with environmental responsibility?
This product is monitored in DyStar’s econfidence programme, which is specifically designed to provide customers and stakeholders with the assurance that their products meet various key ecological and legislative requirements. The outstanding fastness profile will ensure that the dyed textiles retain their colour and aesthetics for a longer timeframe. This is a crucial aspect of sustainability.
Are there any collaborations or case studies with mills or brands using this dye that you can share?
We are currently working with several mills to implement Remazol Chai Brown SAM in Cadira Reactive modules. Early results have shown top First-Time-Right results and reductions in wash-off water usage. While specific brand names cannot be disclosed yet, we expect to see more detailed case studies with the increasing take-up rate.
What is next in DyStar’s product pipeline in terms of reactive dye development or sustainable solutions?
DyStar experts are continuously working on the development of new innovative products with improved performance and sustainability.
How does DyStar plan to expand the Cadira concept across other fibre and/or dye categories?
At DyStar, sustainability is no longer just a goal—it is embedded in how we think, decide, and operate every day. It shapes our conversations, influences our decisions, and drives the progress we make with our partners across the textile value chain.
Today, we offer 10 Cadira modules that cover a wide range of fibre types, for dyeing and printing with reactive, disperse, vat, acid and direct dyes and its respective Sera process auxiliaries. These modules are designed to reduce water, energy, and chemical consumption while maintaining high process reliability and product performance.
Looking ahead, DyStar hopes to motivate and convince even more customers and stakeholders to adopt its resource-efficient processes— regardless of substrate or dye type—through innovations that support both environmental impact reduction and operational excellence.
