CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering in Geelong, Victoria, has finalised a contract for the sale of its small-scale wool scouring line to Australian carpet manufacturer, Velieris Pty Ltd, of Thomastown, Victoria.
In a statement to the media, CSIRO says the scour is likely to be decommissioned and delivered to Velieris in early 2009.
However, CSIRO says it will continue to use the machine to provide a scouring service up until the commencement of removal works.
The pilot wool scouring facilities at the CSIRO site in Belmont were established specifically to meet the needs of a major research program into wool scouring in a period that lasted from the early 1970s through to the late 1990s.
CSIRO says that since then the demand for wool scouring research has declined and the facility has been used on a limited basis for commercial scouring of small lots of wool and exotic fibres such as alpaca and mohair.
For the past few years, these commercial services have helped maintain the facility for research work.
However, CSIRO says that as there are no plans to undertake further scouring research, it has decided it to sell the scour so that it can continue to be used to provide a small-lot scouring service to the industry.
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