Importance Of Pre Treatment For Fabric Dyeing

Bachelor of Applied Science (Textile Technology)-2012/2013 Lasitha Nawarathna

Cotton Fabric
Garments are produced using different types of fabrics such as woven fabrics, knitted fabrics and non-Woven. Basically knitted fabrics can be warp knitted fabrics or weft knitted fabrics. Weft knitted fabrics can be subgroup as single jersey and double jersey. Further they can group as plain knitted, purl knitted, rib and interlock.

Fabrics
Woven fabric Plain Twill Satin/sateen
Weft knitted fabric

Knitted fabric

Non-woven fabric

Warp knitted Fabric

Single jersey - plain knit - purl knit Cotton Woven fabric

Double jersey - rib fabric - interlock fabric

Woven fabrics are made of yarns interlaced in a regular order called a binding system, or weave. Weaving is the process of combining warp and weft components to make a woven structure. The components need neither be parallel to each other nor cross each other at right angles, but most woven structures are composed of two sets of components, both flexible and crossing at right angles Cotton weaves come in three types: 1. Plain 2. Twill 3. Satin Plain weave fabric is made by taking the weft and threading it over and under each warp. Gingham and chambray are produced that way. Twill weave is made by weaving the yarns to form a raised, diagonal pattern. This fabric is strong and sturdy. Denim, gabardine and herringbone are produced that way

Construction of woven fabric:-

Cotton Knitted fabrics Knitted cotton is made by machines with needles that grasp the yarn to create a series of stitches that form the fabric. Cotton fabric made using this method is soft and stretchable and is used for T-shirts. knitted cotton comes in two main types :- weft kitted, warp knitted

construction of knitted fabric

Cotton Non-Woven Non-woven cotton fabric such as felt is created using chemicals or heat to hold the fibres together. This method is used to create cotton pads, bandages, diapers and filters.

Cotton Fibre chemical composition & structure

Natural, Cellulose, Seed, mono-cellular, staple fibre Repeating unit of polymer-

Cellobiose unit-repeating unit, about 5000 unit make cellulose polymer

Properties Density- 1.52g/cm3, Diameter- 11m to 22m Microscopic appearance 65-70% crystalline,

length up to 65mm length to breadth ratio 350 to 6000 length wise like a twisted ribbon (convolution) Cross-section kidney shape with lumen 30-35% amorphous

High strength due to high degree of polymerisation, Wet strength is higher (5%) than wet strength due to polymer alignment in the amorphous region Relatively inelastic due to crystallinity and hydrogen bonds Creasing and wrinkle due to polymer damage in the crystalline region

Contain of cotton fibre

component Cellulose Water Waxes and fats Proteins Hemicelluloses and pectins Ash Percentage 80-90% 6-8% 0.5 - 1% 0 - 1.5% 4 - 6% 1 - 1.8%

characteristics of greige cotton fabric

In normally water absorbency of greige cotton is very poor due to natural wax layer & impurities as well as synthetic wax has been added when its Knitted & Starch has been added when its weave. Therefore natural/added wax and impurities must be removed prior to dye the fabric. It will help to increase absorbency of fabric.

Why we do pre-treatment

To remove the Natural impurities & waxes

To remove the Added impurities & waxes

To remove the natural colorant matter/pigments.

To remove the Starch in woven fabrics.

Pre-treatment methods for Cotton Fabric Singeing

Singeing: It is the process of burning out projecting hairy fibres from surface of the grey fabric by assigns the fabric through a gas flame. Both sides of the fabric are burnt out by the flame. It helps in subsequent chemical process of the fabric. After dyeing or printing of singed fabric, brightness and luster of color and fabric becomes better.

Singeing is the process of removing the pills and protruding fibers of the fabric coming from weaving. This operation may either be done at the beginning of the process or at the end of the finishing operation.

Desizing
Desizing is the process of removing the size material from the warp yarns in woven fabrics. Sizing agents are selected on the basis of type of fabric, environmental friendliness, ease of removal, cost considerations, effluent treatment, etc.

Desizing, irrespective of what the desizing agent is, involves impregnation of the fabric with the desizing agent, allowing the desizing agent to degrade or solubilise the size material, and finally to wash out the degradation products.

Desizing is the second operation after singeing. Desizing of fabric is essential to remove the sizing materials added during warping to strengthen the warp yarns. This size if present during subsequent processing will affect the quality of look and finish. There are many ways to remove the size from the fabric. A few methods are as below.

a) Acid Desizing - this is an old process of destroying the starch and other size materials in the presence of acid at elevated temperatures.

b) Oxidative desizing method - desizing with the help of an oxidizing agent such as Hydrogen peroxide.

c) Enzymatic desizing method - this is a bio degradation method that destroys starch and other sizing materials in to soluble form that will be washed off during subsequent washes.

Scouring
Scouring:It is the process of removing natural impurities present in the cotton fibre. The natural impurities are pectins, pectos, ash, wax, mineral compounds, etc. if those impurities present in the cotton fibres are not removed, then it will be difficult to dye or print the fabric uniformly. Normally caustic soda ash is used as main reagent from scouring of cotton fabric.

1.Saponification:

The vegetable oil, which is immiscible with water, is glyceride of fatty acids. When such oils are heated with a solution of sodium hydroxide in water, the oil splits up into its constituents-fatty acid and glycerine. Glycerine is miscible with water easily and the fatty acids reacts with sodium hydroxide present in the solution forming its sodium salt( i.e. Soap which is also soluble in water). Thus oil is removed.

2.Emulsification:

Wax and non saponifiable oils are removed by emulsification as they are immiscible in water. Normal washing soap is used as a emulsifying agent which makes emulsion of them.

A surfactant is defined as a material that can greatly reduce the surface tension of water when used in very low concentrations. A particular type of molecular structure performs as a surfactant. This molecule is made up of a water soluble (hydrophilic) and water insoluble (hydrophobic) component.

3. Detergency : After removal of fats by saponification and waxes by emulsification, the

remaining constituents, dust and dirt particles have to be removed by a good detergent. Detergent not only removes the dirt particles but also keep them in dispersed or suspended form in the scouring solution and does not allow them to settle on other parts of the fabric. Thus in the final stage of scouring i.e. detergency, the hydrophilic end of the surfactant is strongly attracted to the water molecules and the force of attraction between the hydrophobe and water is very less. As a result the surfactant molecules align themselves at the surface and internally so that the hydrophile end is towards the water and hydrophobe is squeezed away from the water. This internal group of surfactant molecules is called Micelles. Apart from removing these impurities, the major technical aspect is to improve the absorbency. Achieving good absorbency necessitates the thorough removal of cotton wax, which is located mainly in the fibre surface. Not all good detergents possess good wetting/re-wetting properties; hence a combination of surfactants to provide good wetting, emulsifying and re-wetting property is preferable.

The changes occurring of cotton fibers during scouring:

Saponifiable oils and free fatty acids are converted into soaps. Pectins and pectoses are converted into soluble salts of pectic acid. Proteins are degraded to simple soluble amino acids or ammonia. Mineral matters are mostly dissolved.

Non-saponifiable oils are emulsified by the soluble soaps generated from the saponifiable oils. Additive dirts are removed. Residual sizing materials are broken down into soluble product

Objective of Scouring
To make the fabric highly hydrophilic. To remove impurities such as oils, waxes, gum, husks as nearly as possible. To increase absorbency of fabric or textile materials without physical and chemical damage. To produce a clean material by adding alkali. To make the fabric ready for next process. To remove non-cellulosic substance in case of cotton.

Bleaching
It is the process of removing natural coloring matters present in the cotton fibre. For his purpose, hydrogen peroxide, bleaching powder or other bleaching agents are used. Hydrogen peroxide is the best and most commonly used bleaching agent. If this bleaching treatment is not carried out before dyeing or printing hen the color yield and shade matching may be a great problem.

Bleaching Process: Bleaching is a process to make the fabric or yarn look brighter and whiter. This is achieved by oxidizing or reducing the coloring matters in to colorless form. Mostly widely used textile bleaching method is Hydrogen Peroxide bleaching.

Mercerization
It is a special chemical pre-treatment on cotton fabric t improves the properties and performance of cotton fabric. The cotton fabric is treated under tension in the 20% caustic soda solution which is called mercerization many properties of cotton fabric is improved, some of them are mentioned below:

Changes during mercerizing process

A. Fiber level Swelling Cross sectional morphology changes from beam shape to round shape Increases fabric strength Increases absorbency power

B. Molecular level Hydrogen bond readjustment Orientation (parallelization) of molecular chains in amorphous region along the direction of fiber length. Orientation of the crystallinity in the direction of the fiber length. Increased crystallinity

C. Chemical Changes .Increased rate of reaction on hydrolysis and oxidation .Liberation of heat during the caustic treatment.(heat of sorption and heat of reaction) Increase in the alkali absorption.

Increase in the absorption of iodine.

Main important factors of pre-treatments

Good Hydrophilic fabric for dyeing. Fabric with good wetting properties Increases fabric softness and handle property. Reduces dye consumption Reduces chemical consumption in dyeing Fabric with good dyeability. Improve tearing strength. Improve dimension stability. Improve lusture.

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