What Is The Need of Textile Chemical Processing?
What Is The Need of Textile Chemical Processing?
What Is The Need of Textile Chemical Processing?
2 GRAY INSPECTION
It is checked whether the grey fabrics are in
conformity with standards, and all weaving faults are
marked out. Fabric inspection involves three possible
steps: perching, burling and mending. Perching is a
visual inspection and the name derives from the
frame, called a perch, of frosted glass with lights
behind and above it. The fabric passes through the
perch and is inspected. Flaws, stains or spots, yam
knots and other imperfections are marked. Burling is
the removal of yam knots or other imperfections from
the fabric. The faults are then mended and any knots
in the material are then pushed to the back. Mending
is obviously, the actual repair of imperfections.
Knotting should be done carefully and thoroughly so
that the repair or holes is not visible.
3 STITCHING
After the goods have been inspected and checked they are classed in the grey room,
according to quality and stamped. Goods of similar weight, width and construction and the
goods which will receive a similar treatment are sewn together, end to end, by sewing
machines especially constructed for this purpose and each batch is given a number called lot
number. The fabrics are usually sewn on circular
machine. Stitching should be done in such a manner
that the creases in fabric at the time of stitching
should be avoided. The use of proper stitching
thread is necessary to avoid stitch marks during
colour padding. For heavy fabrics intended for
mercerizing and continuous operations, the seam
should be wider (15 mm) and stronger.
The pre-cleaning of grey fabrics may be carried
out in a separate unit just before cropping and
shearing operations. The purpose of brushing is to remove the short and loose fibres from the
surface of the cloth. It also removes husk particles clinging to the cloth. Brushing is mainly
done to fabrics of staple fibre content, as filament yams usually do not have loose fibre ends.
Cylinders covered with fine bristles rotate over the fabric, pick up loose fibres, and pull them
away by either gravity or vacuum. The raised fibre ends are cut off during shearing
operation. Brushing before cropping minimizes pilling.
Shearing is an operation consists of cutting the loose strands of fibres from either surface
of a fabric with a sharp edged razor or scissors. By manipulating the shearing it is also
possible to cut designs into pile fabrics. Good cropping is perhaps, the simplest way of
reducing the tendency of blended fabrics to 'pill'. In the case of cotton fabrics, in particular,
care should be taken to see that the shearing blades do not scratch the surface of the fabric,
which otherwise can cause dyeing defects during subsequent dyeing.
4 SINGEING
The objective of singeing is to remove projecting fibres or protruding fibres, which gives
it a fuzzy appearance, from the surface of the fabric so as to give it a smoother, cleaner
appearance. The reason for which singeing is necessary:
On the other hand there are singeing faults which are not visible and once occurred can no
longer be repaired. They are:
I. Uneven singeing effect can cause streaks when the fabric is dyed, or bubbles when the
fabric is finished.
II. In the cotton system singeing is done on the grey cloth, but for blended fabrics
containing synthetic fibres grey state singeing is not advisable because small globules
of melted synthetic fibres absorb dye preferentially, giving cloth a speckled
appearance.
III. There is a possibility of thermal damage to temperature sensitive fibres, for instance
polyester.
IV. Stop-offs can cause heat bars on fabrics. Creasing produces streaks which are
magnified when dyed.
Generally, singeing is done on both sides of the fabric. No chemical change occurs in the
fabric during singeing and the reaction is basically one of oxidation. Singeing and desizing
can be frequently combined by passing the singed cloth through the water bath which
includes enzymes. The enzymes digest the various sizing agents, making it easy to remove
them during the scouring operation.
5 DESIZING
The grey cotton fabric contains natural as well as those added to the fabric such as size
to facilitate weaving.
Size normally contains an adhesive (film former) and a lubricant. For cotton fabrics
the film former is usually starch or a starch derivative. All starches are, by their very nature,
either water-insoluble or only sparingly soluble. For viscose the most important sizing agent
is the cellulose derivative carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), which has good water solubility.
In addition to natural products, such as starch and starch derivatives, synthetic sizes based on
styrenemaleic acid copolymers, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylates or polyacrylamides are used
on polyester/cotton or polyester/viscose, as well as mixtures of starch and polyvinyl alcohol.
The synthetic polymer sizes and carboxymethylcellulose are also used on continuous-
filament warps made from acetate, triacetate, nylon or polyester. The lubricant in a size
formulation is usually tallow, but spermaceti, paraffin wax and mineral oils are sometimes
employed. These lubricants impart good smoothness and low frictional properties to the yarn
and are therefore beneficial for weaving, but they are insoluble in water and difficult to
remove from the fibre surface, which can lead to severe problems in desizing. Several
chemical manufacturers offer wax like products that are water-soluble for addition to size
formulations to improve suppleness and smoothness of the yarn; being water-soluble these
are relatively easily removed during desizing.
5.1 CONCEPT OF DESIZING
It is necessary to remove the size from the cloth; otherwise the hydrophobicity of the
wax and the tallow hinder subsequent dyeing and printing. Waxes and tallow are removed in
the later (scouring), while the starch is removed during desizing. Desizing is the term usually
restricted to the removal of starch from the fabric.
Chemically starch is poly-α-glucopyranose in which straight chain (amylase) and
branched chain (amylopectin) polymers are present. These are shown in Fig.
Both of these components of starch are insoluble in water, but they can be solubilised
by hydrolysis of these long chain compounds to shorter ones. The hydrolysis of starch takes
place in following stages.
Starch (Insoluble) Dextrin (Insoluble) Soluble dextrin (soluble)
Maltose (soluble) α-glucose (soluble)
For the desizing purpose the hydrolysis is carried out up to the stage of soluble dextrin
only not to further to α-glucose, because our aim of desizing is to make the size material
soluble.
5.2 CLASSIFICATION OF DESIZING METHODS
The desizing methods can be classified as in
5.2.1 HYDROLYTIC DESIZING
2) Enzymes are susceptible to high temperature and pH values outside their optimum
ranges because they can be denatured. Still, most enzymes function best at or near the
is reduced. One exception is -amylase from bacteria, which may under some
neutral point at temperatures between 40-60C; above these temperatures, the activity
and 10 g/l ammonium sulphate and 1g/l of wetting agent. Then fabric is heated to 80-90 C
temperature with an expression of 100% with an aqueous solution of 15g/l Sodium chlorite
Hence the sodium bromite treatment should be followed by a hot alkaline treatment
with or without an intermediate rinsing operation. On the other hand sodium bromite
treatment also reduces the natural impurities present in the material mainly oxidise the some
of the natural colouring pigments present which lead to the reduction in the chemical
requirement for bleaching.
The general process with sodium bromite involve the padding with liquor contains,
0.3 % sodium bromite, a wetting agent and stabiliser at room temperature. The long padding
time is required for 6-20 min. The pH is the most important factor in this case, the pH should
be around 10, and below pH 9 the decomposition of bromite is rapid. While above pH 11 the
oxidation of starch is very slow. Temperature more than 40°C leads to degradation of
cellulose. Then after storage for desired treatment time fabric is washed and treated with hot
sodium hydroxide solution to remove the converted starch completely.
5.3 TEST FOR DESIZING EFFICIENCY
After the desizing by any of above methods, we now go for checking how far our
purpose is achieved or not. We can check the desizing efficiency both quantitatively as
qualitatively. The quantitative method to check the desizing efficiency is the weight loss.
6 SCOURING
The desizing process is actually a destarching process because in this the starch present
on warp yarns is liquefied by either hydrolytic or oxidative reaction and removed in
subsequent washing step. But after desizing the fabric still contains fats and waxes (both
natural as well as added), which adversely affect the absorbency of the fabric. These
impurities are removed from the fabric by the process of “Scouring”.
Thus the main purpose of scouring cotton fabric is to remove the natural as well as added
impurities of essentially of hydrophobic nature as completely as possible and leave the fabric
in highly absorptive state without undergoing a significant chemical or physical damage.
The scouring process is done by boiling the fabric in an alkali solution. The main
processes occur during scouring are:
I. Saponification of oils present in the fibre.
II. Waxes and unsaponifiable material is removed by emulsification of the same.
III. Pectins are changed into their soluble salts of pectic acid.
IV. Mineral matters are dissolved.
V. Proteins are hydrolysed into degradation soluble products.
VI. Dirt or dust is removed and held in a stable suspension by the detergents present in the
scouring bath.
1. Vegetables oils, animal fats and mineral oils are not soluble in water. Thus when grey
cotton fabric immersed into water, the oil present in cotton will not allow the water to
spread on the fibres. These vegetable oils are glycerides of fatty acids like stearic acid,
palmitic acid, and oleic acid. When such oils are heated with NaOH the oil splits into its
constituents fatty acids and glycerine, out of which glycerine is water soluble. The fatty
acid again react with NaOH to form its sodium salt i.e. soap which is also soluble in
water. That’s why this reaction is called saponification. Thus the saponification reaction
converts the insoluble and water immiscible oil is converted to water-soluble products.
A detergent is a good wetting agent. If the detergent is used in scouring bath another wetting
agent need not be added to the scouring bath.
Therefore, there are three components in a cotton scouring bath: caustic, to swell and
dissolve the motes and to saponify oils and waxes, surfactant, to lower the bath's surface
tension so it can wet-out the fabric faster and to emulsify oils and waxes and chelating agent,
to form water dispersible complexes with heavy metals.
6.1 GENERAL RECIPE FOR SCOURING:
7 BLEACHING
After the removal of the waxes and other hydrophobic type of impurities from grey
fabric by the desizing and scouring the fabric is now in a more absorbent state. But still have
the pale appearance due to the presence of natural colouring materials like pigments etc.
these pigments can not be removed the only way to tackle these pigments is to decolourise
them using suitable oxidising agents. This will make the fabric in a super white form. This
process of decolouration of natural pigments is called the bleaching. The process of
bleaching gives a sparkling whiteness to the fabric and hence makes it suitable for further
processing.
7.1 METHODS OF BLEACHING
The various chemicals employed to carry out bleaching process are:
1. Dilute hypochlorite solution preferably Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl)
2. Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) solution
3. Sodium Chlorite (NaClO3) solution
4. Certain peroxy compounds like peracetic acid
5. Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4) solution
Now we discuss the effect of different bleaching agents under various conditions of
concentration, pH, temperature, time and activators. So that we can choose optimum
conditions of bleaching with a particular bleaching agent.
7.1.1 SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE BLEACHING:
It is done by using sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) as a bleaching agent. This process is
also known as chemicking. NaOCl is a highly unstable compound at normal conditions of
temperature and pH. It doesn’t exist as solid form. As it is highly unstable so it undergoes
self decomposition by the following reactions:
2NaOCl NaCl + NaClO2
3NaOCl 2NaCl + NaClO3
2NaOCl 2NaCl + O2
The bleaching mechanism of sodium hypochlorite consists of the following reaction:
NaOCl NaCl + (O)
The bleaching action of sodium hypochlorite depends on several factors the most
important of which is the pH. The pH of solution highly influences the action of bleaching
agent. Because the hypochlorite ionize differently under different pH conditions and active
component can be affective in these different stages are:
1. At pH greater than 8.5 the hypochlorite is present as NaOCl.
2. Between pH 5 and 8.5 the solution consists of predominantly the hypochlorus acid
(HOCl).
NaOCl + H+ HOCl + Na+
3. As the pH falls below 5 the liberation of chlorine takes place and when the pH falls
below 3 the whole HOCl converted into chlorine.
In the region of pH -7 hypochlorous acid
and hypochlorite are present in
approximate same concentrations the rate
of attack on cellulose is greatly enhanced.
As the pH falls below 5 the liberation of
chlorine takes place which pollutes the
environment and corrode the container. In
the pH region above 8.5 (in between 9 to
11) very little changes occur in cellulose
i.e it is the normal working range for
hypochloride solution. Thus the suitable
pH range for sodium hypochloride
bleaching is the 10-11. Now the other
factor which affects the efficient
bleaching after pH is the concentration.
Generally the concentration of NaOCl which give 2-3 g/l available chlorine is
enough. The variation of rate of oxidation with change in concentration of NaOCl shows that
there is a continuous steep increase in the bleaching action until the concentration is 5 g/l
available chlorine. The concentration giving more than 5 g/l available chlorine has negligible
change in the rate of oxidation. Commercially the concentration should be such that the
available chlorine should be 2-3 g/l.
The other important factor considered for efficient bleaching is the temperature. The
NaOCl bleaching should always be carried out at room temperature. The elevated
temperature causes a rapid oxidation which may cause even tendering of the fabric. Also the
variation of rate of oxidation with temperature is more prominent at higher concentration of
NaOCl.
Longer the treatment time larger is the oxidation of material and our aim to achieve
good whiteness with minimum damage to material. Generally a solution containing 2g/l
available chlorine requires 2 hours for good whiteness; the same effect can be obtained in 80-
90 mins by using solution of 4g/l available chlorine.
General Recipe:
Concentration - 2-3 g/l available chlorine
pH - 10-11
Temperature - Room temperature
Treatment time - 2 hours
It is absolutely stable under acidic conditions
It is sensitive to sunlight.
It decompose if allow to react with heavy metals.
It is highly unstable to alkali like NaOH, Na2CO3, rapidly decomposition takes place.
2 H2 O2 2 H2O + O2
Concentration of H2O2 the concentration of H2O2 is expressed in terms pf Volumes.
This volume means the volume of O2 gas in ml liberated by complete decomposition of 1 ml
of H2O2 solution at NTP.
2 H2 O 2 2 H2 O + O2
2×34 gm 32 gm at NTP
2×34 gm 22.4 ltr at NTP
34 gm 11.2 ltr at NTP
34% H2O2 solution 100ml 11.2 ltr
34% H2O2 solution 1ml 112 ml of O2 at NTP
Act as a stabilizer
used stabiliser. This sodium silicate act as a multifunctional agent:
During dyeing some light spots are formed on fabric containing traces of sodium
difficult to remove.
Amino-polycarbonic acid
(Stabilizer-NS) Non silicate stabilizer. Commonly used organic stabilizers are:
Aliphatic acids
Aldoamines etc.
7.2.2 GENERAL RECIPE OF H2O2 BLEACHING:
H2O2 Concentration - 2-4%
Sodium silicate - 0.5-1%
NaOH/Na2CO3 - 0.5-1%
Sequestering agent - 0.1-0.3%
pH - 9.5-10.5
Temperature - 80-85°C
Time - 90 mins
Peroxide is universal bleaching agent can be It is mainly used for cellulosic fibres not for
employed to wool, silk as well as cotton. protein fibres like wool, silk.
Peroxide also gives mild scouring action so It doesn’t give any scouring action.
simultaneous scouring and bleaching is
possible in continuous process.
It doesn’t affect the coloured material so it It can’t be used over coloured material.
can be used for coloured materials.
In the alkaline condition, wool is treated at pH 8-10 with a 1.5-3 volume solution of
hydrogen peroxide containing 2-3 g/1 stabilizer, which may be sodium silicate or sodium
pyrophosphate. Bleaching may be carried out at 50°C for 3 to 5 h and then rinsed, treated
with dilute acetic acid and rinsed again. The level of whiteness can be controlled by
concentration of hydrogen peroxide, length of treatment time, pH and temperature of
treatment bath.
Filament viscose rayon may not require bleaching since this is normally carried out
during manufacture. However, viscose in staple form requires bleaching as it may not
necessarily include a bleaching treatment during its manufacture. The same reagents as those
used for bleaching linen and cotton fabrics are useful for these fibres. For very good
whiteness, rayon may be bleached on a jigger with alkaline hypochlorite or combined scour
and bleach using hydrogen peroxide (up to 1 vol. strength) containing sodium silicate and
alkaline detergents-at a temperature of about 70°C.
8 SILK
8.1 DEGUMMING OF RAW SILK
Degumming is at the heart of wet processing of raw silk. The main purpose of the
degumming process are to remove the Sericin from the fibre, to remove some impurities (e.g.
waxes, fats, mineral salts) affecting both the dyeing and printing processes, to make the fibre
highly absorbent for dyes and chemicals and to reveal the lustre of fibroin and to improve the
appearance of the fibre. The fact that the raw silk contains two components fibroin and
Sericin, which covers the filaments. Sericin contains some impurities, for example, waxes,
fats, mineral salts and pigments. Sericin has the same amino acid residues, as fibroin but the
proportions contained in both components are quite different. As a result of this, the
degumming process must be carefully carried out on silk in the appropriate conditions
otherwise the fibroin may be damaged. The pH range from 4 to 8 is normally safe for fibroin
and it has been found that alkaline conditions are less harmful to fibroin than acid conditions.
In contrast to fibroin, the solubility of Sericin is very high at pH values between 1.5 and 2
and between 9.5 and 10.5. The Sericin is removed from the fibre but the fibroin must not be
damaged
Table - Composition of raw silk
Fibroin 70-80%
Sericin 20-30%
Carbohydrates 0.7%
Wax materials 0.4-0.8%
Inorganic matter 0.6%
Natural pigments 0.2%
There are 5 ways of Degumming silk
8.1.1 DEGUMMING WITH WATER UNDER PRESSURE AT 115C
Water at room temperature does not dissolve silk but silk is highly susceptible to dissolution
in boiling water. For complete removal of Sericin, in case of cultivated varieties of silk, it is
necessary to extract the silk yarn with water at 120C for 4 hours. For this reason, this
process gives a risk of fibroin being damaged when the time of treatment is prolonged. This
process needs large autoclaves to treat the fibre in silk industry. A further disadvantage is
that this process gives incomplete degumming and sometimes soap or synthetic detergent
must be added to improve the degumming effect. Therefore this process is very difficult to
control and now it is not used in silk industry in order to remove Sericin from silk.
8.1.2 DEGUMMING WITH SOAP (AT 98C)
Different soaps like olive oil, palm oil can be used for degumming. Marseilles soap, an olive
oil soap, is an outstanding soap for degumming because of its high degree of hydrolysis
which gives better lustre. For example, this process may be carried out using 10 – 20 g/l soap
at 92 – 98 C for 2- 4 hours adjusted pH to 10.2 – 10.5 in order to react effectively upon the
sericin.
The degumming action of the soap is due to alkali formed, which forms a chemical bond
with Sericin and produce soda salt, on the hydrolysis of the soap. The Sericin, in the form of
soda salt, is separated by soap and dissolved in water due to the emulsification action of
soap. The quantity and type of soap required degumming generally depends upon the nature
and type of silk.
Disadvantage of soap degumming are
The process requires soft water. The metallic ions such as Ca and Mg combine with soap and
produce insoluble metallic soap, which deposits on fibre and reduces the lustre of fabric.
Combination of soap and alkali accelerate the process.
As a result of the high temperature, this process tends to attack both sericin and fibroin
because of the sensitive nature of fibroin itself and chemical similarity of fibroin and sericin.
8.1.3 ALKALI DEGUMMING
Alkalis hydrolyse protein by attacking the peptide bonds and are said to have severe
damaging effect on proteins. Hence, this process has to be carried out under controlled
condition, so as not to result in over degumming. For this process, pH should be maintained
between 9.5-10.5. Below pH 9.5, rate of degumming is too slow causing prolonged exposure
and hence mechanical damage. Above pH 10.5 there is a danger of fibroin being attacked.
Alkalis used for degumming are caustic (NaOH), caustic soda (Na2CO3), sodium bicarbonate
(NaHCO3), K2CO3, Na2SiO3, trisodium phosphate, sodium phosphate, borax and ammonia.
Among these caustic soda is the most preferred alkali. Alkali is rarely used alone, since it
leaves the silk rather harsh in handle and it is recommended to use buffer system. Hence
caustic soda and sodium bicarbonate is the widely used buffer.
The optimum concentrations are: Na 2CO3 – 1.06%
NaHCO3 – 0.84%
Non-ionic surfactant – 0.3%
Degumming can be carried out at 100C for 2 hours with MLR 1:40.
8.1.4 ACID DEGUMMING
It is comparatively safe method, as the action of organic acids was reported to be much less
pronounced on silk than that of mineral acids. Different acids used for degumming are Lactic
acid, Tartaric acid, Oxalic acid, Succinic acid, Citric acid. Degumming is carried out with
0.05 moles/L acid and 3g/l non-ionic surfactant at 100C for 60 min. considering the weight
loss and tenacity the best result are obtained with succinic acid and monochloro acetic acid.
8.1.5 ENZYMATIC DEGUMMING
Enzymes are proteins, catalysing a specific chemical reaction, which are known as ‘bio-
catalysts’. They work at atmospheric pressure and in mild conditions (e.g. at 40C, pH 8.0).
Trypsin, papain and bacterial enzymes are the main types of enzymes for silk degumming.
These enzymes are called ‘proteases’ because they degrade and their degradation products
are polypeptides, peptides and other substances by hydrolysis of the –CO-NH- linkage.
With the enzyme method, silk is treated at low temperature (e.g. at 40C) not only
reaction time and the use of optimum pH and temperature.
biodegrade in nature.
There is no soap required in enzyme degumming process. Therefore, uneven dyeing
problem caused by metallic soap can be avoided.
Enzymatic degumming also has some economic disadvantages as:
It needs some pre-treatment processes, since the gum must be swollen before the
To reduce the lmpiness
To impart bulky effect.
To control the scroopy feel.
To give body to the silk material.
Weighting methods:
Generally the metallic Tin salts are used for weighting the silk. There are 3 methods of
weighting of silk.
1. Silk material is soaked/dipped in the Stannic chloride (SnCl4) solution, followed by
fixation with Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and then washed the material. By this
process there is a slight increase in weight. But it also reduces the strength of the silk.
2. The material is soaked in Stannic chloride (SnCl4) solution followed by fixation with
sodium phosphate.
It is then washed and acidified with small quantity of H2SO4 & again washed the
material. Increase in weight is sufficient/ considerable in this method but it also
reduces the strength.