Continuous pretreatment of linen fabrics to obtain superior whiteness: a practical approach

ABSTRACT

Two varieties of greige linen fabric were pretreated carefully in an industrial set-up of continuous pretreatment range in order to maintain balance between the desirable properties of superior base white and good absorbency on one hand and the undesirable effects like chemical damage, handle modification and high weight/strength loss on the other. Linen fabric was subjected to variously formulated recipes of cold bleach, pad-steam scouring followed by pad-steam bleaching and finally applied with a novel commercial low-affinity high-wash fast optical brightening agent (OBA). The effectiveness of process was evaluated by monitoring the performance of fabric characteristics through water absorbency (wettability), tensile strength, whiteness index and wash fastness of OBA-treated fabric along with evaluation of the degree of polymerization and fluidity of linen. The SEM images clearly indicate the changes in the surface morphology of linen after the pretreatment. The above study illustrates that brilliant base white effects i.e. CIE Whiteness Index 80 can be achieved on linen with the developed process flow. The OBA used also provides whiteness that is considerably fast to washing.

Keywords:

• Linen fabrics
• pad-steam scouring
• pad-steam bleaching
• cold bleach
• whiteness index
• SEM

Acknowledgement

The author Abhishek C. Jadhav expresses sincere thanks to M/s DyStar India Pvt. Ltd. and Mr Rajesh Balakrishnan (Ex-MD) for the exquisite opportunity offered in terms of the MOU signed between M/s DyStar India Pvt. Ltd. and ICT, Matunga, which encourage its employees to conduct research.