WET PROCESSING

• The wet processing sector of the textile

industry covers all the processes on the
textile that involve some form of wet or
chemical treatment.
• Processes such as scouring, bleaching,
dyeing, printing and finishing are carried out
at different stages during textile
manufacturing.
• These processes all involve some form of
chemical action on the material.
• The wet processing sector can be divided
into three distinct sections.
• Preparation
• Coloration
• Finishing
 FABRIC PRETREATMENT
• The pretreatment process is carried out to
prepare the textile material for subsequent
processing, which includes dyeing, printing
and finishing.
• It is the heart of textile processing.
 PRE-TREATMENT
Pretreatment processes should ensure:·
1-The removal of foreign materials from the fibres in order
to improve their uniformity, hydrophilic characteristics and
affinity for dyestuffs and finishing treatments

2-The improvement of the ability to absorb dyes uniformly

(which is the case in mercerizing)

3- The relaxation of tensions in synthetic fibres (without this

relaxation of tension, unevenness and dimension instabilities
can occur).
• Pretreatment processes and
techniques depend:
• On the kind of fibre to be treated: for raw goods made of
natural fibres such as cotton, wool, flax and silk the technical
task is more difficult than for those made of synthetic and
artificial fibres.
• Natural fibres in fact are accompanied by a higher amount of
substances that can interfere with later processing. Man-
made fibres, in turn, usually contain only preparation agents,
water-soluble synthetic size and soil.
• On the form of the fibre (flock, yarn, woven or
knitted fabrics)
• On the amount of material to be treated (for
example, continuous methods are more efficient,
but are economically viable only for large
production capacities).
• Pretreatment of cotton & cellulose fibres
• Principal manufacturing processes
• Cotton pretreatment includes various wet
operations, namely:
• Singeing
• De sizing
• Scouring
• Mercerising (and caustification)
• Bleaching.
SINGEING
 SINGEING
• Technically, singeing refers to the burning-
off of:
• Loose yarns not firmly bound into the
fabric structure;
• Protruding fibre ends sticking out of the
textile yarns and/or fabrics.
• Textiles
materials are
most commonly
singed in woven
or knitted fabric
form or in yarn
form.
 Singeing Objectives & advantages

• Singeing of a fabric is done in order to obtain a

clean fabric surface which allows the structure of
the fabric to be clearly seen.
• Fabrics, which have been singed, soil less easily
than un-singed fabrics.
• The risk of pilling, especially with synthetics and
their blends, is reduced in case of singed fabrics.
• Singed fabrics allow printing of fine intricate
patterns with high clarity and detail.
 SINGEING
• It is a part of pretreatment process carried out in textile
processing , is usually the first step carried out after
weaving.
• Improve reflection, no frosty appearance
• A smoother surface, improve visibility of fabric structure
• Less pilling
 Types of singeing machines

• There are three main types of singeing

machines:
• Plate singeing machine
• Rotary-cylinder singeing machine
• Gas singeing machine
 SIZING
• During the weaving process the warp threads are
exposed to considerable mechanical strain. In order to
prevent breaking, they are usually reinforced by coating
(sizing) with a gelatinous substance (size).

• In the weaving of cotton blend fabrics, the size material

most often contains starch in native or modified form,
sometimes in combination with other polymers such as
polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), poly acrylic acid (PAA) or
carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC).
• Small amounts of fats or oils may be also added to the
size, with the aim of lubricating the warp coat surface.
• As a consequence of the sizing, the warp
threads of the fabric are not able to absorb water
or finishing agents to a sufficient degree.
• This means that first the size must be removed
(desizing) before finishing. Some types may be
removed in a simple scouring process (water
soluble sizes). But in most cases chemical
breakdown of the size polymer in a separate
desizing treatment is necessary in order to
obtain the desired quality of the final fabric
 De sizing
• De sizing is used for removing sizing
compounds from woven fabric previously
applied to warp and is usually the first wet
finishing operation performed on woven
fabric
 De sizing
• Objectives-
• Removal of added impurities- startch
• Weight loss
• Improve wettability
 De sizing methods
• Hydrolytic method • Oxidative method

• Rot steeping • Chorine

• Enzymatic steep • Chorite
• Acid steep • bromite
• De sizing techniques are different depending on
the kind of sizing agent to be removed.
• Currently applied techniques can be categorized
as follows:
1. Techniques for the removal of starch-based
sizing agents (water-insoluble sizes)
2. Techniques for the removal of water-soluble
sizes
3. Techniques for the removal of water soluble and
insoluble sizes.
 
 Scouring

• Scouring (also known as boiling-off or kier boiling) is

aimed at the extraction of impurities present on the
raw fibre or picked up at a later stage such as:
• pectins
• fat and waxes
• proteins
• inorganic substances, such as alkali metal salts, calcium
and magnesium phosphates, aluminium and iron oxides
• sizes (when scouring is carried out on woven fabric
before desizing)
residual sizes and sizing degradation products (when
scouring is carried out on woven fabric after desizing).
• Scouring can be carried out as a separate step
of the process or in combination with other
treatments (usually bleaching or desizing) on all
kind of substrates: woven fabric (sized or
desized), knitted fabric and yarn.

• The action of scouring is performed by the alkali

(sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate)
together with auxiliaries.
• The natural and added impurities have to be removed for
the following reasons:
• The sizing ingredients have to be removed for obtaining
uniform reaction of chemicals during bleaching
operation.
• The waxes, proteins, spinning oils need to be removed
to get uniform absorbency for dyeing and printing.
• Mineral matter and natural coloring matter have to be
removed to get uniform whiteness.
 Scouring

• Objectives
• To remove natural fat, wax and oil material
containing in the fabric without damaging
the fiber.
• To accelerate wet processing.
• To improve the handle of textiles.
 Bleaching agent

• OXIDATIVE REDUCTIVE
• H2O2 SO2
• NAOCL( Sod. Hypochlorite) CL2
• NAOCL2 NA2SO4
• Sodium Perborate
• KMNO4
• Paracetate acid
• Calcium Hypochlorite
 Bleaching agent for cellulosic
• Bleaching with sodium hypochlorite
• Bleaching with hydrogen peroxide
• Bleaching with sodium chlorate
 Optical brightener
• Certain organic compounds have the property of fluorescence i.e. they can absorb light of
short wavelengths and re-emit it at the longer ones. Many of such compounds absorb ultra
rays and re-emit as visible light in the range of 4,000 to 7,000 A0.
• Textile fibers containing a fluorescent compound reflect more light than an untreated one
and thus increase its brightness and whiteness.
• The fluorescent brightening agents called ‘optical brightening agents, increase the apparent
whiteness or brightness of materials, and are used in textiles, detergent, paper, paints, etc.
 

•  
 MERCERIZATION
• it is the action of the alkali ( caustic soda) on a fabric.
• It was a revolutionary development discovered in 1853
by John Mercer , a calico printer.
• It is used mainly on cotton and sometimes on linen for
many different reasons.
• It increases luster and softness
• It gives greater strength.
• It improves the affinity for dyes and water borne finishes.
• Cotton is mercerized for luster in both yarn and fabrics.
• Objectives
• 1. To make the goods more luster because raw cotton fib
ers are ribbon-like. After this process, the fibers change
to cylindrical shape resulting more evenness reflected lig
ht from the goods.
• Mercerising can be carried out on yarn in hanks, woven
and knitted fabric through one of the following different
treatments:
• mercerization with tension (stretch mercerization)
• Mercerization without tension ( slack mercerization)
• Ammoniating

•
• Mercerization with tension ( cold mercerization)
• Caustic soda mercerizing is the most commonly applied mercerising
technique (it is not applied to flax). Cotton is treated under tension in
a solution of concentrated caustic soda (270 - 300g NaOH/l, which
means also 170 - 350 g NaOH/kg) for approximately
40 - 50 seconds.
• During mercerising the temperature is adjusted at low values
(5 - 18 °C) when the lustre is the priority and at slightly higher levels
when the improvement of the other characteristics is preferred.
Because the reaction between caustic soda and cellulose is
exothermic, cooling systems are applied to keep down the
temperature of the bath.
• Mercerization with tension (Hot
mercerization)
• The hot mercerization process can double strength of
the cotton fabric and contribute resistance to shrinkage
in washing.
• Beside the conventional cold treatment, a hot
mercerising process is also now increasingly applied (for
hanks and fabric). The material is soaked in a solution of
caustic soda close to boiling point. After hot stretching,
the fabric is cooled down to ambient temperature and
washed under tension.
•
• Slack mercerization
• The technique is applied to yarn as well as
woven and knitted fabrics.
• It is also used in producing woven fabric with
stretch in the filling direction.
• Ammoniating
 BIOPOLISHING
• Define
• History
• Purpose
• Properties