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Ultrasonic-assisted wet processing

The use of ultrasound in textile wet processing offers many potential

advantages including energy savings, process enhancement and
reduced processing times, enumerates Aravin Prince P.

Ultrasonic represents a special branch of general acoustics, the science

of mechanical oscillations of solids, liquids and gaseous media. With
reference to the properties of human ear, high frequency inaudible
oscillations are ultrasonic or supersonic. In other words, while the normal
range of human hearing is in between 16 Hz and 16 kHz. ultrasonic
frequencies lie between 20 kHz and 500 MHz. Expressed in physical
terms, sound produced by mechanical oscillation of elastic media. The
occurrence of sound presupposes the existence of material it can
present itself in solid, liquid or gaseous media.

Wet processing of textiles uses large quantities of water, and electrical and thermal energy. Most of
these processes involve the use of chemicals for assisting, accelerating or retarding their rates and are
carried out at elevated temperatures to transfer mass from processing liquid medium across the surface
of the textile material in a reasonable time. Scaling up from lab scale trials to pilot plant trials have been
difficult. In order for ultrasound to provide its beneficial results during dyeing, high intensities are
required. Producing high intensity, uniform ultrasound in a large vessel is difficult.

Ultrasound reduces processing time and energy consumption, maintains or improves product quality,
and reduces the use of auxiliary chemicals. In essence, the use of ultrasound for dyeing will use
electricity to replace expensive thermal energy and chemicals, which have to be treated in waste water.

Bubbling phenomenon

Ultrasound energy is sound waves with frequencies above 20,000 oscillations per second, which is
above the upper limit of human hearing. In liquid, these high-frequency waves cause the formation of
microscopic bubbles, or cavitations. They also cause insignificant heating of the liquid. Ultrasound
causes cavitational bubbles to form in liquid. When the bubbles collapse, they generate tiny but powerful
shock waves. We needed to agitate the border layer of liquid to get the liquor through the barrier more
quickly, and these shock waves seemed like the perfect stirring mechanism.

Basic principle

In a solid, both longitudinal and transverse waves can be transmitted whereas in gas and liquids only
longitudinal waves can be transmitted. In liquids, longitudinal vibrations of molecules generate
compression and refractions, ie, areas of high pressure and low local pressure. The latter gives rise to
cavities or bubbles, which expand and finally during the compression phase, collapse violently
generating shock waves. The phenomena of bubble formation and collapse (known as cavitations) are
generally responsible for most of ultrasonic effects observed in solid/liquid or liquid/liquid systems. The
Figure below shows the waves produced by ultrasound.

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Generation of ultrasonic
waves

The ultrasonic waves can be generated by a variety of ways. Most

generally known are the different configurations of whistles, hooters and
sirens as well as piezo-electric and magnatostrictive transducers. The
working mechanism of sirens and whistles allows an optimal transfer of
the ultrasonic sound to the ambient air. In the case of magnatostrictive
and or piezo-electric transducers of ultrasonic waves, the generators as
such will only produce low oscillation amplitudes, which are difficult to
transfer to gases. The occurrence of cavities depends upon several
factors such as the frequency and intensity of waves, temperature and
vapour pressure of liquids.

Basic design of instrument

An ultrasonic generator generates the high frequency energy for the

process. The electric variation lies between 20 and 40 KHz. The
electronic vibrations of the generator transmitted to the ultrasound head
by a shielded wire and converted into mechanical vibrations by ceramic
piezo ring. The ceramic ring is fit into a metal body, which enhances the
vibration reaches its maximum, which lies in the range. To put the
ultrasound into effect a close contact between the sonotrode and the
goods is necessary. This is done by working on a solid surface eg glass
or by pressing a respective counter tool to the sonotrode. Thus, the
vibrations are transmitting to the material to be process and create inner
friction, heat and possibly processing. Sequence of the operations of the
plant is controlled by microcomputers.

Basic elements of ultrasonic system

ULTRASOUND TECHNOLOGY CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO VARIOUS MECHANISMS

The effect of ultrasonic depends on various mechanisms as follows:

Radiation pressure

Heat

Streaming

Cavitations

Agitation

Interface instability and friction

Diffusion and mechanical rupture

The mechanisms

1) Increasing swelling in water.

2) Reducing glass transition temperature of the fibre (dilation of amorphous regions).

3) Increasing the fibre/dye bath partition coefficient.

4) Enhancing transport of the dye to the fibre surface by reducing the boundary layer

5) Thickness.

6) Breaking up of micelles and high molecular weight aggregates into uniform dispersions in the dye
bath.

1) Increasing swelling in water

The swelling of both mercerised and unmercerised cotton fibres with water alone and with ultrasound
has been studied. Ultrasound causes significant fibre swelling compared to water alone. Since cotton
fibres are very non-uniform and hard to measure, the tests were repeated numerous times and the

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results averaged. Several methods of measurement were used to confirm the results. For unmercerised
cotton, the swelling with water alone ranges from 10% to 20%, but with ultrasound the range is from
25% to almost 50%. For mercerised cotton, the swelling with water alone is only about 3% but with
ultrasound is about 35%. Remember; The mercerisation process causes permanent swelling of the
cotton fibre. Of interest here is that ultrasound still causes additional swelling. The fibre swelling is
observed for at least an hour after the removal of the ultrasound, as long as the fibre remains in water.
When removed from water and allowed to dry, the fibre returned to its original diameter.

2) Dye particle size

As Dr G Mock, R McCall, D Klutz carried out experiments. Five different vat dyes of known structure
were examined, most of which had previously been used in ultrasound dyeing trials. A 5-gpl solution of
each dye was prepared, and then divided in half to give two samples for each dye. One sample of each
dye was treated with 20 kHz ultrasound at 25° C for 60 minutes; The other sample was used as a
control untreated sample. The dye samples were measured with a Honeywell Microtrac Particle Size
Analyser.

The following results were obtained:

Table

Dye Manufacturer Without With Average

ultrasound(microns) ultrasound(microns) sizeDecrease(microns)

Vat Catawba 2.447 0.606 1.841

violet 1 Charlab

Vat Catawba 0.462 0.405 0.057

black 25 Charlab

Vat Sunbelt 0.516 0.514 0.002

black 25

Vat Catawba 0.941 0.268 0.673

green 3 Charlab
(dyeing)

Vat Catawba 1.434 0.292 1.142

green 3 Charlab
(printing)

Vat Catawba 0.454 0.392 0.062

green 1 Charlab

Vat Sunbelt 0.444 0.431 0.011

violet 13

Ultrasound reduced the average size of the dye particles for each of the
dyes tested. The effect ranged from virtually nothing in the case of Vat
Black 25 to greater than 1.75 microns in the case of Vat Violet 1. The
effect of ultrasound on particle size is most evident when examining the
before and after graphic distributions drawn by the analyser. Ultrasound
had the greatest effect on vat dyes with a bimodal particle distribution.
After these dye samples were treated with ultrasound the large particles
were completely eliminated. Without ultrasound vat dyes may contain
particles larger than 14 microns, but when vat dyes are treated with
ultrasound the largest dye particles are smaller than 2 microns.

3) Glass transition temperature

One proposed mechanism responsible for the effects of ultrasound in

textile wet processing was the possible dilation of amorphous regions, ie, decreasing the effective glass
transition temperature in synthetic fibres. Before dye can penetrate into the amorphous regions of
synthetic fibres, the fibre must be heated above its effective glass transition temperature. In commercial

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dyeing, plasticisers are often added to lower glass transition temperatures. Since ultrasound allows
fibres to be dyed at lower temperatures, it was thought that ultrasound might lower the glass transition
temperature.

General use of ultrasound

Ultrasound intensity is the measure of the available energy per unit volume of the sample or material.
Application of ultrasonic can be thus be of low intensity and High intensity. In the low intensity
application, input power levels are low enough that there is never any change in the state of the
medium. Typical examples are the non-destructive testing of materials and measurement of elastic
properties of materials.

High intensity applications, wherein phase changes have more severe effect on the medium, are
generally important for wet processes. In most chemical reactions, reaction rate is found to increase with
intensity. There are many industrial applications of the ultrasound, including in the fields of biology,
biochemistry, engineering, geology, geography, and medicine where the application ranges from using
high frequency sound to "See" unborn baby to destruction of stones and cancerous cells inside the
body. The application in chemistry is mainly for physical measurements and also as method of improving
reaction rates and/or product yields.

Ultrasound in textile applications

The effect of ultrasound on textile substrates and polymers has started after the introduction of the
synthetic materials and their blends to the industry. These include application in mechanical processes
(weaving, finishing and making up for cutting and welding woven, nonwoven and knitted fabrics) and wet
processes (sizing, scouring bleaching, dyeing, etc). It deals with the application of ultrasound in the
mechanical processes of industrial as well as apparel textiles. Ultrasonic equipment for cutting and
welding has gained increase acceptance in all sectors of the international textile industry from weaving,
through finishing to the making-up operation.

Mass transfer in textile materials and ultrasound waves

A piece of textile is a non-homogeneous porous medium. A textile comprises yarns, and the yarns are
made up of fibres. A woven textile fabric often has dual porosity: Inter-yarn porosity and intra-yarn
porosity. As mentioned earlier, diffusion and convection in the inter-yarn and intra-yarn pores of the
fabric form the dominant mechanisms of mass transfer in wet textile processes. The major steps in mass
transfer in textile materials are:

Mass transfer from intra-yarn pores to inter-yarn pores.

Mass transfer from the inter-yarn pores to the liquid boundary layer between the textile and the
bulk liquid.

Mass transfer from the liquid boundary layer to the bulk liquid.

The relative contribution of each of these steps to the overall mass

transfer in the textile materials can be determined by the hydrodynamics
of the flow through the textile material.

Ultrasound-aided wet processing

Ultrasonic may be employed to reduce processing time and energy

consumption, maintain or improve product quality, and reduce the use of
auxiliary chemicals. In essence, the use of ultrasound for dyeing will use
electricity to replace expensive thermal energy and chemicals, which
have to be treated in waste water. The Ultrasound Consortium consists
of Greenville Machinery, Branson Ultrasonics, Blackstone Ultrasonic,
and Cotton Incorporated.

A proposed application of ultrasonic to textile processing consists of direct ultrasonic energy

transmission to the textile materials, through a horn and anvil, for continuous wetting or dyeing. The
apparatus was designed and built for pilot plant testing with the intent to introduce direct ultrasonic
energy to textile materials. To collect data more easily and accurately during the testing, data acquisition
devices were interfaced with the Blackstone tank. Measurements desired are time, water/dye
temperature, fabric yarn speed, and ultrasound power.

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Approximately 25 pilot plant trials using the Blackstone cleaning tank to dye 100% cotton knit with direct
dyes have been performed and analysed. The material with and without the addition of ultrasound was
evaluated for their fastness properties, exhaustion rates, and final colour. The variables in the study
were salt, temperature, and the addition of ultrasound. The ultrasound technique had been applied in
the different areas of textile wet processing including desizing, scouring, bleaching, washing, dyeing and
finishing, etc.

Desizing

It was found that the use of degraded starch followed by ultrasonic desizing could lead to considerably
energy saving as compared to conventional starch sizing and desizing. Fibre degradation is also
reduced and final whiteness and wet ability of the fabric are same as those of without ultrasonic.

Scouring and bleaching

The scouring of wool in neutral and very light alkaline bath reduces the fibre damage and enhance rate
of processing by using 20 KHz frequency for peroxide bleaching of cotton fabric and observed an
increase in bleaching rate in required time the degree of whiteness also increases as compared to that
of conventionally bleached sample.

Dyeing

The possibility of dyeing textile using ultrasound was started in 1941. The dyeing of cotton with direct
dyes, wool with acid dyes, polyamide and acetate fibre with disperse dyes can be used. The significant
increases in rate of dyeing with disperse dyes on polyamide and acetate were obtained. Ultrasound is
more beneficial to the application of water insoluble dyes to the hydrophobic fibres. Effects dispersion
and degassing are promoted by the mechanical action of cavitation, while diffusion due to medical action
and heating of surface. Ultrasound irradiation also produces a greater evenness in colour. The dyeing
results are affected by frequency of ultrasound used. Frequency of 50 or 100 c/s produces no effect
while frequency of 22 to 175 Kc/s have been found to be most effective.

Cavitation

Ultrasound energy of 20 KHz frequencies is suitable for inducing cavitations. It is known which causes
formation and collapse of micro bubble is most effective for better dye uptake. The micro bubbles that
are unstable solely grow in the process of oscillation that implode violently thereby generating
momentary localised high temperature and pressure. This active stage causes chemical reaction
between fibre and dye, this result in better dye uptake.

The main conclusions of the study of direct dyes on cotton were:

1. At lower temperatures, ultrasound leads to higher final exhaustion.

2. As temperature increases, ultrasound causes smaller increases in final exhaustion, eventually

reducing exhaustion levels below those of non-ultrasound dyed fabrics.

3. Ultrasound lowers wash fastness, dry crock fastness, and wet crock fastness of dyed samples.

4. The ultrasound power levels may be too low to provide beneficial results. Since low intensity
ultrasound does not seem to be beneficial for direct dyeing of cotton on a pilot plant level, the future
experiments will focus on acid dyes on nylon and disperse dyes on polyester.

Polyester dyeing using ultrasonic waves

Among the textile fibres, polyester is structurally compact fibre with a high level of crystallinity and
without recognised dye sites. Polyester fibre is dyed using the only class of dyes -- disperse dyes.

From aqueous dispersions with a carrier at 100º C

From aqueous dispersions at 120 - 140ºC under pressure.

A thermo fixation dyeing at 175 - 210º C There exist, however, several alternative methods of
dying at exploratory level:

Super critical carbon dioxide assisted dyeing.

Ultrasonic techniques. In the case of polyester dyeing with disperse dyes, the use of ultrasonic
waves is still more relevant due to the following advantages:

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 Ultrasonic waves help in breaking up the aggregates and thereby stabilising the dispersion

Ultrasonic waves accelerate the rate of diffusion of the dye inside the fibre. Benefits

Energy savings by dyeing at lower temperatures and reduced processing times.

Environmental improvements by reduced consumption of auxiliary chemicals.

Processing enhancement by allowing real-time control of colour shade.

Increased colour yields, in certain case.

Enzymatic treatments supplemented with ultrasonic energy resulted in shorter processing times, less
consumption of expensive enzymes, less fibre damage, and better uniformity treatment to the fabric.

Scope

Ultrasound is the effective alternative as compared to conventional textile processing as lot of

experiments has been carried out on cellulose material like cotton with direct dyes, nylon with acid dyes,
basic dyes, reactive dyes; Disperse dyes and leather processing, dry cleaning of textiles using
perchloroethylene. All the experiments, which had been carried, have shown positive results by
achieving reduced processing time and energy consumption in wet processing.

However, a lot of work had been done in this area, but still majority of applications remains untouched.
They are like cellulose blends, wool blends processing, effect of pretreatments right from desizing to
bleaching, finishing using biotechnology and washing of textiles. As previous work has shown good
results, based on that we could assume that the new areas will show the desired results. As there is a
growing concern towards atmosphere since textile processing mainly depends on the water and
chemicals.

This technique is a boon for textile industry. Even 1% saving in chemicals can save a lot. The possibility
of dyeing of textiles using ultrasound was initiated in 1941 by Sokolov and Tumensky and subsequently
Brauer evaluated this method for vat dyeing of celluloses in order to reduce the time of vat dyeing. The
work in this line was extended in the dyeing of cotton, viscose and wool using direct and acid dyes
respectively. In the same study, the adsorption of disperse dyes on cellulose acetate was also
investigated, which indicated that the adsorption of disperse dyes on cellulose acetate was quite
considerably influenced by the ultrasonic waves as against the marginal influence of dyeing rates of the
direct dyes.

The work was further extended for the dyeing of cotton with direct dyes, wool with acid dyes polyamide
and acetate with disperse dyes. There have been several other studies on similar lines. The
observations of the preliminary studies revealed that significant increase in the rate of dyeing were
obtained with disperse dyes on polyamide and acetate and the ultrasound is more beneficial to the
application of water insoluble dyes to the hydrophobic fibres. The work done by Saligram and his co-
workers showed that optimum cavitation effect occurs at a temperature of 45 - 50º C with the useful
cavitations frequencies in the range of 5 - 50 kHz. In another study an ultrasound dyeing method for
polyester at low temperature has been explored, in which the use of appropriate pre-swelling of the
substrate had been reported to give acceptable shade depths at 50º C

Other areas of application

Paper producers have had problems in the past with meeting environmental standards, and they have
been moving toward enzymatic treatments. Ultrasound would make these treatments more cost-
effective.

There are many industrial application of ultrasound:

In the fields of biology/biochemistry engineering, o Geology/geography.

Non-destructive testing of various joints, assemblies and machine parts.

Examination of people in the field of medicine using low energy ultrasonic waves, ie, low amplitude
waves.

Conclusion

The use of ultrasonic energy in physico-chemical processes offer advantages from the point of view of
conservation of energy, time and chemicals.

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The ultrasonic process are summarised as follows

Low temperature processes.

Uniform results in case of dyeing, and other processes.

Increased exhaustion and fixation may be depending on molecular structure of dyestuffs.

Lesser load to the effluent.

Thus, the technique of ultrasound can be effectively implemented on the textiles in wet processing units
for conservation of energy and time with improved dyeing techniques.

References

1. McCall R E, Lee E R, Mock G N, and Grady P L: Improving Dye Yields of Vats on Cotton Fabric Using
Ultrasound, AATCC Book of Papers, (1998), pp 188-194.

2. McCall R E, Patel F M A, Mock G N, and Grady P L: Solvent and Ultrasonic Alternatives to

Perchloroethylene Dry-cleaning of Textiles, Textile Colorist and Chemist & American Dyestuff Reporter,
Vol 30, No: 11 (1998), pp 11-28.

3. Thakore K A: Physico-Chemical Study on Applying Ultrasonics in Textile Dyeing, American Dyestuff

Reporter, Vol 79, No: 5 (1990), pp 45-47.

4. Smith C B and Thakore K A: The Effect of Ultrasound on Fibre Reactive Dye Hydrolysis, Textile
Colorist and Chemist & American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol 23, No: 10 (1991), pp 23-25.

5. Rathi N H, Mock G N, McCall R E, and Grady P L: Ultrasound Aided Open Width Washing of
Mercerised 100% Cotton Twill Fabric, AATCC Book of Papers, (1997), pp 254-262.

6. Yachmenev V G, Blanchard E J and Lambert A H: Study of the Influence of Ultrasound on Enzymatic

Treatment of Cotton Fabric, AATCC Book of Papers, (1998), pp 472-481.

7. Yachmenev V G, Blanchard E J and Lambert A H: Study of the Influence of Ultrasound on Enzymatic

Treatment of Cotton Fabric, Textile Colorist and Chemist & American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol 1, No: 1
(1999), pp 47-51.

8. Yachmenev V G, Bertoniere N R and Blanchard J: Effect of Sonification on Cotton Preparation with

Alkaline Pectinase, Textile Res J, 71 (2001), 527-533.

9. Van den Brekel L D M: Hydrodynamics and Mass Transfer in Domestic Drum Type Washing
Machines, PhD Thesis, Technical University of Delft, Delft (1987).

10. Gooijer H: Flow Resistance of Textile Materials, PhD Thesis, University of Twente, Enschede (1998).

11. Warmoeskerken M M C G and Boom R M: The Role of Mechanical Energy in Textile Washing, 90th
AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo, May 9-12, (1999), Orlando, USA.

12. Warmoeskerken M M C G, van der Vlist P, Moholkar V S and Nierstrasz V A: Laundry Process
Intensification by Ultrasound, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 210
(23), 2002, 277-285.

13. Van der Donck, J C J, So, A, and Frens G: The Influence of Stretching on Salt Release from Porous
Yarns, Tenside Surf Det, 35 (1998), 119-122.

14. Moholkar V S: Intensification of Textile Treatments: Sono Process Engineering, PhD Thesis,
University of Twente, The Netherlands, 2002.

15. Moholkar V S and Warmoeskerken M M C G: Mechanistic Aspects and Optimisation of Ultrasonic

Washing, AATCC Review, 2 (2), 2002, 34-37.

16. Flynn H G: Physics of Acoustic Cavitation in Liquids, Physical Acoustics, Ed W P Mason, Academic
Press: New York (1964).

17. Blake F G Jr: Technical Memo 12, Acoustics Research Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts (1949).

18. Blake J R: Transient Cavities Near Boundaries, Part 1, Rigid Boundary, Vol 170 (1986) pp 479-497.

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19. Willard G W: Ultrasonically Induced Cavitation in Water: A Step by Step Process, J Acoust Soc Am,
Vol 25, (1953), pp 669.

20. Vlist P. van der, Warmoeskerken M M C G and Willemse S: Cleaning Process, Eur Patent No:
EP9401241 (1994).

21. Pierce A D: Acoustics: An Introduction to its Physical Principles and Applications, Acoustical Society
of America, New York (1989).

Note: For detailed version of this article please refer the print version of The Indian Textile Journal May
2009 issue.

Aravin Prince P.
Lecturer, JKK Muniraja Polytechnic,
Gobi,
Tamil Nadu.
Email: aravinprince@gmail.com,
Mobile: 097900 80302

published May , 2009

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