Pre-treatment Process in Textile

What is Pre-treatment in Textiles?

In the textile wet processing sector, pre-treatment is the heart of the processing of textile that
is used to remove impurities from fibres or fabric to make it dyeable or printable. Natural
fibres and synthetic fibres contain primary impurities that are contained naturally and
secondary impurities that are added during spinning, knitting, and weaving processes. Textile
pre-treatment is a series of cleaning operations. All impurities, which causes adverse effect
during dyeing and printing, are removed in the pre-treatment process. In pre-treatment, all
these impurities are removed, and the fabric is brought to a stage where it is more absorbent
and whiter and can be easily processed further.

Pre-treatment Process Flow Chart of Textile Materials:

To produce coloured fabric whether printed or dyed needs pre-treatment of those fabrics
before printing and dyeing. The pre-treatment processes involved for textile materials have
presented in the following:
Grey cloth or fabric
↓
Stitching
↓
Singeing
↓
De-sizing
↓
Scouring
↓
Bleaching
↓
Mercerization
↓
Washing
↓
Drying
All the above processes have explained below:

1. Grey cloth or fabric:

It is the first process of textile pre-treatment processes. Here, the fabric must be
collected and inspected to identify fabric defects or fabric faults.

Fig: Grey Fabric

2. Stitching:
Here, fabrics are joined together to facilitate the textile pre-treatment processes.

3. Singeing:
To burn out projecting hairy fibres from grey fabric surface, singeing process is performed by
passing the grey fabric through a gas flame. Both sides of the fabric are burnt out by the
flame. It helps in subsequent chemical processes of the fabric. Fabric brightness and lustre of
the colour and fabric becomes better after printing or dyeing of singed fabric.

Fig: Singeing Before and After

Advantages of Singeing:

1. Extra loose fibre can be removed.

2. Smooth and even surface of fibre and fabric can be achieved.

Disadvantages of Singeing:

1. Using improper methods when singeing the fabric may result in reduced strength.
 2. A dirty burner can produce a spot on the fabric.

3. De-sizing:
It is the process of removing starch materials present in the grey fabric. Normally
enzyme is used to degrade and remove the starch present in the grey fabric. If those
size materials are not removed from the grey fabrics, then the subsequent chemical
treatments on the fabric will be irregular, which will cause defective dyeing and
printing.

Fig: De-sizing
Advantages of Desizing:

1. supplementary cleaning effect.

2. effectiveness for tapioca starches and no loss ineffectiveness.

Disadvantages of Desizing:

1. The main disadvantage is that the mineral acid is harmful to cellulose fibre
if proper care is not taken especially during the storage period.
2. Large floor space is required.

5. Scouring:
It is the process of removing natural impurities present in the cotton fibre. The natural
impurities are pectin’s, pectose, ash, wax, mineral compounds etc. materials. If those
impurities present in the cotton fibres are not removed, then it will be difficult to dye or print
the fabric uniformly. For performing the scouring process of cotton fabric, normally caustic
soda and soda ash are used as the main reagent.
 Fig: Scouring Before and After

Advantages of Scouring:

1. It removes natural as well as added impurities of essentially hydrophobic character as

completely as possible.
2. Its increased absorbency of textile material.

Disadvantages of Scouring:

1. Higher scouring temperatures will reduce treatment times.

2. Not economical for large orders.

6. Bleaching:
It is the process of removing natural colouring matters present in the fabric. For this purpose,
hydrogen peroxide, bleaching powder or other bleaching agents are used. Hydrogen peroxide
is the best and most used bleaching agent. If this bleaching treatment is not carried out before
printing or dyeing, then the colour yield and shade matching may be a great problem.

Fig: Bleached Fabric

Advantages of Bleaching:

1. Permanent whiteness.
2. The high degree of brightness.
3. Lower environmental impact of wastewater (negligible level of COD).

Disadvantages of Bleaching:

1. It is expensive as compared to H2O2.

2. It can’t be used for wool and silk.
3. Chlorine dioxide is highly corrosive to metals and toxic.

7. Mercerization:
It is a special chemical pre-treatment on the fabric to improve the properties and performance
of the fabric. In the mercerization process, the fabric is treated under tension in the 20%
caustic soda solution that is termed mercerization. Due to mercerization many properties of
the fabric are improved. The important properties which are changed due to the application of
the mercerization process increase fabric increase strength, increase absorbency power,
increase fabric lustre, handle property, reduce dye consumption and reduce chemical

consumption in the textile dyeing process.

Fig: Mercerized vs Unmercerized Fabric

Advantages of Mercerizing:

1. Its increased silk-like lustre.

2. It improves moisture regain/content.
3. Its increased dye absorbency.

Disadvantages of Mercerizing:

1. The production process of mercerized cotton is complicated,

suitable for high-end clothes or purposes, and the price is too expensive

8. Washing:
After completing all the above processes, the treated fabric is washed with hot and cold
water. It should be noted here that, sometimes soap solution may also use in this process.

9. Drying:
Finally, the treated fabric is dried here by using different types of drying machines.

The main Advantages of the Pre-treatment process is:

1. It removes natural and added impurities
2. It imparts certain desirable properties (water absorbency)
3. It improves the appearance of fabric
4. It makes it suitable for a subsequent process like dyeing, printing, finishing
Its covert fabric from hydrophobic to a hydrophilic state.
5. It has minimized the damage of fibre constituting the fabric.
6. It achieves the degree of desire whiteness.
 7. It has neutralized the pH of the fabric necessary for further process.

All the above-mentioned pre-treatments processes are not compulsory before fabric dyeing
and printing. Specifically, all the five pre-treatments are done for high-quality cotton fabric
colouration but only desizing, scouring and bleaching are done for common qualities of
cotton fabrics.