Development of Shade continuity and Wash-fastness properties of Reactive dyed cellulosic fabrics .

Introduction
Emphasis on fault prevention and elimination of re-dyeing not only brings substantial water and energy savings but also results in higher quality, increased productivity, reduced labour costs and advantages in supplier-customer partnership. Ferrington1 & Glover et al2 have discussed & calculated impact of re-dyeing cost. Considerable work has been carried out to optimize & ensure maximum reproducibility in dyeing. Reviews on this subject have been published. quality of water, grey preparation, dyeability of substrate, weight of substrate, weighing of dyes & chemicals, selection of dyes, standardization of dye strength (hue), moisture content of dyes and substrate, nature of dye bath, machine flow & sequence, time & temperature profile are factors which are responsible for complexity of dyeing processes. One of these factors, i.e. moisture content of dye powder is recognized as being influential for depth of shade & reproducibility; however only a few quantitative results have been published on its effect & its consequences on dyeing. Adamiake4 reported effect of variations in moisture content of wool dye powder on depth of shade. One reason for variation in moisture content of dye powder is improper storage condition in dyeing factories. Many dyeing factories do not pay attention in storing dyes & chemicals. Stores personnel after issuing dyes & chemicals to production department do not bother to close containers properly. Therefore these dyes & chemicals get exposed to varying temperatures & humidity depending upon seasons. Change in humidity results in change in weight of dye powder. Present work is an attempt to quantify change in depth of shade due to change in humidity. Even though reactive dyes have excellent wash fastness properties, often buyers complain of poor wash fastness. This is mainly due to adherence of hydrolysed dyes onto cotton. If they are not washed off after dyeing, they behave like direct dyes & bleed during initial washings carried out by customers. In order to avoid complaints, some dyers take extra precautions by providing more than required number of washings. Therefore second objective of present study is to develop a quick method to optimize number of washings to be given after reactive dyeing to achieve good wash fastness properties, especially for dark & medium shades.

Materials & methods

Ten Reactive dyestuffs, supplied by M/S Clariant India & M/S Colourtex were taken for study. In order to study effect of varying storage conditions, controlled experiments were carried out at 30C. Dyes (1gm each) were exposed to humidity ranging from 30% to 90% for 5 hours. Change in weight of these dyes was determined. Cotton fabrics were then dyed with conditioned dyes to assess shade consistency by measuring colour difference (E). For purpose of calculating E, fabrics dyed with dye powders, which were conditioned to zero% RH are taken as standard samples. In 2nd study, 100% cotton plain woven fabric was dyed to 2% shade with Procion Red M 8B using laboratory Jigger with M:L :: 1:8. After dyeing fabrics were washed. Following washing procedures were adopted:

1) 1st washing procedure:

Development of Shade continuity and Wash-fastness properties of Reactive dyed cellulosic fabrics .

All cold washes: In this case dyed material was subjected to cold washes. Washings were continued till left over wash liquor was colour-less. From each of above washing stages a swatch was taken out and divided into two parts. One part of swatch was sandwiched between two scoured-bleached cotton fabrics (RFD) and hot pressed by giving one stroke with hot iron (wet press) to assess degree of staining. Stained RFD fabric was analysed for k/s value using CCM. Other part of swatch was tested for colour fastness to washing as per IS 3361 standard test method.

2) 2nd washing procedure:

All cold washes with squeezing at constant pressure in between washes After each wash dyed material was squeezed at constant pressure (30psi) so that amount of carry over Liquor for next wash was reduced. Washing was continued till there was no considerable colour loss (visually observed) in left over liquor. As described earlier, after each wash two samples were cut from fabric for wet pressing i.e. staining test & IS 3361 wash fastness test. Left over liquor after each wash was collected & its optical density was determined using spectrophotometer.

3) 3rd washing procedure:

Intermediate hot wash at strategically chosen point in between cold washes without squeezing In this case dyed material was cold washed twice, followed by hot wash & then two cold washes. Hot wash was carried out at 60C with 2g/l soap. Washing was continued till left over liquor was colour-less.

4) 4th washing procedure:

Intermediate hot wash at strategically chosen point in between cold washes with squeezing In this case effect of hot soap wash as well as squeezing was studied. Here dyed material was given hot soap wash after two cold washes followed by two cold washes. Fabric was squeezed after each wash i.e., for both hot or cold washes. In 3rd part of present study, as suggested by dye manufacturers cotton fabrics were dyed to different shades. After dye fixation, samples were washed in following sequences: Cold overflow rinse for 10mins-Hot rinse at 70C for 10mins-Soaping at 95C for 10minsHot wash rinse at 70C for 10mins-Cold rinse & neutralization for 10min. with acetic acid. In this study also dyed fabric was divided into two parts for wet press & washing fastness test.

Results & discussion

Effect of climatic conditions on dyeing
To evaluate effect of different humidity conditions on reactive dyes, a constant weight of dye powder was exposed to different humidity conditions at 30C. After exposing these dyes were again weighed & used for dyeing. Following are the results. From Tab-1 it is clear that with increase in humidity from zero to 90%, there is an increase in weight of dye due to moisture absorption. Amount of moisture absorbed is found to depend on dye chemistry. At 90% humidity increase in weight is as high as
Development of Shade continuity and Wash-fastness properties of Reactive dyed cellulosic fabrics .

48% for Black & 46% for Golden Yellow. This clearly indicates that during rainy season if storing dye packets/drums is not proper it will significantly affect weight of dyes. This results in shade inconsistency from season to season. Tab-2 shows dyeing behaviour of dye powders, which were kept in various humidity conditions (0 to 90% RH) in terms of colour difference (E). From table it is clear that colour difference of dyed fabric increases with increase in humidity. Reason of this is that with increase of humidity, dye powder absorbs more moisture, which resulted in decrease in strength of dye powder. Presence of high amount of moisture may also result in hydrolysis of dye, thereby giving low colour yield.

Effect of washing on colourfastness

Relationship between K/S value of stained sample after wet pressing & number of washings is shown in Fig-1. From figure it is clear that staining on adjacent fabric decreases with number of washings. It is also clear from figure that if squeezing system is introduced between washes there is a steep decrease in k/s value of stained adjacent fabric. It indicated that after 9 washes staining due to wet press was negligible, while 13 washes are required to get similar results if only cold washes are employed. Fig-2 also supports this observation that if squeezing system is provided between washes, 4-5 grading can be achieved in 9 washings, where as if only cold washes are given it takes 13 washes to achieve similar grading. Similar trends were also obtained with hot soap washes as shown in Fig-3 & Fig-4. But with hot soap wash required results are obtained in 5 washings only. Optical density of wash liquor after each wash was also determined. Graph between changes in optical density of wash liquor after successive washings & number of washes is shown in Fig-6. This graph clearly shows that first cold wash has considerable effect in removing loosely held dye. It can be easily visualized from graph that drop in percentage optical density for first cold wash is nearly 80%. This drop in percentage optical density is quite appreciable. In next four washes effect is less pronounced. When squeezing is carried out between washes, it is seen (Fig-3) that drop in percentage optical density is much steeper. Similar trend was also observed with hot washes (Fig-6) but in hot soap wash drop in percentage of optical density is higher when compared with other methods of washing.

Quick method to evaluate colour fastness to washing of reactive dyes

In this study cotton fabric was dyed in lab model dyeing machine. During washing process, swatches of dyed samples were removed from bath after each washing cycle & squeezed uniformly. Each swatch was divided into two parts.

One part of swatch was placed between two RFD cotton fabrics & ironed by giving in one stroke. All samples were ironed at same temperature. After ironing stained RFD cotton fabrics were assessed for degree of staining with help of CCM. Results are shown in Fig-7a to 7d. From figures, it is clear that to obtain a stain rating of 4-5, number of washes depend on depth of shades; five washes for heavy (3%) & four washes for light & medium (1-2%) shades are required to obtain good fastness properties. Second part of swatches was tested for colour fastness to washing as per IS: 3361. These results are also shown in Fig-7a to 7d. It is clear from figure that fastness rating of staining due to wet press & fastness rating after IS: 3361 wash fastness tests

Development of Shade continuity and Wash-fastness properties of Reactive dyed cellulosic fabrics .

are same. With increase in number of washes, improvement in fastness is similar in both cases thus indicating that staining due to wet press is a quick technique to assess wet fastness properties of reactive dyed material.

Conclusions
1) To control batch-to-batch shade variation dye-stores & laboratory have to play an important role. Stores in-charge should be aware of importance of proper packing & storing of dyes. 2) A considerable saving in energy and water can be achieved by squeezing material after every wash & introducing hot wash at strategically chosen intervals in washing cycle 3) Simple hot pressed method of determining washing fastness is as reliable as approved standard wash fastness method. However, this simple technique needs to be standardized for hot press conditions. 4) Squeezing between two washes help in reducing required number of washes. Therefore it is worth considering modifying conventional jigger so that squeezing could be carried out in jigger. 5) Several attempts were made by machine manufacturers and a few patents were taken about 3 decades back, which emphasized need for incorporating a squeezing mechanism in a jigger to reduce number of wash cycles & thus minimize water consumption. Unfortunately none of these are commercially successful. In present scenario, where water has became scare, it is worthwhile to re-look into this aspect of introducing squeezing mechanism in a jigger.

Development of Shade continuity and Wash-fastness properties of Reactive dyed cellulosic fabrics .