Textile Chemical Processing for the Fibers (Preparatory Operations)

The fabric collected from various weaving setups, can not be used directly for
manufacturing various textile products. There are number of impurities present in the fabric such
as dust, dirt, oil stains, oil and waxes, starches or other sizing materials, seed particles, and
natural coloring materials. These impurities can be classified as.
I. Natural Impurities &
II. Added Impurities
Natural Impurities :- Natural impurities are generally presents in the natural fib res in the form
of oil, waxes, natural colour, vegetable matters ( such as leaves particles, Seed particles, etc),
Dust particle. In case of wool sweat is also considered as impurities which is deposited on the
sheep’s or goat’s hair.
Added Impurities:- These type of impurities are manually added to the yarn or fibre during the
manufacturing process to increase the efficiency of the weaving process such as, Sizing
materials (which includes starches, or polyvinyl alcohol are applied on the surfaces of the yarn to
reduces the breakage of yarn during the weaving operation and increase the weaving efficacy.)
Spin finishes are another example of the added impurities. This type of impurities are generally
added to synthetic yarns which contains
Anti-static agents and Lubricants. which reduces the statics charge buildup and friction during the
weaving operation. These impurities make fabric hydrophobic in nature and limit the fabric for
further processing.
The main objectives of preparatory treatments of textile materials are:
1. To remove all the impurities, both naturals and those added during production that may
interfere in subsequent dyeing or finishing process.
2. Improve the ability of the fibers to absorb water, dyes solutions and chemicals.
3. Impart proper brightness or whiteness to fabrics according to need, especially when brilliant or
pastel shades are desired.
All of these impurities can not be removed by a single operations. It requires sequences of
operations, which is called Processing. All the operations before the dyeing of fabrics are called
Preparatory Process or Pretreatments. These pretreatments includes Singeing, Desizing,
Scouring, Souring, Bleaching and Mercerizing. All of these Operations have the specific
objectives and it is not necessary to use all the operation to all the fabrics. It generally depends
on the type of fabrics, contains of the fabric and the end uses of the fabric.
Singeing
During the weaving operations, warp yarns pass though heild wires, and reed. It is continuously
under friction during weaving process. Due to continuous friction, yarn develops hairiness. This
hairiness is undesirable in the fabric and provides an unpleasant feel to the fabric or garment.
The main objective of the Singeing is removal of protruding fibers from both sides of fabric. For
this purpose, the fabric is passed through singeing Machine in open width, flat and under tension.
Fabric is passed over an open flame at a high speed (300 yards/ min) to prevent scorching.
Uneven singeing leads to unleveled dyeing.
1.3 De-sizing
Size are added during the weaving preparatory process. Main objective of the sizing is to provide
strength to the yarn. This improves the weaving efficiency by reducing the yarn breakage. After
the weaving is completed, the size material is undesirable in the fabric and it makes the fabric
stiff and hydrophobic in nature. The main objective of the De-sizing is removal of starch from
fabric. For this purpose, the fabric is impregnated in the de-sizing bath and stored for 8-12 hrs.
The Impregnating bath contains required
amount of enzyme, Wetting agent and Sodium Chloride (Nacl). After this process, fabric is
thoroughly washed with hot water. In Enzyme application of De-sizing, the fabric padded with
enzyme bath is then passed
through steam of 96-100°C temp. This is a rapid process in which De-sizing process complete in
less than one minute. The main advantage of De-sizing with enzymes is that there is no risk of
damaging the fibre. The process is an eco- friendly and relatively expensive.
Scouring
The yarn made of natural fibre contains natural oils and waxes. These oils and waxes make
fabric hydrophobic and do not allow dyes and chemicals to penetrate into the.The Scouring is a
cleaning treatment in which oil, waxes and residual sizes are removed from the fabric by the
chemicals. After scouring the fabric becomes absorbent in nature. In this process, fabric is
treated with strong alkali solution (5-10 gm/lit NaOH or mixture of NaOH & Sodium Carbonate)
close to or above the boiling temp. for 1-2 hours with hot rinse and final cold rinse with acetic
acid. The final rinse with acetic acid is also called souring process
Bleaching
After scouring process, the fabric is free from oils and waxes, however natural colouring matter
are still present in the fibre. If this colour is not removed at this stage than it will be very difficult to
attain the desired shade in dyeing process. The main objective of the bleaching process is
removal of natural coloring matter and to make the fabric perfect white with minimum damage to
fibres and within the shortest possible time. Bleaching is generally carried out by oxidative
process.Some of the example of the Bleaching agents are: Sodium hypo chlorite, Sodium
chlorite and Hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is also called as “Universal bleaching agent”.
Since, it is a very mild bleaching agent, It is used for almost all type of cotton,polyester/
cotton blends and silk fabrics.Peroxide bleaching is carried out generally near or above boiling
temperature, under pressure, for one hour or more. After bleaching, the fabric is thoroughly
rinsed with slight amount of basic solution to avoid formulation of insoluble salts of silicates.
After bleaching, fabric may be sold as perfect white cloth. For achieving perfect white cloth, fabric
is treated with Optical whitening Agents, such as Tinopal , Ranipol etc and blueing agents such
as Robin blue, Ujala etc.
Mercerization
Mercerization process was invented by John Mercer. He was a young chemist. One day, while
he was alltering some chemical solution using cotton cloth, he observed some changes in the
cotton fabrics. He studied the changes in detail to standardize the process. In the Mercerization
process, cotton fabric or yarn is treated with a cold concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide for
one minute or less. In this process cotton fibre swell, untwist and their bean shaped cross section
changes into a round form. Mercerization improves the following properties of the cotton fabric.
1. Strength would be increased to 15-25 .
2. Enhanced luster.
3. Greater affinity to water, dyes and other chemical finishes.
4. Shrinkage control in both the direction of the fabric.

Fabric is padded with about 20-25 NaOH solution containing a wetting agent. Fabric is passed
over several cans to allow a doweling time of approximately one minute. During this time, NaOH
will penetrate the fibres and react with them. At this stage the tension is applied lengthwise. The
fabric is then placed on a “Stenter” machine and is pulled to its desired dimensions