Textile Chemical Finishing And Its Mechanisms

By :- AVM Chemical Industries.

In final finishing, with its great range of desired and undesired effects, the task of a textile
finisher can become demanding has to consider the compatibility of the different type of
finishing products and treatment, in particular their mutual influence on the desired
effects. With about different type of finishes and several finishing agents, most of which
are combined to give one-bath multipurpose finishes. Chemical finishing need a solid
basis of textile chemical knowledge and technical understanding as well as some practical
experience.
The term finishing, in a broad sense covers all the processes which the fabric undergoes
after leaving the loom or the knitting machine to the stage at which it enters the market.
This the term also includes bleaching, dyeing, mercerizing etc. but normally the term in
restricted to the final stage in the sequence of treatment of woven fabrics after bleaching
and dyeing. However fabrics which are neither bleached nor dyed are also finished. Some
finishing processes such as creping of silk and rayon, mercerization of cotton or crabbing
of wool are carried out a part of the fires phase of fabric treatment or over earlier, in the
form of yarn. Hence finishing is the term usually employed for processes. The
appearance may by qualitatively describe as clear or fibrous, fine or course, lustrous or
matt, plain or patterned and smooth or uneven.
These descriptions may be considered as the two extremes in each pair and the actual
fabric appearance may range between them. The fabric may not have the best in all these
pairs for example; a clear finished fabric can be either lustrous or matt. Similarly the
handle of fabric may be soft or crisp, flexible or stiff and fall or compact. The fabric
texture may be close or open light or heavy, loose or firm flat or raised and uniform or
varied. Clarity of fabrics is necessary to display colour, structure, and pattern or to
present a smooth plain appearance and uniform texture. A clear fabric should not have
any fiber ends protruding form its surface.

Mechanisms Of The Softening Effect.

Softeners provide their main effects on the surface of the fabrics. Small softener
molecules, in addition, penetrate the fiber and provide an internal plasticization of the
fiber forming polymer by reducing of the glass transition temperature. The physical
arrangement of the usual softener molecules on the fiber surface is important and shown
in Fig.-1. It depends on the ionic nature of the softener molecule and the relative
hydrophobicity of the fiber surface. cationic softeners orient themselves with their
positively charged ends toward the partially negatively charged fabrics (zeta
potential),creating a new surface of hydrophobic carbon chain that provide the
characteristic excellent softening and lubricity seen with cationic softeners. Anionic
softener, on the other hand, orients themselves with their negatively charged ends
repelled away from the negatively charged fiber surface. This leads to higher
hydrophilicity, but less softening than with cationic softeners. The orientation of non-