RESIN- ANTI WRINKLE FINISH

You must have heard of non-iron shirts. Wash it, hang it, wear it! Yes, these shirts
retain their shape even after multiple wash cycles. You can hang them up right out of
the dryer and don’t have to think about them. They’re also even less prone to
wrinkling in the course of the day and remains as smooth as it was first thing in the
morning. It is a boon especially if you go out straight from work.

There has been an outpouring of interest in non-iron shirts in recent years as

people’s lives have generally got busier and technology has improved. First
introduced in the early 1990s and slowly adopted by shirtmakers, the popularity of
these shirts is growing day by day.

Why is cotton used for your shirts?

Cotton is suitable for apparel purpose because of its durability, good absorbency and
ability to take up a wide range of dyestuffs. However, during actual wear, cotton
garments are prone to crease under slight crushing, and the crease is retained for a
long time.

Let’s have a look on what actually happens that leads to wrinkling of cotton and how
this technology works.

Why cotton creases?

Cotton is a crystalline fiber. Its polymer system is 70% crystalline and 30%
amorphous. Hydrogen bonds are the most dominant forces of attraction present in
the polymer system of cotton. The crystalline polymer system of cotton makes it
relatively inelastic. Bending and crushing of cotton textile materials places
considerable strain on its polymer system. This causes cotton textiles to wrinkle and
crease readily.

Under stress, the hydrogen bonds between adjacent cellulose chains can break
allowing the chains to slip past each other. New H-bonds can form as the hydroxyl
groups reassociate with different partners. Having done so, there are no forces to
pull the neighboring chains back to their former position. The stressed shape of the
fiber is just as stable now as was the original shape.

How to make cotton crease resistant?

Weak Hydrogen bonds get disturbed during the course of washing and on drying
they try to rearrange and reform giving rise to creases. To prevent distortion of
Hydrogen bonds, cross-linking has to be introduced in between the H-H bonds,
making the chains flexible.

What are resins? How do they work?

Resins are cross-linking agents, which react with the OH groups of cellulosic
materials in acidic medium at a pH of 3–4 to form covalent bonds. They are
commonly used to make cellulosic fabric (cotton and cotton blends) wrinkle resistant.

Resins work by the reaction of nitrogen atoms of each resin molecule with the
hydroxyl group of the cotton fabric. The reaction forms a linkage between the resin
and the cotton fibers giving the cotton unshrink pattern in which shape is being made
& cured.

Resins are cured in acidic pH with particular heat & temperatures (145–160 C) as
per Resin tech bulletin advice. Unfortunately, the process leads to a loss in fabric
strength and shade change depending on fabric weight, construction & composition.
Crease resistance: The ability of a fabric to resist the formation of crease or wrinkle
when slightly squeezed is termed as crease resistance.

Crease recovery: The ability of a fabric to recover to a definite degree is called

crease recovery of the fabric.

Resin Finishing is the process of imparting the special property of “crease

recovery” to Cotton.

Resins mainly fall into two groups:

1. Deposition type of resins

2. Cross linking type of resins

Deposition type of resins:

These resins are deposited on the fabric as surface coating. No reaction will take
place between the fiber and resin.

They include:

· Phenol-Formaldehyde resins

· Urea formaldehyde resin

· Alkyd resins

· Ketone resins

· Vinyl resins

Cross linking type of resins:

These types of resins chemically react with the fiber and crosslink the fiber
molecules. The type of finish obtained is durable and much better than deposition
type.

· DMU (Di methylol Urea)

· DMEU(Di methylol Ethylene Urea)

· DMDHEU(Di methylol Di hydroxy Ethylene Urea)

Different degrees of crease resistant finishes

· Anti –crease: The purpose of this finish is to prevent deformation of the fabric

by undesirable and unintentionally introduced folds.

· Wash-n-wear: When wash ’n’ wear finish is applied on cotton, it does not

wrinkle too much and becomes easy to maintain. If dried and handled properly,
wash ’n’ wear fabrics can be worn without ironing or with a little ironing.

· Durable press: In the dry state, the cellulose chains are held together by
hydrogen bonds which break on coming in contact with moisture. Formaldehyde
resin crosslinks are quite stable to laundering and allow the fabric to be put
through machine washing without wrinkling or losing desirable pleats and/or
creases which were set in prior to crosslinking.

Advantages of Resin finishing

· It improves the Crease Resistance and Crease Recovery property

· It reduces the shrinkage during laundering

· It gives a smooth and quick drying property

· It improves Resilience, Handle and Draping quality

· It improves the weight and Dimensional stability

· It gives resistance to degradation by light and laundering

· It improves the fastness to Light and Washing of many dyestuffs

Disadvantages of resin finishing

· Environmental effect — release of free formaldehyde

· It decreases the Tensile strength and Tear strength

· It decreases the Abrasion resistance

· It gives an unpleasant odour

· It gives harsh and stiff feel

Fabric tests on anti wrinkle resin finishes

1. Pilling test
Pilling is a process of formation of pill because of entanglement of surface fibres
during wear.
Testing method used: I.C.I pill box

Conditioning:

Condition the samples for a minimum of 4 hours in an atmosphere of 20 + 2°C and

65 + 4% RH.
Carry out the test in the conditioned atmosphere.

Sample preparation:

• Four samples were taken and stitched separately in a cylindrical

shape.

• From 1.25mm the sample were stitched together and a rubber

tube is inserted between them.

Test Procedure:

a) Before commencing the test, clean the inside of each box with the soft
brush/vacuum cleaner to remove fluff and debris from the previous test.
b) Place the 4 prepared test specimens in the same pilling box. Close and secure the
lid.
c) Tumble the tubes in the box for the number of revolutions as per the performance
standard.
d) Remove the samples from the box.
There are 3 elements of the test which cause the fabric to pill.
i) The 6mm of polyurethane left exposed at the end of each tube, rubbing against the
fabric.
ii) The cork liners rubbing against the fabric.
iii) The fabric rubbing against itself.

Assessment:

• The assessment is made by assigning ratings against the

standard pilling fabric.

• It has a range from 5-1.

• 5 mean best and 1 means worst.

Img Src: Textile course.blogspot (website) Textile Testing/Pilling Test / List of Pilling
Tester

Retrieved From: https://textilecourse.blogspot.com/2019/03/pilling-test-list-pilling-

tester.html

2. Tear strength test

Tear strength:
Tear strength is used to evaluate the ability of fabric resistant to tear along the breach or
damaged position in the process of use. Its unit is Newton, “N”.

The sample is fixed in fixture, with a cut on it. The pendulum in the position of max potential
energy is released. When the movable clamps leave the fixture, the sample is torn along the
notch. And the work that torn fabric makes in a certain length is converted to tear strength.

3. Crease recovery angle test

Crease is a fold in fabric introduced unintentionally at some stages of processing. Crease or

crushing of textile material is a complex effect involving tensile, compressive, flexing and
torsional stresses. Crease recovery is a fabric property which indicates the ability of fabric to
go back to its original position after creasing.

Crease recovery is a measure of creases resistance, specified quantitatively in terms

of crease recovery angle. To measure this, the popular instrument is Shirley crease
recovery tester. The instrument consists of a circular dial which carries the clamp for
holding the specimen. Directly under the centre of the dial there is a knife edge and
an index line for measuring the recovery angle. Crease recovery is determined
depending upon this recovery angle. If the angle is 0o then recovery is zero and if
the angle is 180o then recovery is full. Crease recovery depends on the construction,
twist of yarn, pressure, time etc. Usually crease recovery is more in warp way than in
weft way. This is because warp yarns are well in quality, strength, treated with sizing,
kept in more tension during weaving etc.

Sample:  

▪ Cotton woven fabric.

▪ Size: 4.4 X 1.5cm.

Atmosphere:  

▪ Temperature – 25oC and relative humidity – 67%

▪ Standard atmosphere: temperature – 20oC and relative humidity - 65%.

Procedure:

2. The specimen is cut by template and carefully creased by folding in half.

3. The crease is imparted on fabric by placing it between two glass plates and
adding to 500gm weight on it.
4. After 1 min the weight is removed and the creased fabric is clamped on the
instrument.
5. Then it is allowed to recover from the crease. The recovery time may vary to
suit particular creases. Usually it is 1 min.
6. When crease recovers the dial of the instrument is rotated to keep the free
edge of the specimen inline with the knife edge.
7. The recovery angle is read from the engraved scale.
8. In this way 10 tests are done in warp way and 10 for weft way.
9. The mean value of recovery angle is taken and thus crease recovery is
measured.

Reference:

1. Gaurav Doshi. November 3, 2006. Wrinkle Free Garments. EzineArticles

Retrieved From: http://ezinearticles.com/?Wrinkle-Free-Garments&id=367052

2. David Grosz. February 12, 2007. Why Do Clothes Wrinkle? Slate

Retrieved
From: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2007/02/
why_do_clothes_wrinkle.html

3. Saurabh. December 1, 2010. Resin Treatments: Giving Value addition to Vintage

Denim garments. Denims and Jeans.
Retrieved
From: http://www.denimsandjeans.com/denim/manufacturing-process/resin-
treatments-giving-value-addition-to-vintage-denim-garments/

4. HMS. December 18, 2013. Garments Pilling Test Procedure.

Retrieved From: http://garmentstech.com/garments-pilling-test-procedure/

5. Testextextile(website). Measurement of Fabric Tear Strength

Retrieved from: https://www.testextextile.com/measurement-fabric-tear-strength/

6. Mazharul Islam Kiron. January 22, 2009. Determination of Fabric Crease

Recovery by Shirley Crease Recovery Tester.
Retrieved From: https://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2012/02/determination-of-fabric-
crease-recovery.html