Pumic stone

Q. What is pumic stone?

Ans. Pumic stones:

Volcanic stone used for stone washing garments. Pumice is popular because of its strength
and light weight. Before the use of pumice, rocks, plastic, shoes and just about every other material was
used to wear down and soften denim during the laundry process.

Properties
Pumice is composed of highly microvesicular glass pyroclastic with very thin, translucent bubble
walls of extrusive igneous rock. It is commonly, but not exclusively of silicic or felsic to
intermediate in composition (e.g., rhyolitic, dacitic, andesite, pantellerite, phonolite, trachyte),
but basaltic and other compositions are known. Pumice is commonly pale in color, ranging from
white, cream, blue or grey, to green-brown or black. It forms when volcanic gases exsolving
from viscous magma nucleate bubbles which cannot readily decouple from the viscous magma
prior to chilling to glass. Pumice is a common product of explosive eruptions (plinian and
ignimbrite-forming) and commonly forms zones in upper parts of silicic lavas. Pumice has an
average porosity of 90%, and initially floats on water.

Scoria differs from pumice in being denser, with larger vesicles and thicker vesicle walls; it sinks
rapidly. The difference is the result of the lower viscosity of the magma that formed scoria.
When larger amounts of gas are present, the result is a finer-grained variety of pumice known as

pumice stones Pumice stones are used in wash to chip away layers of indigo from the denim. Pumice is
volcanic and is used because of its strength and lightweight. The preferred pumice to use is Turkish White
Pumice Stone as it has the best porosity and cleanliness. Turkish white pumice should be specified when
doing light washes or stonewashing twills as it leaves less residue on fabric.

Disadvantages of pumice stone usage

Stonewashing the denim with pumice stones has some disadvantages. For instance stones could cause
wear and tear of the fabric, also it creates the problem of environmental disposition of waste of the grit
produced by the stones. High labor costs are to be beared as the pumice stones and its dust particles
produced are to be physically removed from the pockets of the garments and machines by the labors.
Denim is required to be washed several times in order to completely get rid of the stones. The process
of stonewashing also harms the big expensive laundry machines.

Alternate of pumice stone

To overcome the shortcoming of pumice stones, synthetic stones have been developed.
These are made of abrasive material such as silicate, plastic, rubber or Portland cement.

The advantage of using such type of products are:

- All major problems associated with the use of volcanic grade pumice stone can be
overcome.

- Durability of such product is much higher and can be used repeatedly from 50-300 cycle
depending upon type of synthetic stone.

- Reproducibility of washing is manageable.

- As stone discharge of the process is very less, therefore making process is economical and
ecological.

- Less damage of machine and garments.

SAND BLASTING
 
Sand blasting technique is based on blasting an abrasive material in granular, powdered or other form
through a nozzle at very high speed and pressure onto specific areas of the garment surface to be
treated to give the desired distressed/ abraded/used look.
 
-      It is purely mechanical process, not using any chemicals.
-      It is a water free process therefore no drying required.
-      Variety of distressed or abraded looks possible.
-      Any number of designs could be created by special techniques.