GB2322642A - Lyocell fabric treatment - Google Patents

Lyocell fabric treatment Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2322642A
GB2322642A GB9704073A GB9704073A GB2322642A GB 2322642 A GB2322642 A GB 2322642A GB 9704073 A GB9704073 A GB 9704073A GB 9704073 A GB9704073 A GB 9704073A GB 2322642 A GB2322642 A GB 2322642A
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GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
fabric
flame
fibrillation
lyocell
aqueous medium
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB9704073A
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GB9704073D0 (en
Inventor
James Martin Taylor
Karen Jane Cooper
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Courtaulds Fibres Holdings Ltd
Original Assignee
Courtaulds Fibres Holdings Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Courtaulds Fibres Holdings Ltd filed Critical Courtaulds Fibres Holdings Ltd
Priority to GB9704073A priority Critical patent/GB2322642A/en
Publication of GB9704073D0 publication Critical patent/GB9704073D0/en
Publication of GB2322642A publication Critical patent/GB2322642A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • DTEXTILES; PAPER
    • D06TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • D06CFINISHING, DRESSING, TENTERING OR STRETCHING TEXTILE FABRICS
    • D06C27/00Compound processes or apparatus, for finishing or dressing textile fabrics, not otherwise provided for
    • DTEXTILES; PAPER
    • D06TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • D06CFINISHING, DRESSING, TENTERING OR STRETCHING TEXTILE FABRICS
    • D06C9/00Singeing
    • D06C9/02Singeing by flame

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Textile Engineering (AREA)
  • Treatment Of Fiber Materials (AREA)

Abstract

A method of producing a lyocell fabric, having substantially only secondary fibrillation, comprises flame treating the surface of a lyocell fabric, processing the lyocell fabric in an aqueous medium, such as a dye solution, to generate fibrillation and thereafter softening and tumbling the fabric. A lyocell fabric having a peach-skin finish produced by this method is also disclosed.

Description

Lyocell Fabric Treatment This invention relates to a method of producing lyocell fabrics displaying predominately secondary fibrillation, that is to say fabrics which comprise lyocell fibres, either alone or in blend with one or more other types of fibre, including garments made wholly or partly from lyocell fabric.
Lyocell fibres are known, and their manufacture is described for example in US-A-4,416,698, the contents of which are incorporated herein by way of reference.
Cellulose is dissolved in a solvent containing a tertiary amine N-oxide (which may also be called for brevity an amine oxide), for example N-methylmorpholine N-oxide (NMMO). The solvent generally also contains a proportion of a nonsolvent for cellulose, for example water. The resulting solution is extruded through a suitable die to produce fibres, which are coagulated, washed in water to remove the solvent, and dried. This process of extrusion and coagulation is referred to as "solvent-spinning", and the cellulose fibre produced thereby is referred to as 'solvent Ii spun cellulose fibre or under the generic name lyocell fibre. It is also known that cellulose fibres can be made by extrusion of a solution of a cellulose derivative into a coagulating and regenerating bath. One example of such a process is the viscose process, in which the cellulose derivative is cellulose xanthate. Solvent-spinning has a number of advantages over other known processes for the manufacture of cellulosic fibre such as the viscose process, for example reduced environmental emissions.
Lyocell fibres are known to be prone to fibrillation.
Fibrillation is a phenomenon which in the main occurs when lyocell fibres are subjected to mechanical forces during wet-processing, and it results in the partial detachment of fine longitudinal fibrils from the fibres. Two types of fibrillation are recognised in lyocell fabrics, under the names primary and secondary fibrillation, as described by R Breier in a paper entitled "Die Veredlung von Lyocellfasern - Ein Ehrfahrungsbericht" in Lenzinger Berichte 9/94 at pages 99-101. Primary fibrillation results in the formation of relatively long fibrils (often 1 mm or longer) and is uneven. This leads to an undesirable unsightly appearance, particularly in dyed fabric, because primary fibrils often appear to dye to a different shade from the bulk of the fibre even though the dye content may be the same. In contrast, secondary fibrillation can be controlled to some extent and results in the formation of relatively short fibrils, typically a fraction of a millimetre long, evenly distributed over the fabric. Such fabrics dye uniformly, and the presence of the secondary fibrils confers an attractive visual appearance and handle on the fabric, often called a mill-wash finish or a peach-skin finish or peachskin effect.
A known method of producing fabric with a peach-skin effect is to promote primary fibrillation and then to remove the primary fibrillation from the fabric by treating the fabric with cellulase enzyme and thereafter promoting secondary fibrillation by dyeing and abrading the material.
This combined process may take from 4 to 6h hours.
The present invention seeks to provide an improved method for producing lyocell fabric with a peach-skin effect.
According to the invention a method of producing a lyocell fabric having substantially only secondary fibrillation, comprises flame treating the surface of a lyocel fabric, processing the fabric in an aqueous medium to generate fibrillation and thereafter subjecting the fabric only to softening and tumbling.
The lyocell fabric can be a woven, knitted or nonwoven fabric and can, for example, be in the form of continuous fabric lengths, piece goods or garments. A woven fabric can, for example, be a plain weave or a twill fabric.
A knitted fabric can for example be of ponti di Roma or interlock construction.
The flame treatment is preferably a gas flame treatment provided by stociometric combustion of methane, propane or butane or mixtures thereof.
The fabric is typically a woven lyocell cloth or mixed cloth containing lyocell and other yarns, for example linen, which during flame treatment passes through the hotter part of the flame at a linear speed of between 10-150 mImin (meters per minute), preferably 25-100 m/min.
Alternatively, the fabric can make a plurality of passes through the flame, e.g. two passes at 50 m/min.
After the singeing or flame treatment, the fabric is preferably processed in an aqueous alkaline medium, preferably by dyeing the fabric. Alternatively, the fabric could be processed in a neutral-acidic pH dyeing medium.
Dyeing is preferably carried out using a reactive dye, although any other dyes known for dyeing cellulose fabrics can be used, for example vat dyes or sulphur dyes. Dyeing is generally carried out in aqueous solution at elevated temperature as recommended for the particular dye used. The dyeing apparatus used can be any of those used for commercial dyeing of fabrics, for example a rotary dyeing machine or a jet dyeing apparatus. The fabric can, for example, be dyed as a continuous length in rope form or can be dyed in garment form.
After dyeing, the fabric is preferably treated by an aqueous process in which the fabric is subjected to abrasion to remove any creasing or stresses caused by dyeing and to cause the desired hand and appearance of the fabric to develop. For example, if the fabric is in garment form it can be washed at moderate temperatures, for example at 400C, under the degree of mechanical agitation encountered in a domestic washing machine or a commercial machine for washing garments. Pieces of fabric can be washed similarly.
Continuous lengths of fabric are generally treated in rope form and can, for example, be finished by tumbling in a machine such as a Thies Rotatumbler or a Then AFS or Biancalani Airo 1000 tumbling machine. In these tumbling machines a jet of air throws the fabric against a deflector plate. The fabric is continually passed through the tumbling machine so that it is repeatedly impacted against the deflector plate. The tumbling machine can be operated wet (charged with aqueous liquor) or dry, typically at fabric speeds of 100-200 m/min wet or 500-1500 m/min dry.
It may be preferred to carry out wet tumbling followed by dry tumbling. The treatment steps of dyeing and tumbling can be carried out successively in a tumbling machine if desired.
Surprisingly, it has been found that, after singeing the surface of the fabric, the tendency of a lyocell fabric to fibrillate can be controlled to fibrillate so that substantially only a peach-skin effect is produced, without the need for the long prior art primary fibrillation treatment and enzyme treatment.
The invention is illustrated by the following Examples. In all cases the lyocell fabric used consisted solely of lyocell staple fibres available from Courtaulds Fibres (Holdings) Limited under the trade mark TENCEL. The TENCEL fibres were woven into a 3:1 twill fabric having an areal weight of 220 g/m2.
The surface of the fabric was subjected to flame treatment by passing the open width fabric through a Sherman Treaters flame treatment machine. The machine was set to a gas flow rate of about 650 ft3/h (18.4 m3/h) and the burner adjusted for stociometric combustion. The fabric was passed through the deep blue portion of the flame at a distance of between 1-5 cm, preferably 2.0 cm; from the burner jets. The fabric was passed through the flame at a linear speed of 25 m/min with two passes of the flame being made on each side of the fabric.
The speed and number of passes through the flame will be dependent upon the construction of the fabric and the number of burner heads on the machine. However, in order to obtain the present effect, a typical speed will be in the range of 10-150 metres/min, and more typically 25-100 meters/min.
Example 1 In preparation for the flame treatment, the fabric was padded through an alkali/detergent solution (1-2 g/l of sodium carbonate and 1-2 g/l detergent) and batched onto a perforated beam and given a wash with hot water and stenter dried. The fabric was singed as described above and then subjected to primary fibrillation by tumbling the fabric for 30 minutes at 1100C on a Then AFS air jet. The fabric was processed wet using a liquid ratio of 5:1, the aqueous liquid containing 2 g/l Perilan VF lubricant and 2 g/l Zetex ACA lubricant detergent. The primary fibrillation was then removed using enzyme treatment. The enzyme treatment was effected in the Then AFS air jet for 30 minutes at 550C using a 5:1 aqueous liquid ratio. The liquid contained 2% Primafast T100 cellulase.
The fabric was then jet dyed with a reactive dye (Procion HE-XL), using the migration method. The fabric was placed in an aqueous solution of dye at 950C for 45 minutes in a Then AFS jet, cooled, had alkali added to it and was then held for a further 45 minutes. The dyed fabric was then washed and dried on a stenter frame.
The fabric was then padded through a cationic/silicone softener combination. The mangled fabric was then beaten in rope form in a high speed tumbler e.g. a Bianalani Airo 1000. The tumbling machine run using air at 1200C with the speed gradually increased from 150 to 1000 m/min, preferably 750-800 m/min, over 1 hour. The dried fabric may be further tumbled at 500 m/min for another hour.
The fabric tended to exhibit secondary fibrillation producing a peach-skin appearance. The effect is stable and retained through subsequent washes under conditions typically used in a domestic washing machine.
Example 2 The fabric was prepared as for Example 1 except that the fabric was can dried before singeing, and the primary fibrillation and enzyme treatment stages were omitted.
The tumbled fabric again had a peach-skin appearance and with no apparent primary fibrillation despite there being no pre-fibrillation and enzyme treatment of the fabric prior to dyeing.
Example 3 The fabric was prepared as for Example 2 except that the fabric was stenter dried before singeing.
The tumbled fabric again had a peach-skin appearance with no apparent primary fibrillation.
Example 4 The fabric was treated as in Example 3 except that the flame treatment was applied to the fabric surface before the fabric preparation with the alkali/detergent solution.
The fabric after tumbling again had a peach-skin appearance.
Example 5 This was a control sample in which the fabric was given a peach-skin appearance, by a process similar to that described for Example 1 except that there is no flame treatment of the surface, and in that the primary fibrillation was induced by tumbling the fabric for 90 minutes in liquid containing 2 g/l sodium carbonate 0.5 g/l Perilan VF lubricant and 2 g/l Zetex ACA lubricant detergent.
The enzyme treatment was carried out as before but for 60 minutes.
Samples of the fabric treated in accordance with Examples 1 to 5 were tested for physical properties in the weft and warp directions. The results are shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Physical Properties
Example Example Example Example Example 1 2 3 4 5 T e n s i 1 e Warp 1080 1301 1425 1330 877 Strength N Weft 563 797 905 867 347 Extension $ Warp 21.6 23.4 28.1 28.9 22.4 Weft 11.3 13.9 15.7 15.9 8.7 Hart indale 17000 18000 17000 18000 16000 Abrasion (rubs) Wing Tear N Warp 35.9 45.1 46.9 45.9 28.3 Weft 26.5 46.6 51.4 52.4 16.5 It can be seen that fabric prepared according to the present invention has superior physical properties to the control sample 5 which was subject to a typical prior art processing method.
Furthermore the methods used in Example 1 to 4 all show time savings over the known prior processes for producing peach-skin effects, especially processes 2 to 4 in which the primary fibrillation and enzyme treatment steps have been eliminated.

Claims (11)

1. A method of producing a lyocell fabric, having substantially only secondary fibrillation, comprising flame treating the surface of a lyocel fabric, processing the fabric in an aqueous medium to generate fibrillation and thereafter subjecting the fabric to softening and tumbling.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the aqueous medium is a dye solution.
3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the aqueous medium is an alkaline medium.
4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the fabric is subject to fibrillation and enzyme treatment after the flame treatment and prior to said processing in the aqueous medium.
5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the fabric is passed through a stociometrically burning gas flame or flames.
6. A method according to claim 5 wherein the flame is produced by burning methane, propane, butane, or any combinations thereof.
7. A method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the gas flame(s) burns (burn) gas at a rate of about 650 ft3/h (18.4 m3/h) and the fabric passes within 1 to 5 cm of the jets.
8. A method according to claim 6, wherein the fabric is passed across the flame at a linear speed of between 10-150 m/min.
9. A method according to claim 2, or any one of claims 3 to 8 when dependent upon claim 2, in which the fabric is padded in an alkali/detergent solution before dyeing, and the flame treatment is applied to the fabric before said padding of the fabric.
10. A method of producing a lyocell fabric having substantially only secondary fibrillation, the method being substantially as described in any of Examples 1 to 5.
11. A lyocell fabric which has a peach-skin appearance formed thereon using a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10.
GB9704073A 1997-02-27 1997-02-27 Lyocell fabric treatment Withdrawn GB2322642A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB9704073A GB2322642A (en) 1997-02-27 1997-02-27 Lyocell fabric treatment

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB9704073A GB2322642A (en) 1997-02-27 1997-02-27 Lyocell fabric treatment

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB9704073D0 GB9704073D0 (en) 1997-04-16
GB2322642A true GB2322642A (en) 1998-09-02

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Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP1039006A1 (en) * 1999-03-22 2000-09-27 Gerold Fleissner Method and apparatus for making perforated nonwovens by means of hydrodynamic needling

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP1039006A1 (en) * 1999-03-22 2000-09-27 Gerold Fleissner Method and apparatus for making perforated nonwovens by means of hydrodynamic needling
US6338187B1 (en) 1999-03-22 2002-01-15 Gerold Fleissner Method and device for producing perforated nonwovens by hydrodynamic needing
US6405416B1 (en) 1999-03-22 2002-06-18 Gerold Fleissner Method and device for producing perforated nonwovens by hydrodynamic needling

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB9704073D0 (en) 1997-04-16

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