US2200944A - Textile finishing process - Google Patents

Description

Patented May 14, 1940 UNITED" STATES 2,200,944 TEXTILE FINISHING PROCESS Frederick Charles Wood, Manchester, England, assignor to Tootal Broadhurst Lee Company Limited, Manchester, England, a British com- No Drawing. Application August 13, 1938, Se-

rial No. 224,825. In Great Britain August 27,

This invention relates to the finishing of textile materials which have been treated for 1m- Darting water-repellent properties by impregnation with an organic nitrogen compound containing a group of at least ten carbon atoms, usually followed by heating to decompose the quaternary ammonium salt.

My application Serial Number 220,329 contains a general description of the usual types of organic nitrogen compound suitable for the purpose.

The object ofthe present invention is to improve the strength'or durability, or generally to increase the resistance to wear of materials which have been so treated to increase their water-repellency.

I have now found that substantial improvement in handle, strength and wearing qualities of the water-repellent textile material, without destruction of its water-repellent property, may be obtained in a fabric subjected to a treatment with a quaternary ammonium salt if this waterrepellent treatment is followed by a treatment with a neutral or alkaline swelling agent. The

effect is not obtained by acids of normal swelling action, nor is it obtained by reversing the order .of operations, so that the swelling action is carried out first.- The operation for rendering the material water-repellent must precede the operation of swelling, but a swelling operation carried out in the usual way with acid, neutral or alka .line swelling agents may precede the first named operation so long as the final-swelling action is not carried out with an acid swelling agent.

The swelling may be produced by mixtures of compatible swelling agents or these agents in alternation with or without intermediate washing or by the application of incompatible swelling agents in alternation, or by the application of a combination of agents which singly do not produce swelling but which jointly, simultaneously, or in alternation, produce the desired effect. The swelling agents employed vary with the type of material being treated- For example, with cellulosic materials the known swelling agents may besodium or potassium hydroxide, cuprammonium hydroxide, quaternary ammonium bases, sulphonium bases, caustic alkalis with carbon, bisulphide, caustic alkalis with ethylene oxide. With materials derived from cellulose acetate, acetone and water may be employed for examples With wool and silk suitable concentrations of alkaline hydroxides or ammonia'may be employed.

The present invention enables. the properties 2 Claims. (01. s 11 6) of the waterproofed material to beimproved with the surprising and unexpected preservation of the water-repellent property.

After the swelling action has taken place and while the textile material is still wet, or after 5 it has been dried, further textile finishing processes such as delustring the material and/or rendering it crease-resisting may then be carried out.

Example 1 A linen fabric is impregnated with a solution containing 3 grams octadecyloxymethylpyridinium chloride or N-carbomethoxyheptadecylaminomethyl pyridinium chloride orthe product sold under the registered trade-mark Velan PF. (a 15 quaternary ammonium salt derived from formaldehyde and a fatty alcohol) and 0.9 gram crystalline sodiumacetate in 100 ccs. water.

It is dried quickly and heated at 140 C. for 2 minutes, washed off in dilute ammonium hydrox- 20 .ide, passed through a bath containing a dilute solution of a wetting agent (e. g., one-quarter per cent. solution of the sodium salt of sulphoj nated oleyl alcohol), nipped -01? and then immersed in a bath of caustic soda (63 Tw.) with 25 or without tension for 2 minutes, washed free from alkali, and dried.

The swelling treatment may also be applied to textile materials which have been made waterrepellent and impregnated with resin or treated ,30 with a reactive aldehyde, as described in my copending application Serial No. 220,329.

Examp e 2 Combined crease-resistance and water-repel 35 lence with swelling treatment.

A linen fabric is impregnated with a solution containing 3 grams ofoctadecyloxymethylpyridinium chloride and 0.9 gram crystalline sodium acetate in 100 cos. of water.

quarter per cent. solution of the sodium-salt of sulphonat'ed oleyl alcohol) nipped off and then immersed in a bath of caustic soda (63 Tw.) with or without tension for two minutes and washed free from alkali. It then impregnated with a solution of a lightly condensed solu- 50 tion prepared by refluxing for 3 minutes 100 grams urea with 200 ccs. formaldehyde (40% solution) and 9 cos. cencentrated ammonium hydroxide to which after cooling tartaric acid' (1 gram in 3 ccs. water) has'been'added. Excess of liquid is squeezed be, the fabric dried and heated at 170 C. for 2 minutes, and washed 0!? in soap solution. Alternatively the caustic alkali treatment can be carried out on the anti-creased water-repellent material. I

The two examples given relate to the treatment of linen material but the process is not inany way limited to this material for it may be applied to all textile materials, animal or vegetable, natural or synthetic.

Thus the invention not only includes cases in which the swelling follows the water-repellent treatment without interposition of other treatments (except the heating step which is part of the water-repellent treatment), but also cases in which a materialis made water-repellent as wellas subjected to other treatments. For example the invention includes the swelling of a material which has been treated by any of the processes described in my co-pending application Serial No. 220,329.

I declare that what I claim is:

1. The process of finishing linen materials which includes the steps of treating the material with a quaternary ammonium salt containing a group of at least ten carbon atoms and capable of producing water-repellency, heating the impregnated material'to produce a water-repellent eiTect and then swelling the water-repellent material with an alkaline swelling agent to improve its wear-resistance.

2. The process of finishing linen materials which includes the steps of treating the material with a quaternary ammonium salt containing a group of at least ten carbon atoms and capable of producing water-repellency, heating the impregnated material to produce a waterrepell'ent efiect and swelling and shrinking the water-repellent material with an alkaline-swelling agent to improve its wear-resistance.

FREDERICK CHARLES WOOD.