Warp sizing process, although non-productive, is one of the most significant processes in preparing warp yarns to withstand the complex field of stresses experienced by the yarns during weaving. Ideally, the sizing process should be eliminated to reduce weaving manufacturing cost. This is, however, not currently practical since the structures of most spun warp yarns require sizing to achieve maximum weaving efficiency and highest quality of woven fabrics. In most cases, size material has to be removed from the fabric by a process known as de-sizing. The removed size material may be recovered by filtration process or wasted. With increasing pressure to protect the environment from industrial waste the latter case is not desirable, and eventually will not be permitted globally by environment legislation. The objective of our research is to develop new environmentally friendly sizes. We have followed two different approaches. The first is to synthesize reclaimable size agents that are formulated to be easily recovered after weaving by simple scouring process followed by filtration. Such method would preserve the integrity of the size materials thus they can be reused without loss in their performance. The second approach is to synthesize reactive agents to cotton fibers with dual-purpose:
(1) act as size agents during weaving and
(2) as fabric finishing agents. Thus filtration or desizing are not needed in such approach. Several reclaimable and reactive sizes were synthesized and applied at different size solution concentrations to a range of cotton yarns using single end sizing technology. The sized yarns and their corresponding unsized yarns were evaluated to assess their weavability in terms of yarn strength measured at high strain rate, yarn abrasion resistance, and yarn hairiness. The weavability results indicate that yarns treated with the experimental size agents are comparable to those treated with commercial sizes.
By: A. M. Seyam, M. H. Mohamed, T. Hamilton, O. Ozkurt, and W. Logan College of Textiles, NC State Univ
Submit Date: 6/7/2010 18:00