A Brief Discussion on the Changes in New Types of Clothing Fabrics and Corresponding Washing Measures

Ma Xiangliang

      
The current development model of new textile products has integrated knowledge from chemistry, physics, electronics, engineering, biology, and other disciplines. With the adjustment of product structures in the textile industry and the acceleration of new product development, the traditional textile product structure is gradually changing; with changes in consumer structure, green textiles and clothing made from new textile fibers are becoming a new social consumption trend and fashion. Therefore, as the downstream industry of the clothing sector—the laundry service industry—will break the traditional extensive laundry model, continuously keeping pace with the times to summarize, research, and develop washing methods adapted to the characteristics of new textile fabric clothing, becoming an important topic in the laundry industry.

1. Changes in Textile Fabrics and Textile Processes
1. The clothing fabrics developed from new textile fibers have broken through the boundaries of cotton, wool, silk, and hemp.
There has been mutual penetration in the application of textile raw materials. Woolen fabrics contain silk, cotton, and hemp fibers; silk fabrics containing cashmere, wool, and other fibers are common. The development of various "new synthetic fibers" has made textile performance increasingly natural, with characteristics imitating real and wool fibers. The rise of differentiated fibers and functional fibers has promoted the diversification of textile raw materials. Blending, interlacing, and intertwining two or more fibers (short fibers and long fibers) complement the excellent characteristics of various fibers, improving the wear performance and product grade of textile fabrics.
Due to the reconstruction of spinning, manufacturing, printing, dyeing, and finishing processes, new yarn structures and variable fabric structures have emerged, including fancy yarns, slub yarns, core-spun yarns, wrapped yarns, and rotor spun yarns, among a series of yarns with various forms.
Textile clothing presents a series of types such as comfortable, casual, super shrink-resistant, ultra-thin, high count and high density, healthy, functional, and environmentally friendly clothing. Clothing fabrics are developing towards high-grade natural fiber fabrics, new synthetic fiber fabrics, green and environmentally friendly fabrics, functional fabrics, and high-grade fine fabrics, making the appearance of clothing fabrics show fabric style characteristics such as thin, transparent, revealing, thick, dense, glossy, bright, soft, smooth, crisp, and fuzzy.
2. Current classification of new clothing fabrics.
New natural fiber clothing fabrics (green and environmentally friendly fabrics). This type of new clothing material mainly leads with new cotton fibers, improved wool fiber materials, new silk fabrics, and new hemp fiber materials, using biotechnology to process and produce a series of green and environmentally friendly fibers. For example, naturally colored cotton produced using modern biotechnology; organic cotton produced under completely natural and pollution-free conditions; colored wool grown by feeding sheep with different trace metal elements; genetically engineered silk with improved properties to resist shrinkage, deformation, and wrinkling; and new hemp fiber materials produced using biotechnology, such as health-function Robu hemp fibers.
New chemical fiber clothing fabrics. These fiber fabrics consist of three types: new cellulose fibers, new protein fibers, and new composite synthetic fibers. They are differentiated fibers physically or chemically modified and technologically transformed based on original fiber composition, improving the performance of original fibers to some extent. They mainly include various shaped fibers, composite fibers, ultra-fine fibers, easy-dye fibers, high water absorption and moisture absorption fibers, high shrinkage fibers, antistatic fibers, etc. The main fibers include Tencel fiber, modal fiber, bamboo fiber, soybean protein fiber, milk protein fiber, and polylactic acid (corn) fiber.
Functional clothing fabrics. These include health care clothing materials, safety protective clothing materials, moisture-absorbing, warming or cooling comfortable clothing materials, and intelligent clothing materials, which are continuously developing. Commonly seen in the market are clothing fabrics made from radiation-proof fibers, metal fibers, and chitosan fibers. Additionally, there are air-conditioning fibers, far-infrared fibers, antibacterial fibers, flame-retardant fibers, UV-resistant fibers, new elastic fibers, and many other new synthetic fiber textile materials blended with traditional cotton, wool, silk, hemp, and chemical fibers to form new chemical fiber clothing fabrics.
Other new clothing fabrics mainly include water-soluble fabrics, edible fabrics, and various new clothing accessories.

      
2. Clothing washing should actively take corresponding measures to meet the changing textile fabric characteristics and satisfy consumers' diverse needs.
With the continuous production of new textile clothing fabrics, the sales of new clothing in the market are increasing, resulting in many clothing brands, numerous styles, diverse color combinations, new materials, exquisite and complex workmanship, and short seasonal cycles of fashion trends. However, with consumers' wearing habits, the volume of new textile clothing brought to laundry shops for cleaning is also showing an increasing trend. To provide good laundry services for the various fabric clothing and special clothing styles, laundry services, besides selecting laundry facilities and equipment and improving processes, can start from the following aspects in clothing washing response measures.
1. Strengthen comprehensive quality management of laundry shops.
Laundry shops should manage and control the washing process quality according to ISO9000 quality standards, standardizing laundry management, proceduralizing work, and standardizing operations. No garment should be missed in washing, inspection, or verification.
In the garment receiving stage, quality control is the most important. Front desk staff must learn to identify and understand the permanent sewn-in washing labels on clothing. Confirm the washing method, understand the garment's washing requirements, and recognize the fabric and material of the clothing. Generally, from the material labels sewn into the garment, washing instructions, and warning requirements, one can identify whether the garment is made of new textile materials. At the same time, the receiving staff should carefully inspect key areas of the garment that have been worn, deformed, or faded after use, including the garment (including lining) and any decorative accessories. Employees must accurately and truthfully fill in the laundry information on the laundry ticket to provide warnings for the next process and create good working conditions for the subsequent laundry steps.
As sorting and inspection staff, checking and classifying various garments before washing is an important procedure. Therefore, it is necessary not only to accurately verify the quantity entering the factory and the various information on the laundry list but also to check the cleaning labels, separate water-washable and dry-cleanable clothes, sort clothes by dark, medium, and light colors; separate by degree of dirtiness; and separate clothes that are prone to deformation, significant shrinkage, loose structure, have decorations, or are already stained for separate washing.
As laundry workers in various workshop positions (dry cleaning, water washing, ironing), more attention must be paid to the technical operation details of their respective roles. Operations must be carried out meticulously according to process requirements and laundry label instructions, strictly prohibiting rough and careless handling. For example: in dry cleaning, not paying attention to gentle processing; in water washing, neglecting soaking time and temperature control; in ironing, not strictly controlling the ironing temperature and duration for special fabrics, all of which can cause quality issues in laundry. Employees should also develop the habit of checking the laundry quality of the previous process and mutual inspection between processes to minimize laundry accidents.
As the final quality control inspectors before garments leave the factory, personnel must use sharp eyes to verify the quantity of clothes and make the final quality check on the garment washing quality.
2. The integrity of washing equipment and the suitability of the operating environment are important guarantees for good laundry work.
In recent years, China's washing equipment has entered a rapid development stage. Various scales and types of washing equipment have better met the laundry market's needs and can adapt to the development of various new textile fabric garments. Especially in energy saving, emission reduction, and green laundry, advanced features are reflected. However, due to the variability of textile fabrics and the complexity of garment processing, laundry process requirements are stricter. Therefore, while maintaining the hardware of washing equipment and facilities daily, more attention should be paid to controlling operating process parameters, especially the detailed adjustments during washing involving garments, detergents, washing media, dirt, mechanical force, washing time, and temperature. Changing the traditional extensive washing mode, developing boutique and personalized specialized services, and using flexible manual washing services when uncertain to meet consumer needs can reduce laundry accidents.
3. Carry out and strengthen various forms of business training to improve the overall quality of all staff and adapt to laundry market demands.
Strengthen professional skills training for practitioners, enhance laundry quality management, and improve laundry service levels. In employee training, emphasize learning knowledge related to textiles, chemical industry, leather, and other fields associated with laundry, especially understanding and learning the cleaning and maintenance characteristics of new textile garment fabrics. Be good at summarizing the washing regularities of new garments. Relevant laundry professional industry associations or departments should quickly organize experts to study washing solutions for new situations and key issues found in laundry, establish washing archives for new and special garments, and teach employees to apply learned washing methods flexibly, turning passive into active.
Carry out industry guidance, strengthen joint research among washing equipment and chemical suppliers, laundry service industry, textile and garment processing industry, and colleges and universities. Organize professional technicians to tackle and research washing methods suitable for new fabrics and new processes. At the same time, utilize the strength of the laundry professional committee to understand foreign new laundry technologies, new processes, and new equipment, quickly establish laundry quality industry standards compatible with the laundry industry, and promote the standardization process of the laundry service industry.
Here, we also call on the garment industry to strictly follow GB18401 "National Basic Safety Technical Specification for Textile Products" and GB5296.4 "Consumer Product Instructions for Textile and Garment Use" national standards. Garment manufacturers should conduct all washing durability tests related to garment wearing before sales, strengthen the standardized management of garment labeling, reduce inaccuracies, improprieties, and inconsistencies in labeling that cause uncertainty and inaccuracy for downstream industries—laundry, and minimize troubles and laundry accidents caused by interface issues between upstream and downstream industry standards for consumers' garment washing.

      
In summary, with the rapid development and changes in textile fabrics today and the continuous improvement of consumer awareness, the laundry service industry faces severe challenges. It must re-examine the concept of modern laundry services and not regard laundry as a low-skill occupation. To shorten the gap with social demands of the times, it must face reality, introduce talents from various disciplines into the market, and quickly train skilled personnel in various professional roles. We should study laundry technology not only from hardware such as washing equipment and detergents to cope with textile and garment changes but also strengthen industry guidance from software aspects such as process management, system platforms, and quality management. Enhance employee vocational skills training, improve standards, carry out refined services, and rapidly raise the overall professional quality of practitioners. This will enable laundry, a traditional, ordinary, yet rapidly developing industry, to keep pace with the times. With the service philosophy of "people-oriented, customer-first," meticulous service, professional excellence, integrity, and standardized operation, it will surely satisfy consumers and achieve good social and economic benefits.

(The author is an expert in the laundry industry of the China General Chamber of Commerce)