Washing accidents involving coated printed and dyed fabric garments
Release Time:
2010-07-23 13:48
Source:
China Laundry
In the 1980s and 1990s, a new type of textile printing and dyeing technology emerged — coating printing technology.
Traditional printing and dyeing techniques mostly use various dyes, and after printing and dyeing, a series of washing and treatment processes are required. This method consumes a large amount of water and significant heat energy. However, coating printing technology
uses solvent-based printing pastes. Compared with traditional fabric dyeing and printing processes, after processing, there is no need to use a large amount of clean water to wash the fabric, nor is baking required. Textile printing and dyeing processing is as fast and convenient as printing magazines. It has many advantages such as energy saving, reducing wastewater discharge, rapid product variety changes, shortening production cycles, and improving production efficiency. It is widely welcomed by dyeing and finishing enterprises and garment companies.
Using coating printing technology, not only can various patterns be printed, but single-color fabrics can also be printed. It is even possible to print lighter colors on darker fabrics. However, the textiles printed by this method only form color on the surface and have poor permeability. Therefore, the back side of most fabrics printed by this method is white. By combining coating printed fabrics with traditional padding dyeing technology, fabrics identical to those made by traditional dyeing techniques can be produced, meaning the front and back of the fabric are completely the same color. Up to now, coating printed fabrics have formed a relatively complete series.
Usually, the coating printed products we see mainly include the following types:
A. Single-color fabric — fabric printed instead of dyed
B. Various printed fabrics
C. Various patterns and texts printed on finished garments
However, although coating printed fabrics have many advantages, they also have certain drawbacks. This causes ongoing awkward incidents and frequent accidents for the downstream washing and dyeing industry in the textile and garment sectors.
Currently, the common accidents occurring during washing and ironing of coating printed fabric garments mainly fall into the following types, which we will introduce one by one.
1. Cannot withstand tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning; discoloration or color change occurs after dry cleaning.
Because coating printing pastes contain certain organic solvents, during dry cleaning, some paste components easily dissolve, causing the paste color to fade, lighten, or even completely change the fabric's color beyond recognition. Therefore, coating printed fabrics cannot withstand tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning. Using hydrocarbon solvent dry cleaning has less impact but can still lighten the original fabric color.
Figure 1 shows an orange women's suit with the jacket noticeably lightened after tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning; Figure 2 shows brown cotton pants in a cotton suit turning green after tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning; Figure 3 shows a camel-colored cotton jacket turning gray after tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning; Figure 4 shows color changes in printed fabric after dry cleaning.
In Figures 1, 2, and 3 above, all are single-color coating printed fabrics, which we call "printed instead of dyed" fabrics. They all experience fading or discoloration after tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning. Although Figure 4 is printed fabric, color changes still occur after dry cleaning.
2. Low rubbing fastness, prone to rubbing discoloration.
The color of coating printed fabrics is only a thin layer on the surface and does not penetrate all the yarn fibers of the fabric, so the rubbing fastness is poor. Whether dry cleaning, water washing, or even hand scrubbing, excessive friction can cause discoloration. Figure 5 shows the surface discoloration caused by excessive force when hand scrubbing cotton pants made with coating printing technology, where the original darker fabric was printed to a lighter color, and excessive scrubbing caused the color layer to fall off, exposing the original color.
3. Very sensitive to stain removers containing organic solvents, prone to color damage during stain removal.
Similarly, because the coating printing paste contains organic solvents, coating printed fabrics are very sensitive to stain removers containing organic solvents, so it is not suitable to use some stain removers designed to remove oily stains. Using such stain removers may cause the treated area to lose color, whiten, or even experience color damage. The stain removers mentioned include TAR-GO from Wilson (USA), blue, brown, green, and purple stain removers from Seishi (Germany), and Funai oil remover, etc. Figure 6 shows color damage occurring when using Seishi blue bottle stain remover to remove oil stains from cotton pants made with coating printing.
4. Cannot withstand high-temperature ironing, prone to ironing discoloration.
Because the color of coating printed fabrics is only a thin surface layer and uses some polymer organic compounds to fix the printed patterns on the fabric, their resistance to high-temperature ironing is poor. When ironing such garments, their heat resistance must be considered; otherwise, ironing damage may occur. Figure 7 shows color changes in the printed pattern of a wool sweater after high-temperature ironing.
In summary, coating printed fabric garments differ significantly from fabrics made by traditional printing and dyeing technologies and react differently during washing and ironing. Since coating printing technology still has great potential for technical progress and transformation, it is believed that some of its shortcomings can achieve ideal results through development and improvement.


Figure 1. Orange women's suit jacket faded and lightened after tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning Figure 2. Brown cotton suit pants turned green after tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning

Figure 3. Camel-colored cotton jacket turned gray after tetrachloroethylene dry cleaning

Figure 4. Color change of printed fabric after dry cleaning


Figure 5. Excessive force during hand scrubbing caused surface fading on cotton pants with coated printed fabric


Figure 6. Color bleeding occurred when using stain remover on cotton pants with coated printed fabric Figure 7. Color change of wool sweater's printed pattern after ironing at a relatively high temperature
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