FGF PRESENTATION ON SHAPE RETENTION FINISHING OF FABRICS

PRESENTED BY : MANISHA UTTAM PUNAM KUMARI SHWETA YADAV SONAKSHI KOCHHAR

What is shape retention finishes?

Fabrics that lack the ability to retain their shape- they wrinkle and

crush easily. To make them competitive with other fibres, a variety of shape-retentive finishes are given. This process is known as shape retention finishing.
The initial process was for the purpose of making spun rayon fabrics

wrinkle-resistant. This was followed by similar treatment for cotton and linen. With further development, chemical finishes were added to cotton fabrics for what became known as wash and wear cottons. A further extension of this is the development of permanent press, which is used on cotton-blend fabrics as well as wool and wool blends.

 These finishes are all based on resins or reactants that will combine

chemically with the fiber through a process called cross-linking, whereby adjacent molecular chains of cellulose in the fiber are linked or tied together to provide greater molecular rigidity and to prevent intermolecular slippage.
Earlier used chemical finished was urea-formaldehyde.
The most widely used agent is di-methyloldihydroxydimethylethylene

urea (DMDHEU)
All of these finishes reduce by 30 to 50 percent the tensile and tear

strength of the fabrics to which they are applied, as well as reducing the abrasion resistance.

WRINKLE RESISTANT FINISHES

These finishes are also sometimes called crease-resistant finishes. The purpose is to keep the fabric flat and smooth as compared with

creases or pleats that are deliberately placed in the fabric.

Durable wrinkle-resistant finishes have been developed for cotton and

linen and, to a lesser extent, for rayon.

WASH AND WEAR FABRICS

These are also known as drip-dry finishes. They are of same type as

the wrinkle-resistant finishes. Garments made of fabrics with wash and wear finishes will dry smooth and need little or no ironing after washing, depending upon the quality of the finish and the construction.
The fabrics have a good soft hand and a neat appearance. Wash and

wear finishes have been used primarily on broadcloth and oxford shirting but are also applicable to other types of cotton fabrics.

SUBTRATES

WOOL SILK THERMOPLASTIC FIBERS COTTON LINEN RAYON

FINISHING PROCESS
DURAPRESS
o Durable press finishes can be defined as those chemicals or method

used to improve the properties and performance of washable fabrics.

o Permanent Press fabrics resist wrinkling and also help to maintain

creases

and

pleats

throughout

wearing

and

cleaning.

DURAPRESS BY UTILIZING FIBRE PROPERTIES

Heat setting of synthetic fibres can provide durability for creases and

pleats.
Further more, synthetic fibres that are quite resilient may not require

ironing after laundering.

These fabrics are not given chemical finishes.

DURA PRESS USING RESINS

In this the resin used have at least two functional groups that react with

adjacent cellulose molecules.

The most commonly used resin treatment is

dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU).
It has two- OH (hydroxyl) groups and two-NH2OH (methylol) groups

that can react with cellulose.

 When blends consisting of cellulosic fibres and synthetic fibres are

treated , the resin reacts only with the cellulosic fibres in the blend.
After the resin treatment, the fabric is dried and then it is cured at high

temperature.
It is in this step where the chemical reaction takes place.

DURABLE PRESS WOOL FINISHES

Wool has its own natural memory. It is elastic, resilient and tends to

return to its original shape after tension or compression is exerted.

PROCESS : The process requires that the crease area of the garment be sprayed

with a chemical reducing agent such as mono ethanolamine sulphite which temporarily inhibits the wools resilience. When the garment is pressed, the heat resets the wools memory with this crease so that the fabric always tends to return to the new creased condition. Moisture increases this reaction and when wet (worn in the rain for instance) the crease tends to become sharper.

PROBLEMS WITH DURA PRESS

Manufacturing- the production of durable press items raises the cost

of manufacturing.
The additional step required and the cost of special equipment for

finishing both contribute to this increase in price that is passed along to the consumer.

 Use and care-durable press fabrics, like their forerunners the crease-

resistant and wash- and-wear fabrics, exhibit some loss in strength and particularly a decrease in abrasion resistance.
Frosting also takes place due to breakage and loss of fibres because of

abrasion.

 Another problem was that the quantities of resin needed to produce

satisfactory durable press made some of these fabrics rather stiff. They did not drape as well and were less comfortable to wear in warm weather than untreated fabrics.
If fabrics were not given an adequate after rinse, they had a fishy

odour.

 Safety- formaldehyde is an important component of easy-care and

durable press finishes. Under hot, humid conditions, the reaction forming the finish can reverse, releasing formaldehyde.
One approach has been to alter the methylol groups in DMDHEU that

are the source of formaldehyde. Finishes based on this approach show minimal formaldehyde release but are not as cheap or effective as the traditional commercial finish.

 Current research focussed on polycarboxylic acids, compounds with

multiple acid groups that can react with cellulose molecules forming ester bonds. Fabric finished with this have good durable press features with better strength retention and abrasion resistance but are either expensive or cause yellowing of the fabric.

MODIFICATIONS OF DURA PRESS FINISHES

Modified and new approaches are being developed to reduce and eliminate problems of strength loss, abrasion rsistance and color degradation. Among these are methods which would alter the molecular structure the molecular fiber so as to increase the strength.
The fiber construction can be oriented by swelling with sodium

hydroxide without tension and allowing the cotton to shrink, then stretching the yarn while it remains in the caustic soda. This technique has been found to increase the strength of the permanent press cotton so that it is equal to that of untreated cotton after 20 launderings.

 Pretreatment of cotton and cotton polyester fabrics with liquid ammonia

has been found to improve luster, tensile strength, wrinkle resistance, flex life and hand of goods that are subsequently cross linked.
A steam cure followed by a dry cure of cross linked cotton is also

effective and importantly, to provide about 300% greater abrasion resistance than the convention method.

THANK YOU!