Textiles that are clean before they are washed

06-Apr-2001

On first looking at your clothes everything seems fine, but then you take off your pullover and are amazed to discover that what was once a plain-coloured shirt has suddenly become a garment of many colours!

When your white laundry becomes coloured, it's usually because it has come into contact with textiles that were poorly washed off after dyeing, or not washed off at all. What happens is that dye particles that are not completely absorbed by a fabric during dyeing later stain another fabric when the two fabrics are worn or washed together. Practically everyone has had this annoying experience at some time or another.

Until recently, removing these unfixed dye residues from textiles after printing was a time-consuming, costly business. BASF's Cyclanon® ECO is the world's first liquid post-clearing agent that is perfectly designed for the acid reductive clearing of polyester and polyester blends, and of "acetate" blouse and lining materials. BASF researchers speak of a technological breakthrough in textile processing products - "a post-clearing agent of the new generation," as Dr Ulrich Karl, developer at BASF AG in Ludwigshafen, Germany, describes it.

One of the innovative features of Cyclanon ECO is that it is a liquid and can therefore be metered more easily, safely and accurately than powder products. Other decisive advantages according to Dr Karl are that "even conservative estimates point to savings of approximately 40% in water consumption and 30% in time for the post-clearing of dyed fabrics." These are impressive figures given that the textile industry processed about 18 million tonnes of polyester in 2000 alone. Widespread use of the new BASF post-clearing agent has cut back costs to the textile industry and its customers while also benefiting the environment - not least because various steps in the dyeing process can be omitted, such as changing the dyebath several times, from acid to alkaline and back again. Cyclanon ECO is also readily biodegradable in clarification plants.

The initial success record is convincing, reports BASF. The "liquid detergent" has recently begun to make its mark in Asia. Some of the best-known textile dyers have already switched over their entire production to Cyclanon ECO.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/2352/textiles-that-are-clean-before-they-are-washed.html