Reducing Steaming Times in the Printing of Nylon/Elastane Blend Fabrics via Chemical Modification

Abstract

Nylon fibres are commonly used in blends with elastane. One of the problems encountered in the printing of nylon/elastane blend fabrics is the necessity of long steaming times for fixation, which causes an increase in energy consumption. In this study, the possibility of printing polyamide fabrics with 1:2 metal complex dyes for short steaming times was investigated. For this aim, laboratory and sample scale trials were performed to develop a method of chemically modifying fibres so that polyamide fabrics can be printed in short steaming times. Based on the results obtained in both trials, it was noticed that the steaming time for fixation could be reduced from 30 minutes to 15 minutes by printing with 1:2 metal complex dyes without causing a loss of printing yield and without affecting the fastness adversly in case of applying cationisation pretreatment with a modified quaternary polyalkylamine compound based product.