Wet and Dry Boundaries and Unlevel Dyeing of Wool Fabric

Abstract

The problem of 'weathering' faults in the dyeing of wool fabric has been studied. It was possible to reproduce these faults under laboratory conditions, and attempts were made to determine their nature and to devise correction or prevention techniques. Hydrolysis of the wool fibre is probably less important in the formation of 'weathering' faults than oxidation effects. With equalising acid dyes, re-treatment of the faulty dyeing in a boiling dyebath corrects the fault. However, with dyes of poor migration properties no technique is available that will ensure the correction of 'weathering' faults. Consequently, fabric left lying in carts should be covered, and fabric likely to be stored for a long period should be wrapped.The Kubelka-Munk reflectance is compared with the exact reflectance of an isotropically scattering material, under normal experimental conditions, by obtaining estimates of the accuracy of both methods in predicting the colour of mixtures of dyes on textiles. The exact analysis produces results that, on average, are 14% more accurate than those obtained with the Kubelka-Munk analysis.