Dedication

Our humble efforts are dedicated to Hazrat Muhammad

(peace be upon him) and our parents whose prayers and
cooperation are with us throughout and always.

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 ABSTRACT

The topic of our project is ‘Effect of various softeners on different properties of pigment
dyed 100% cotton fabric’. For the accomplishment of this project, initial stage was the
selection of fabric, dyes, different chemicals and requirement auxiliaries.

Fabric of GSM 126 g/sq.m was selected and dyed with printofix red pigment dye using
pad-dry-cure method. We use six type of softeners to study there effect on the properties
of fabric. Each softener was applied in two different concentrations by Pad-dry-cure
method and checked the following properties of treated fabric.

1. Tear Strength.
2. Tensile Strength
3. Rubbing Fastness
4. Crease Recovery Angle
5. Washing Fastness

After getting all the results, these were compared with untreated once and then discussion
and conclusion were made on the bases of these results. At the last the results were writer
off and the thesis was made into the binding form.

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 Acknowledgements

All thanks to ALLAH Almighty, who blessed us with the ability, determination, devotion
and passion to complete this project.

Then there are lots of people we would like to thank for a huge variety of reasons.

Firstly, we would like to thank our Supervisor, Dr. Tanveer Hussain, Head of the
Department. We could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for this
project, and without his common-sense, knowledge, perceptiveness and cracking-of-the-
whip, we would never have finished. We would also like to thank all the rest of the
academic and support staff of Textile Chemistry Department, particularly Mr. Hammad
Majeed, Mr. Qamar Zia Gilani, Mr. Kashif Ali Sajid and Textile chemistry lab staff for
their support.

We find no words of gratitude for all those individuals who have provided us related
information and material needed for the project especially Mr. Mian Farrukh (Manager
Dyeing, Chunian Limited Raiwand) who allowed us to do practical work in the mill. We
are also thankful to Mr. Zubair Safdar (Regional Manager BASF Pakistan) for providing
their chemicals and softeners needed for the project

At the end I thank my friends and those hidden characters who have unintentionally got
missed but helped me a lot in actual. Thanks to all.

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Background
Fabric softness is very necessary for a fabric to make it wearable. It is very difficult to
describe the quality of fabric softness/firmness with a complete accuracy, since this
involves many factors. It is often linked with lubrication, especially as similar products
are often used for softening and lubrication. Whilst experienced assessors can be quite
remarkable in the extent to which they can grade and assess softeners simply by means of
a highly developed touch sense.
Different types of chemicals are used to make the fabric soft, called softeners. The oils
and waxes can be used as softeners but have now been superseded by more effective
products. These may be non reactive or reactive and may be cationic, anionic, nonionic or
amphoteric. Although many types of softeners are available nowadays but most widely
used and most important are cationic quaternary ammonium compounds and various
silicones. Until quite recently the field was led by the cationic types but there is now the
amino functional polysiloxanes have become the most important product group.
The ionicity of the softener influences its substantivity for different fibers. Whilst this can
be significant in padding applications, it is of primary importance for application by
exhaust methods. Cationic softeners are highly substantive to acrylic fibers, whilst
anionic products are substantive to wool and nylon. Nonionic softeners, if water-soluble,
have very low substantivity for any substrate and are easily lost by washing. Insoluble
types may be substantive to polyester or cellulose acetate, as well as wool and nylon. The
degree of softening with the nonionic products is only moderate but their nonionic nature
makes them convenient for application simultaneously with any class of dyes or
fluorescent brightening agents. Now a days there is a trend to use multifunctional
softeners in which various other factors such as hydrophilicity, sewability, antistatic
behaviour, lubrication and shearing stability are taken into account.
A lot of work has been done to study the behaviour of different softeners but it still
required more work because a wide range of new softeners with improved properties are
being manufacturing now a days. That is why we choose this topic of research for our
project. We have taken a simple bleached fabric of cotton which is then pigment dyed.
Then we applied different kind of softeners and understand their effect on properties of
fabric.

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Significance of project

The topic of my project is to understand the effect of various softeners on different

properties of pigment dyed 100% cotton fabric. This project is designed in such a way
that it could address all the common problems related to these softeners. My project
usually based on the application of various kind of softeners on the pigment dyed fabric
and quantifying there effect on the different physical properties of the fabric. This study
gave vary useful results by using them we could solved many problems related to
softeners.
This work will be helpful decreasing reprocess costs. These could increase the process
efficiency through minimizing the wastages of tome in reprocess work and
troubleshooting. These finding will be vary helpful for the industry to improve their
product quality to meet the customer requirement in the market
It is most successful
Approach to solve finishing and quality related problems. It will be very helpful for any
practical dyer and finisher to maintain product quality. Dyers and finishers should use
these results and inform us what they have got from this work. I think further work on
this topic might be done to increase our level of understanding against practical problems.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication…………………………………………………………………………… i

Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………іі

Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………….ііі

Background ……………………………………………………………………..……iv
Significance of the Project ……………………………………………………………v

Chapter 01: Introduction

1.1 Cotton …………………………………………………………………………......1

1.2 History of textiles made from cotton ……………………………………………...2

1.3-Traditional method for Dyeing of cotton fabrics…………………………………..3

1.4 Properties of cotton fibers………………………………………………………….4

1.5 Dyeing of cotton fabric with pigment……. …………………………………….…6

1.6- Advantages of the pigment dyeing process……...…………………………….....8

1.7- Limitation of pigments properties……………………………………………...…8

1.8 Textile softeners……………………………………………………………..……10

1.8.1-Types of Softeners…………………………………………………………...11
1.8.1.1-Cationic Softeners…………………………………………….……......11
1.8.1.2-anionic Softeners…………………………………………....................14
1.8.1.3-Amphoteric Softeners……………………………………………..........15
1.8.1.4-Nonionic Softeners……………………………………………...............16
1.8.1.5-Silicon Softeners………………………………………….......................17
1.9 Recent developments in textile softeners…………….………………………….21

1.10 The specific objective of the project…………………………….……………..22

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Chapter 02: Experimental

2.1. Materials ……………………………………………………………………23

2.1.1 Fabric…………………………………………………………………….23

2.1.2 Chemical and auxiliaries……...…………………………………………..23

2.2. Machines and equipment…………………. ………….……..………………24

2.2.1 Pad thermo sol machine……………………………………………………24

2.2.2 Tensile strength tester………………………..……………………………..25

2.2.3 Elmendorf Tear Tester…………………………………………………...…26

2.2.4 Crock meter……………………………………………………………….…27

2.2.5 Crease recovery angle tester………………………………..……………….27

2.3. Methods …………………………………………………………………. …..28

2.3.1 Pigment dyeing of cotton fabrics……………………………………………..28

2.3.2 Sampling of the cloth…………………………………………………………29

2.3.3 Softener application……………………………………………………….…...29

2.3.4 Testing methods………………………………………………………………..30

2.3.4.1 Tensile strength…………………………………………………….………31

2.3.4.2 Tear strength……………………………………………………….……….31

2.3.4.3 Crease recovery angle…………………………………………………..….32

2.3.4.4 Rubbing fastness……………………………………………………………32

2.3.4.5 Washing Fastness…………………………………………………………..33

2.3.4.6 Stiffness Test………………………………………………………………33

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Chapter 03: Results and discussion
3.1-Effect of different softeners on rubbing fastness………………………………...35
3.2-Effect of different softeners on washing fastness………………………………..37
3.3-Effect of different softeners on tensile strength………………………………….39
3.4-Effect on Tear Strength…………………………………………………………..41
3.5-Effect on Crease Recovery Angle……………………………………………….43
3.6-Effect of different softeners on light fatness…………………………………….45
3.7-Effect of different softeners on Stiffness………………………………………..47

Chapter 04: Conclusion and Future Work

4.1 Key Finding of the Project…………………………………………………...49

4.2 Future Work ………………………………………………………………….51

References………………………………………………………………………….54

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List of figures

Figure 1.1 Cotton…………………………………………………………………1

Figure 1.2 Cotton plant……………………………………………………………2
Figure 1.3 Pigment dye…………………………………………………..……….6
Figure 1.4 Bronzer accents……………………………………………………….10
Figure 1.5 Structure of cationic softeners………………………………………...12
Figure 1.6: Some typical anionic finishes…………………………………….…..14
Figure 1.7 Amine, a simple amphoteric compound………………………….……15
Figure 1.8 Structure of Silicone softeners………………………………………...17
Figure 1.9 Negative zeta potential of cellulosic fiber……………………………..18
Figure 1.10 Attachment of an aminofunctional polysiloxane…………………..18
Figure 2.1 Grab Tester…………………………………………………………….25
Figure 2.2 Elmendorf Tear Tester……………………………………………...…26
Figure 2.3 Crock meter……………………………………………………………27
Figure 2.4 Crease Recove Angle Tester and accessories…………………………28
Figure 3.1 Results of Rubbing fastness in graphical form………………………..36
Figure 3.2 Results of washing fastness in graphical form………………………..38
Figure 3.3 Results of Tensile strength in graphical form…………………………40
Figure 3.4 Results of Tear Strength in graphical form……………………………42
Figure 3.5 Results of Crease Recovery Angle in graphical form…………………44
Figure 3.6 Results of Shade Strength in graphical form………………………….46
Figure 3.7 Results of Stiffness in graphical form………………………………...48

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List of tables

Table 1.1 Characteristics of non-ionic softeners……………………………….16

Table 2.1 Fabric Construction………………………………………………….23
Table 2.2 Chemicals and auxiliaries used in the project……………………….24
Table 2.3 Application conditions of different softeners……………………….30
Table 3.1 Results of Rubbing fastness…………………………………………35
Table 3.2 Results of washing fastness…………………………………………37
Table 3.3 Results of Tensile strength………………………………………….39
Table 3.4 Results of Tear Strength………………………………………….....41
Table 3.5 Results of Crease Recovery Angle………………………………….43
Table 3.6 Results of light fatness……………………………………………...45
Table 3.7 Result of Stiffness………………………………………………….47