Simultaneous Dyeing and Fire-retardant Finishing of Jute Fabric Using an Acid Dye and Selective F-R Finishing Chemicals A K Samanta 1, Kashmita Bhattacharya2 University of Calcutta, Dept. of Jute and Fibre Technology ijtaksamanta@hotmail.com1, kashmita.bh@gmail.com2 Abstract Conventionally decorative quality jute furnishing fabrics are dyed and then chemically finished as per functional requirement by two step sequential process. An attempt has been made to combine these two step process into a single step process by developing simultaneous (combined) dyeing (acid dyeing) and fire-retardant finishing process in one step by pad-dry-cure method. H2O2 bleached jute fabric has been dyed with selective acid dyes (1%) and chemically finished with different concentrations of Ortho-Phosphoric Acid, Ammonium sulphamate and Di-ammonium phosphate for fire retardant finish, by both conventional two-step sequential process and single-step simultaneous process by pad-dry-cure technique. One-step simultaneous application of Ortho-Phosphoric Acid, Ammonium sulphamate and Di-ammonium phosphate along with 1% acid dye on H2O2 bleached jute fabric shows an improvement in the surface colour strength compared to that of ordinary H2O2 bleached jute fabric when separately dyed with 1% acid dye and subsequently finished the same fire retardant agent. Both the process two stage conventional acid dyeing and fire-retardant finish and single stage simultaneous pad-dry-cure process of acid dyeing and fire retardant finish, show at par fire retardant performance. This single bath technique thus offers advantages of reduction in processing cost, saving in energy and reduction in time of treatments as well as better colour value and at per fire retardant performance. Keywords Acid Dye; Ammonium Sulphamate; Dyeing; Di-ammonium Phosphate; Fire Retardant Finishing; Jute Fabric; Ortho-phosphoric Acid; Simultaneous Dyeing and Finishing
Introduction Jute and jute based fabrics are gaining popularity as different decorative products for home textiles (furnishing , upholstery floor mats, shopping bags etc.) in the domestic and international field due to its eco-friendliness and biodegradability character. Chemically, jute is lignocellulosic and physically it is a coarser variety of natural bast fibre which is agro renewable. India’s major production of jute goods is limited to conventional jute yarn and fabric products used in either packaging or carpet backing etc.; however there is an increasing demand of dyed variety of decorative jute fabrics. From market survey and need assessment made by this department, it is revealed that grey/bleached and dyed jute fabrics having requisite fire-retardant have good market demand as coarser variety of fire retardant textiles for protection against fire in variety of end uses like car upholstery/accessories, kitchen apron and gloves, furnishing/curtains and floor coverings of public hall/theatre, fire-retardant Tenting and as brattice clothes in mines etc. For these applications, production of jute decorative fabrics or products with attractive colours and fire retardant finishes is important. The technical problems of the conventional exhaust process of dyeing (using dye-bath vat or jigger machine) is laborious , higher energy and time consuming and also it requires much higher water consumption both for dyeing and also in washing (for removing un-fixed dyes). Both dyeing and finishing of jute require a lot of fuel and energy in the form of steam, manpower and electricity. In this age of fuel and energy crisis, it is desirable to develop such process formulations which would result in reduction of process steps by way of combining two or three steps together into one step requiring lower energy, water and time consumption for achieving reduced process cost. Therefore, appropriate combination of multi-step processes a single-step process for both dyeing and specific chemical finishing for any textiles assumes high importance. Some earlier reports are available in literature [1,2,24,25] on single-step combined dyeing and resin finishing of jute based fabrics, and on simultaneous dyeing and easy care crease resistant finishing for cotton and its blends Textiles and Light Industrial Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 1—June 2015 2304-9421/15/01 001-16 Š 2015 DEStech Publications, Inc. doi: 10.12783/tlist.2015.0401.01
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