An improved fabric performance and consumer laundry care technology through a simple chemical modification

Introduction
Here, discussions are made on improvements in fabric performance that can be realized through application of new technology in manufacture of textiles for clothing industry. Performance improvements address many consumer concerns regarding care and cleaning of garments. New technology may be applied to a variety of fabrics. This wide application, coupled with marked improvements in fabric performance, implies a significant consumer benefit for new treated clothing. Benefits delivered by new technology include shrinkage and wrinkle resistance, fabric feel, fabric abrasion resistance, brightness, and home versus commercial cleaning. Clothing manufacturers today produce an ever-increasing variety of clothing for a consumer market that has resources to purchase more and better clothes. However, consumers have less time to devote to care of their clothing. Despite greater fabric and colour selection, many consumers are apprehensive about laundry. They feel that they lack adequate information to maximize fabric life, and to preserve original garment size and colour. With so many different garments having many different requirements for proper home care, consumers are forced to either guess and hope for the best, or accept more expensive commercial cleaning alternatives. Special home-care tasks, such as hand wash and line dry, are difficult and time consuming. Also, many consumers intentionally purchase garments in a larger size to compensate for expected shrinkage. This scenario creates implicit demand for clothing that has desirable look and feel, that maintains these attributes over time, and that requires minimal care. A completely new and sustainable technology CTP-7, is a proprietary chemistry and process applied to certain fabrics, which results in a combination of cross-linked fibre and fibre surface treatment. CTP-7 enhances those properties of feel, durability, and wearability desired by consumers, which allows consumers to care for a broader range of clothing in their own home. Procter & Gamble is evaluating this new finish process as an improvement in consumer laundry care technology.

New technology

CTP-7 combines a proprietary cross-link technology and process, and a surface chemistry treatment. Both elements are durable to home laundering. CTP-7 process yields a cellulose cross-link that is more chemically stable in cross-linked state than that experienced with traditional DMDHEU crosslink technology. CTP-7 can be applied using existing process equipment in a standard finishing mill.

Rayon and Cotton- Current Performance

Newly manufactured rayon and cotton fabrics have strong consumer appeal for their appearance and comfort properties. However, these positive attributes can be lost in rigor of laundering. Untreated rayon fabric has a strong propensity to shrink and wrinkle because its fibres experience high swelling when wet. Untreated cotton is inherently better to rayon since its fibres tend to be more resistant to swelling. However, cotton may still shrink and wrinkle to the dissatisfaction of consumers. To improve life of desired properties, manufacturers typically apply mechanical or resin treatments to their fabrics. Mechanical finishing reduces shrinkage and improves a fabrics soft handle properties. However, mechanical finishing may have several drawbacks. In addition to slow production speeds and high equipment costs, mechanical finishing yields no
An improved fabric performance and consumer laundry care technology through a simple chemical modification
Compiled by: M. Rezaul Karim Tutul

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improvement in colour retention, durable press, and home laundering. Widely used resin technology improves shrinkage, durable press, torque, and colour retention. However, these improvements are not long-lasting and with extended home or commercial laundering, resin-coated fabrics may experience a degradation of their positiveattributes in a time frame that consumers find unacceptable.

Fabrics tested

In pilot trial runs in fabric mills, 100% rayon, 85% rayon/15% flax blends, 50% rayon/50% acetate, lyocell, 100% cotton shirting, cotton and poly-cotton knits (pique and jersey), and cotton/Spandex and rayon/Spandex jersey knits fabric were successfully treated using CTP-7 process.

Ease of Home Laundering

Home laundering results of CTP-7 treated fabrics are excellent. Many of these fabrics are typically dry-clean only or require gentle cycle machine wash with line dry care. With CTP-7, properties such as shrinkage and wrinkling can be controlled, to levels below industry specifications even after a regular cycle wash and tumble dry. In addition, CTP-7 treatment results in a reduction in garment drying time, which makes home launder process even easier. Since fibre swelling is controlled with CTP-7 treatment, fabrics absorb less water and, consequently, dry faster. Lower fibre swelling due to reduced water absorption represents a timesaving for consumers who tumble-dry or line-dry; additionally, there is potential energy savings during tumble-drying.

Comfort

In combination with this reduced fibre swelling, however, water transport is maintained, due to good fabric hydrophilicity. We expect consumers to experience good fabric breathability and comfort in CTP-7-treated garments based on standard water transport measures.

Wet Abrasion Resistance

A further benefit of reduced fibre swelling is reduced wet abrasion. Wet abrasion occurs during home or commercial wash cycle and initial part of home or commercial tumble-dry cycle. Reduced fibre swelling minimizes fibre surface area that is exposed to potential abrasive forces. CTP-7 surface chemistry further protects fibre surface. This results in better fabric appearance and customer satisfaction during the life of the garment.

Durability

Cellulose cross-link in CTP-7 is very stable to home laundering and commercial cleaning processes. Technical testing demonstrates performance stabilitya function of cross-link stabilityfor CTP-7 technology.

Softness evaluation

Any time that a fabric undergoes a textile treatment, there is a risk that fabric hand is negatively impacted. Indeed, there are numerous textile processes and chemistries designed to maintain or enhance fabric hand. CTP-7 process delivers a soft fabric hand as measured by trained technical graders compared to comparable resin-treated fabrics. Over time, with home laundering, resin cross-link may be hydrolyzed and lost thatcan lead to an improvement in fabric hand, but loss in performance properties. This softness benefit remains constant over at least 25 home laundering cycles when measured versus cycle 0.
An improved fabric performance and consumer laundry care technology through a simple chemical modification
Compiled by: M. Rezaul Karim Tutul

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