MECHANICAL POLISHING

PROCESS ON STANDARD
®
TENCEL

DYEING / FINISHING

PROCESSING GUIDELINES
 DYEING / FINISHING

Table of Contents
Mechanical Polishing Process on Standard TENCEL® ..................................................................... 3
1 Preparation ............................................................................................................................. 3
2 Jet Processing ........................................................................................................................ 3
2.1 Scour ............................................................................................................................. 3
2.2 Dye ................................................................................................................................ 3
Figure 1 Typical Reactive Dye / Fibrillation Profile........................................................... 4
Figure 2 Fibrillated Knitted Fabric .................................................................................... 4
2.3 Fabric rinsing and neutralization.................................................................................... 5
2.4 Unload and stenter dry .................................................................................................. 5
3 Resin Finishing ....................................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Resin pad....................................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Stenter dry and cure ...................................................................................................... 6
4 Air Tumble Beat...................................................................................................................... 6
5 Top Soften and Stenter Dress ................................................................................................ 6
6 Knitted fabric example ............................................................................................................ 7
Figure 3 Treated Knitted Fabric After Air Tumble beat .................................................... 7
Figure 4 Treated Knitted Fabric After 10 x 60°C Wash Tumble Cycles ........................... 7

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Mechanical Polishing Process on Standard TENCEL®

The Mechanical Polishing process has been developed to give a standard TENCEL® fabric with a
clean surface in both woven and jersey knit constructions.

The process gives a fabric with the typical TENCEL® drape, due to the fabric being jet dyed and a
clean surface which is maintained through repeated home laundering due to resin finishing. The
overall clean surface effect is achieved by fully fibrillating the fabric during air-jet processing (scour
and dyeing) followed by a two stage cleaning of the surface through resin embrittlement of the
fibrillated surface hairs followed by rope tumbling to beat the surface hairs off.

The process requires the use of a jet dyeing machine to create an even and sufficient degree of
fibrillation, ideally achieved using an air-jet dyeing machine, for the preparation and the dyeing
process, together with a high speed air tumbler for the beating process. A controlled pad - stenter
oven is also required for the accurate application of the resin finish.

1 Preparation

Woven fabrics should be open width prepared, singe - desized. Where a jersey knit fabric contains
elastane, it should generally be slit and heat set prior to jet processing. This is recommended for
fully plated elastane fabrics.

2 Jet Processing

The following process steps should ideally be carried out on an air-jet, using sufficiently aggressive
conditions to achieve the required degree of fibrillation and to ensure that the fibrillation is evenly
distributed (good rope re-orientation). Rope speed and turn around times are dependent upon the
machine used, the fabric construction and the machine loading.

Fabric should be loaded into liquor at 50 – 60°C, to counter the inherent wet stiffness of TENCEL®.
For the same reason, any crease preventing lubricant should be added to the scour bath before
loading. When loading tubular jersey knit fabrics, care should be taken to avoid rope twisting,
which can lead to ballooning / jams. Tubular fabrics should be processed face out.

2.1 Scour

Jersey knit fabrics. Typically:

1.0 g/l non-ionic detergent

1.0 g/l sodium carbonate

60 – 80°C for 60 minutes

2.2 Dye

The Mechanical Polishing process relies on creating sufficient fibrillation during the dyeing stage;
achieved here by high temperature dye migration in combination with the evenly distributed
aggression of the air-jet. The temperature profile described is for hot dyeing reactive dyes.

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However, if a lower temperature profile is used, steps should be taken to ensure that adequate
fibrillation is achieved. Typically this would mean increasing the temperature of the pre-scour step
to 100°C,

Example: Migration process: Hot dyeing Reactive method.

Fill and raise to 50°C at 4°C/min, add recommended lubricants: inclusion of a fiber / fiber lubricant
is recommended to assist the fibrillation process, together with a fiber / metal lubricant,
sequesterant and anti-reductant.

Figure 1 Typical Reactive Dye / Fibrillation Profile

20 – 30 min Dosing alkali

90 – 100°C
Salt
Auxiliaries 40 – 60 min
pH 5.5 – 6.5 80°C
70°C
1.5°C/min pH check
Drop bath
Drain
Dosing dyes

after treatment:
50 – 60°C - rinses
- acidify with acetic acid
- rinse, soaping, rinse
- check fabric pH

At the end of the scour and dye stages the fabric should have a fibrillated aspect. See Figure 2

Figure 2 Fibrillated Knitted Fabric

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2.3 Fabric rinsing and neutralization

It is important that the fabric is properly neutralized after dyeing / before resination. Any residual
alkali trapped in the fiber core will have the effect of neutralizing the acid catalyst and possibly lead
to an incomplete resin cure.

Several methods are available to accurately determine fabric pH. Two samples should be checked
for a more reliable result.

2.4 Unload and stenter dry

Fabrics should ideally be processed immediately after unloading from the dyeing machine. If the
fabrics are stored wet for too long in rope form, permanent creases can form which cannot be
subsequently removed. Dewatering by nip or suction slot is preferred as centrifuging the wet fabric
often results in creases.

3 Resin Finishing

The purpose of the resination step is to embrittle the fibrillated surface hairs and to prevent further
fabric fibrillation through domestic washing. The resin used should be standard or low
formaldehyde (Ökotex) DMDHEU resin. Current zero formaldehyde type resins do not give
sufficient fiber embrittlement and so generally can not give the required clean surface. The
application of sufficient resin and efficient curing is critical to the success of the process. As
mentioned above the fabric pH should be checked before resination (fabric pH approx. 6.5).

3.1 Resin pad

Resin is applied without softener, at this stage, to maximize the required embrittleing effect. Where
required, softeners can be applied as a top soften, prior to stenter dressing.

Applying sufficient resin and achieving sufficient resin cure is of paramount importance for the
process to give a clean finish after rope tumbling.

Typical formulation (based on 80% wet pick up, 75% resin solid content and effective 90% cure)

50 – 55 g/l low formaldehyde DMDHEU resin (e.g.: Knittex FEL)

15 g/l magnesium chloride-hexahydrate
1.0 g/l (optional) acetic acid

Note: Citric acid should not be used in resin formulations applied to TENCEL®

Drying: 130°C
Curing: 165 – 170°C (fabric temperature), approx. 45 seconds

It is important to be aware of the solid content of the resin to ensure that enough resin is effectively
applied to ensure the effectiveness of the process.

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3.2 Stenter dry and cure

Accurate stenter curing is best achieved by carrying out two separate stenter runs (1st pass Stenter
Dry + 2nd pass Stenter Cure). Stenter dry at 120 – 130°C to approx. 10% residual moisture (avoid
over drying); stenter to standing width with overfeed. See resin manufacturers recommendations
for cure conditions for TENCEL®.

These two stenter runs can be combined into one dry and cure pass providing the stenter is fitted
with sophisticated monitoring devices capable of determining at which point the fabric is dry and
adjusting the running speed appropriately to give the correct cure residence time.

4 Air Tumble Beat

The aim of this process step is to clean the fabric surface by breaking off the fibrillated and
embrittled surface hairs through high speed rope air tumble beating.

Examples of high speed rope air tumblers: THEN Airflow AFS+T, Thies Rototumbler, Biancalani
Airo, Alliance Zephyra

Example: Biancalani Airo 1000

Load cured, dry fabric, increase air flow (90 – 100%) and fabric speed (approx. 450m/min).
Run approx. 30 minutes; to maximize beating effect, speed can be increased to 600 – 700m/min
for an additional 10 minutes should it be required (speeds dependent on rope size and fabric
weight).

The final fabric surface appearance is essentially clean (= classic look) but may show a very slight
surface effect dependant upon fabric construction. See Section 6, Figure 3.

If the tumble beat process is not successful in cleaning the fabric surface, consideration should be
given to a) the aggression of the tumbling process and b) the effectiveness of the resination
process (amount applied / degree of cure).

Note: The fabric surface maintains a clean aspect after repeated wash tumble cycles as shown in
Section 6, Figure 4.

5 Top Soften and Stenter Dress

If required fabric softener should be pad applied as a top soften before the final stenter pass
(dressing). The choice of softener formulation depends on the customer requirement but large
amounts of silicone softener should generally be avoided.

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6 Knitted fabric example

Figure 3 Treated Knitted Fabric After Air Tumble beat

Figure 4 Treated Knitted Fabric After 10 x 60°C Wash Tumble Cycles

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 Document Reference: W_CLY_O_GEN_Mechanical Polishing_E_WHB_060626

The information published here is given in good faith and is based upon our experience to
date when processing Lenzing Fibers. However these recommendations should be
regarded as guidelines only, and it is the responsibility of the user to test the suitability of
processes or products for a specific application.

CONTACT

Lenzing Fibers: Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft, Technical Marketing Department, 4860 Lenzing - Austria
Tel: +43 (0)7672 701 3448, Fax: +43 (0)7672 918 3448, e-mail: tech.marketing@lenzing.com

Hong Kong: Lenzing Fibers (Hong Kong) Ltd., 26 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 (2827) 6055, Fax: +852 (2827) 9591, e-mail: hongkong@lenzing.com

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