Application of foams to the processing of fabrics. Final report, October 1, 1977-September 30, 1981

Technical Report · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5202822· OSTI ID:5202822

Namboodri, C. G.

The primary objective of this project was to reduce the energy consumed in the wet processing of fabrics where wet processing encompasses those processes used to convert loomstate (greige) goods to finished textile products. This includes desizing, scouring, bleaching, dyeing, printing, and finishing of fabrics. The energy intensive step in most of these processes is drying the fabric. By having less water on the fabric as it enters a drying oven, proportionately less energy is consumed in drying the fabric. The specific route used in this project to accomplish this objective has been to use air to distribute the finish, dye or printing ink onto the fabric. Rather than saturating the fabric with a dilute finish formulation, a concentrated formulation is mechanically foamed, air serving as the diluting medium and the foam applied to the fabric. In this manner, the water content of the fabric as it enters the drying oven is reduced by as much as 80% thereby leading to a corresponding reduction in the energy required to dry the fabric. Details on the procedure are presented and experimental results are discussed. (MCW)

• Research Organization: United Merchants Research Center, Langley, SC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CS40056
• OSTI ID: 5202822
• Report Number(s): DOE/CS/40056-T4; ON: DE82011717
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320303* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Industrial & Agricultural Processes-- Equipment & Processes
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
DRYERS
DRYING
DYES
ENERGY CONSERVATION
FOAMS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
INDUSTRY
PILOT PLANTS
PROCESSING
TEXTILE INDUSTRY
TEXTILES