What the hell is silicon plaque? The intuitive manifestation of silicon spots on the surface of fabrics is the appearance of oil spots as small as a pin tip or as large as a rice grain. Under extreme conditions, the area may be larger. Sometimes the oil spots have a certain color due to floating color. The spots are like small wet spots. It feels soft and non-grainy, extremely difficult to spot and extremely difficult to remove before drying. The reason is caused by the demulsification and bleaching of silicone oil, which often occurs after finishing and washing.
The formation of silicon plaque
The mystery of silicone oil and waterproofing agent molecules
1. Ordinary silicone oil molecular structure
2. Molecular structure of waterproofing agent
3. Effect diagram and schematic diagram of finishing agent on fabric surface
Causes of silicone oil spots
1 Alkaline problem:
Cotton fabrics usually need to be treated with a higher concentration of alkali to remove fabric impurities (especially mercerizing alkali, which uses a larger amount). It is difficult to clean the fiber when alkali enters the interior. Alkali must also be added during dyeing (reactive vat dyes). , so the cloth surface may be alkaline during finishing.
Chemical fiber fabrics must be restored and cleaned after dyeing. Currently, printing and dyeing factories still use insurance powder and caustic soda for cleaning. If the subsequent cleaning is not clean, it will also cause softness on the front. The cloth contains alkali. Ordinary silicone oil is not resistant to alkali and will break emulsification under alkaline conditions. This is the reason why the factory will stick to the roll after several kilometers of padding. Therefore, before softening, the cloth surface must be washed with alkali or acetic acid added to the working fluid to keep the rolling groove pH 5-6.
2 Cohesion problem:
On fabrics containing short fibers (cotton cloth, T/R cloth, velvet type), some short fibers will inevitably fall off during the processing. The short fibers falling off the cloth accumulate in the rolling groove, and will cohesion with ordinary silicone oil. The finishing liquid goes up to the roller and sticks to the silicone oil that is extruded and demulsified, forming sticky roller or silicon spots. When the water quality is relatively poor, it will also condense with ordinary silicone oil to produce sticky rollers. In addition, similar situations will also occur with velvet fabrics. Do a good job of cleaning before driving, and clean them at any time if you find any lint.
3 Charge stability issues:
Dye and whitening used in cotton cloth Most of the agents are anionic, and cotton whitening is basically done on the setting machine. In addition, dyed fabrics need fine-tuning and color correction when the shade is wrong. Color correction usually involves adding a small amount of dye or paint when applying a softening agent. Factories generally use ordinary silicone oil (weak cations), which will produce negative and positive charge attraction reactions, causing agglomeration and sticky rollers. , and the softness of the anionic silicone oil did not meet the requirements, causing confusion in the factory. Charge consistency must be considered during processing.
4 Temperature issues:
The cloth dyed by the long cotton machine must go through Drying drum drying, large rolls or piled in cloth boxes, if not fully cooled, especially large rolls of cloth, the surface temperature of the fabric may be high when it is soft, causing the temperature of the rolling groove working fluid to rise (especially It is summer), sometimes it can reach above 60℃, and when ordinary silicone oil has poor heat resistance, it will also cause roller sticking. It is better that the temperature in the rolling groove does not exceed 40 ℃.
5 Problem with speed setting:
The factory is making some thin fabrics At this time, the setting speed is very fast, sometimes reaching a speed of 60 meters/minute. Due to the poor permeability of ordinary silicone oil, the silicone oil flows back on the roller, causing the roller to stick. Pay attention to changing the working fluid in the rolling groove and wiping the roll frequently.
6 Dip vat problem:
Many factories are doing impregnation softening Ordinary silicone oil will stick to the cylinder wall. Over time, some black oil spots will form on the cylinder wall, and silicone oil spots will form on the cloth surface. Increase cleaning efforts.
7 Handle problem
Due to the poor hand feel of fabrics on the market now The requirements are getting higher and higher, and various fabrics need to show various style requirements due to different seasons and different customer requirements. Some require smooth drape, smooth and flexible, fluffy and soft, pure elasticity, etc. wait. A kind of silicone oil can generally only reflect one style. Therefore, many factories have to use many kinds of silicone oil, causing production confusion. Sometimes they cannot find the silicone oil that suits the customer’s requirements, so they have to give up business and cause losses. We can synthesize amino silicone oils with different ammonia values, viscosity and reactions to meet the softness, smoothness and elasticity requirements of various fibers by selecting amino silicone oil end groups with different ammonia values to control the molecular weight and molecular distribution.
8 Cost issues
The most confusing issue for printing and dyeing factories at present It is a cost issue. Since the prices of water, electricity and gas are constantly rising, while the printing and dyeing processing fees are decreasing, many printing and dyeing factories have been busy for a year but have basically no profits. Therefore, cost control is a problem that printing and dyeing factories need to solve.
Removal of silicone oil spots
1. The fabric has not been set at high temperature:
①Acetic acid washing
②High temperature treatment with solvent-based degreaser.
2. The fabric has been set at high temperature :
Special fluorine and silicon stripping agents are processed under alkaline conditions.
The main principle is to rely on alkaline Under the conditions, the fluorosilicone chains are hydrolyzed by boiling, and then the hydrolyzed fluorosilicone chain segments are emulsified, dispersed and sealed in time with the help of the emulsification and dispersion capabilities of the fluorosilicone stripping agent. This completes the removal of silicone oil spots and waterproof spots. .
Note that for severe cases that are difficult to remove, you can add oil remover and hydrogen peroxide to alkali and fluorine strippers. In addition, depending on the severity of waterproof spots and silicone oil spots The amount of stripping agent can be appropriately increased. If one treatment cannot completely remove it, the number of removal passes can be appropriately increased to complete spot removal.
For regenerated cellulose fibers or protein fibers, Due to its poor alkali resistance, it is recommended to use soda ash to adjust the pH value of the treatment bath to 8.5-9.5 to avoid strong damage or excessive protein loss.
Silicon oil floating oil
Amino silicone oil emulsion and color fixing agent, soft oil, etc. at the same time Silicone spots sometimes appear during use, but not when used alone. Why?
Amino silicone oil is incompatible with color fixing agents, soft oils and other additives, causing silicone oil to float.
Amino silicone oil emulsion is a cationic surfactant (or weak cation), and many chemicals used in the dyeing process are anionic surfactants, such as: dyes (some dyes are anionic type), leveling agents, spreading agents, color fixing agents…, these chemicals are used after dyeing and finishing, before softening and finishing. Once the water is not washed thoroughly, when the cationic amino silicone oil series softener interacts with the anionic substances in the dye bath The occurrence of charge reaction will cause the amino silicone oil cationic emulsion to break and the bleached oil to appear soft spots (silicon spots). An effective method is to strengthen sufficient water washing before softening and finishing. It is best not to perform softening and finishing in the same dyeing machine. After dyeing and washing, the fabric is poured out and softened in a padding car.
The special cylinder is too soft, which can effectively avoid or reduce the formation of soft spots (silicone spots).
Common softness quality in dyeing factories
1. Decreased hydrophilicity of fabrics
Generally, it is caused by the structural problems of the film used, the lack of water-absorbing genes after the silicone oil film is formed, and the blocking of water-absorbing centers such as the hydroxyl groups of cellulose fibers, carboxyl groups, and amino groups on wool, resulting in reduced water absorption.
Treatment method: Anionic, nonionic film and hydrophilic silicone oil should be used as much as possible.
2. Dark spots
Causes:
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① The oil stain on the fabric was not removed during pre-treatment, and the color of the oil stain was darker during dyeing.
② There is too much foam in the dyeing bath, and the mixture of foam, floral sweaters, dyes, etc. stains the fabric.
③ Oil drifting from the defoaming agent causes dark oil spots.
④ Tar-like substance in the dye vat is stained on the fabric.
⑤ The dye agglomerates under different circumstances to form dark stains.
⑥ Excessive calcium and magnesium ions in the water combine with dyes and stain the fabric.
Processing method:
① Add degreaser for refining during pre-treatment.
② The dyeing auxiliaries use low-foaming and non-foaming auxiliaries.
③ Choose a defoaming agent that is not easy to float oil, add a chelating agent to improve the water quality, and add a solubilizing and dispersing agent to prevent dye aggregation. Use tank cleaning agent to clean and wash the tank promptly.
3. Light spots
Causes:
① Uneven pre-treatment, poor hair effect in some parts, resulting in a certain dye repellency, with Stain-repellent substances. During pre-treatment, the cloth contains calcium soap, magnesium soap, etc. or the mercerization is uneven.
② The semi-finished product is unevenly dried.
③ The cloth surface is stained with undissolved Yuanming powder, soda ash and other solids.
④ Add water to the dyed material before drying.
⑤ Stains caused by additives during finishing such as softening of dyed goods.
Treatment method: Strengthen pre-treatment. When selecting pre-treatment additives, it must be difficult to form calcium-magnesium soap. Pre-treatment must be uniform and thorough (this is related to scouring agents, penetrants, chelating and dispersing agents). agent, mercerizing penetrant, etc.). Yuanming powder, soda ash, etc. must be melted into the tank and production management must be strengthened.
4. Alkali spots
Causes: pre-treatment ( Such as bleaching, mercerization), the alkali removal is not clean or uneven, resulting in alkali spots.
Treatment method: The alkali removal process in the pre-treatment process must be strengthened.
5. Silicone oil stains
Cause: Cloth surface The pH value is not neutral, especially with alkali, causing the silicone oil to break emulsification and float oil. The water quality of the treatment bath is too poor and the hardness is too high. Silicone oil can easily float in water with a hardness of >150PPM. Silicone oil quality problems include poor emulsification (poor emulsifier selection, poor emulsification process, too large emulsified particles, etc.) and intolerance to shearing. Choose silicone oil that is resistant to shear, electrolytes, and pH changes, but pay attention to how the silicone oil is used and the environment. You can also consider choosing hydrophilic silicone oil.
Editor’s note: At present, most dyeing factories are developing towards centralized control, intelligence and technology, and employees are also developing in accordance with If you are extremely careful in factory process operations, problems will inevitably occur. There is nothing trivial in production, and every production step is important.
�Silicon oil that is resistant to shear, electrolytes, and pH changes, but pay attention to the use method and environment of the silicone oil. You can also consider choosing hydrophilic silicone oil.
Editor’s note: At present, most dyeing factories are developing towards centralized control, intelligence and technology, and employees are also developing in accordance with If you are extremely careful in factory process operations, problems will inevitably occur. There is nothing trivial in production, and every production step is important.
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