The Influence of Silicon Compound as Softener in the Finishing Processfor Anti Crease of Polyester-Cotton fabrics

Nonionic softener were used frequently in the finishing process for anticrease with various resins to decrease the fabric stiffness. In this studythe blend of polyester-cotton fabrics (65% - 35%) were subjected to anticrease process by three kinds of resins namely methylol melamine, urone, anddimethylol dihydroxy ethylene urea (DMDHEU) accompanied by silicon typesoftener (polysiloxane). The concentration of silicon softener were variedfrom 0 to 10 g/l with 2 g/l different, with constant amount of 30 g/l resin.The finishing process were carried out by respected steps of padding, dryingand curing process at 170 oC for 90 seconds. The resin fabrics were thentested to fabric crease resistance before and after washing, fabricappearance, stiffness, tensile strength and dimensional stability afterwashing. It was indicated from the testing results that the higher additionalof silicon softener tend to increase the crease resistance of resin fabrics,increasing the appearance but decreasing stiffness, especially for methylolresin and urone, while for DMDHEU such increase is only up to additional of 2g/l silicon softener. Additional of silicon softener can improve the resinfabrics using the entire three anti crease resins, however, this process didnot give any reasonable changes for dimensional stability of the resinfabrics. In obtaining the best results it is suggested that the use of 30 g/lresins may be accompanied by additional of silicon softener in the respectedcombinations : 8 g/l silicon for methylol, 6 g/l for urone as well as 2 g/lfor DMDHEU resins. (author)