Effect of Water pH on Domestic Machine Washing Performance of Delicate Textiles

Nilüfer Çakmakçı,Cevza Candan,Başak İlkiz Arslan

doi:10.2478/aut-2021-0001

Nilüfer Çakmakçı, Cevza Candan + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2478/aut-2021-0001

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Abstract

Abstract In order to investigate the effect of washing water pH on textile damage for delicate garments, the study was conducted such that a customer survey was first applied to randomly selected users to analyze domestic washing machine using habits of Turkish consumers. Based on the findings of the survey, the experimental study was designed in two successive phases to investigate the dimensional and mechanical behavior of certain types of delicate textiles against varying washing conditions by taking in particular, water properties, namely pH, hardness, and temperature into account, and accordingly to determine the optimized washing conditions for such textiles. Firstly, tergotometer was employed as a washing machine simulator. Within the light of the results obtained, the experimental work of the second phase of the study was conducted, which involved a domestic washing machine as a real-life scenario. All of the results, including the correlation between the data sets obtained from the tergotometer and domestic washing machine trials, were statistically analyzed using Minitab 17. The study produced some important findings regarding the effect of washing water pH on delicate textiles, in addition to an algorithm for improving the present washing program, minimizing textile damage for mainly wool and silk garments.

Highlights

Washing of clothing in domestic laundering machines is influenced by physicochemical and mechanical actions
ANOVA analysis showed that the variables pH value, number of washing cycle, temperature, and sample type are influential for dimensional change and the R-square for statistical analysis of dimensional stability was 96.02%
The distribution of the effective parameters on dimensional change revealed that the number of washing cycles (44.5 %) is the most significant factor, which is followed by sample type (34 %) and temperature (6.8 %)

Summary

Introduction

Washing of clothing in domestic laundering machines is influenced by physicochemical and mechanical actions. The physicochemical action plays a role in separating soil from clothes and dispersing it into the detergent solution, whereas the mechanical action facilitates separating soil from textiles by flexing and inducing friction between textiles, moving loosened soil to the detergent solution, and delivering fresh detergent solution to the textile surfaces [1-4]. Based on the classification of the mechanical actions of washing (i.e. large-scale, smallscale, and molecular scale), movements in a washer are large-scale and small-scale effect, and affect textiles in terms of tensile strength and shearing stress by textile flexing and detergent flux [3,5]. The fabric changes that occur during washing, such as shrinkage, distortion, fiber damage, fabrics becoming stiff and harsh, color fading, and cross-staining by fugitive dyes, are all dependent on fiber type, fabric construction, dye class, and the fabric finishing processes applied and production method

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