Effects of washing parameters on dimensional stability of viscose rayon fabrics

Abstract

Viscose rayon clothes are usually worn in summer and are soiled by many hydrophilic materials. Wet cleaning effectively removes soil from rayon fabrics and is ecofriendly; however, shrinkage of the fabric during laundering must be reduced. The swelling behaviors of commonly used rayon staple and filament fabrics during laundering have been studied. The effects on fabric shrinkage of presoaking in polyglycol solutions before washing and drying using various methods were examined. Staple and filament rayon fabrics both shrank more in the warp than in the weft direction; and in the warp direction, the staple fabric shrank greater than the filament fabric after washing. The lateral swelling of fibers, which leads to increased yarn crimp and finally to fabric shrinkage was lower in polyglycol solutions than in water and a light-duty detergent solution. The shrinkage of washed rayon fabrics after drying was greatly affected by the residual moisture in the fabrics just before drying. Shrinkage was lower at low residual moisture levels. The mechanical force used for dehydration had no effect on the shrinkage of rayon fabrics. Shrinkage was 58 % less when the staple fabric was presoaked in polyglycol solution before washing and then dried in a tumble dryer at 60 °C for 60 min compared with the shrinkage when the fabric was only washed with a light-duty detergent and dried in air. The shrinkage after seven washing cycles using the former method was 45 % less than that after seven washing cycles using the latter method.