Thursday, 15 May 2008

Practical Notes on Rope Dyeing for Indigo Dyed Denim

Practical Considerations in Rope Dyeing for Indigo dyed Denim.

The passage of yarn in rope dyeing is as follows:

Pre-scouring -->hot wash-->cold wash --> Dye baths--> hot wash-->cold wash--> application of softener

lets discuss these processes one by one:


1. The objectives of pre-scouring are the removal of wax content from cotton, removal of trapped air from cotton yarn and Making yarn wet

2. This is done at 90 o C

3. We use the following ingredients at pre-scouring stage:

Caustic Soda: Its quantity depends upon the quality of cotton fibres used in the mixing. Generally we take 2-4% of caustic soda. It removes the wax by the action of soapanification.
Wetting agent: It is anionic in nature
Sequestering Agent: Even with the use of water softening, it is very difficult to find the desired softness in water ( about 2-3 ppm) . So we use the agent to make the water soft.

4. Why Trapped Air should be removed. The reason for this can be understood as follows:
In 1 kg of yarn, there is approximately 2 litres of air. 1 litre of air decomposes 1.8 litres of Sodium Hydrosulphide. It will cause uneven dyeing and more consumption of Sodium Hydrosulphide ( hydro).

5. Absorbency of yarn may be checked after scouring.

Hot wash

As some caustic is carried by the yarn after pre-scouring, so hot water is given at 70-800C. If this is not done, this yarn will go into the dye-bath which will change the pH of the dye-bath.

Cold Wash

After hot wash, yarn temperature is more. To bring it back to its room temperature, cold wash is given to it.


1. Indigo is not a perfect vat color. It may be called a trash vat color. The constant of substantivity for other colors is 30, for indigo it is only 2.7. So there is a need of 5 to 6 dye baths and make the use of multi-dip and multi-nip facility to increase the penetration.
2. The dyeing is done at room temperature as indigo belongs to Ik class of vat dyes, where dyeing is done at room temperature and oxidation is done by air only and not by chemicals. If oxidizing agents are used, they will cause stripping of colors.

3. Indigo is not soluble in water. So it is reduced with Sodium Hydrosulphide. Then caustic soda is added to make sodium salt of vat colors to make it soluble. To reduce 1 kg of Indigo, 700 gms of sodium hydrosulphide is required. However some extra SHS needs to be taken to avoid some decomposition of SHS.

Practically it is prepared in the following sequence

-Take indigo
-Add caustic
-Then reducing agent

4. When caustic is added to indigo, it is an exothermic reaction. It is allowed to cool down, then before sending it to feeder, sodium hydro-sulphide is added. Reducing agent is not added first as it will be decomposed first, so consumption of it will increase. It is also not advisable to take solubalised vat, as offered by some companies due to the following reasons:

a. If it is used after 6 months, there will be a decomposition of sod. Hydrosulphide. It will become partially soluble. Then to make it soluble again, more SHS has to be added.
b. Transportation is difficult
c. Cost is more

5. Feeding System

Rat of flow of yarn is given by

((No of ropes x no of ends x speed of machine)/ count x 1.693 x 1000)

in kg of yarn / minute

So we can determine the rate of feed of indigo. It is very important that replenishment of indigo is there as any variation will result in the change of shade and also if level is more, there is a problem of over-flow.

6. If total capacity of dye bath for example is 15000 litres, then circulation must be 3 times the volume. If it is less then there are 100% chances of getting a lighter shade.

7. Core and ring dyeing effect
This effect is obtained by multidip-multinip facility

8. pH of the Dye bath should be kept in between 10.5-11.5. At this pH , sodium salt of Indigo is mono phenolic form. At this form, the strike rate of dye is very high. So after washing, there will be a better dye effect. At pH 11.5 to 11.7, at this affinity is less, so dye effect will be less prominent.

pH is controlled by the addition of caustic soda.

9. Testing of Hydro

We take 10 ml of indio with SHS in 30-35 ml of water. It is set for one minute and shaken. As air will decompose SHS. So vacuum created will fetch the water from above. If 3 ml of water is required, then concentration of hydro is 3 gpl. As a thumb rule, concentration of total hydro should be min. 1.5 gpl.


It is the hydro that is used for the reduction of Indigo. It should be around 0.7 ( 1000 kg of Indigo needs 700 kg of hydro to reduce it). For testing we take 10 ml of dye solution and 30 ml of water and 5-6 drops of 40% formaldehyde and shake it for one minute. The water that goes gives the readings of the reduced hydro.

Total Hydro- Reduced Hydro = free hydro

If Total hydro is min. 1.5 gm/lit. then free hydro must be min. 0.5 gms/ litre which acts as buffer

10. Also hydro reduction capacity is measured by mV meter which measures the Redox Potential.

It should be around 760-800

Through the day, the redox potential should be +- 20 mV of the norm. If it is more then the process control is a failure.

Caustic--> It is around 0.4 to 0.5 times the hydro used.

Rubbing fastness of indigo is very important. On a scale of (1-4), it is 2. Washing is done to improve the rubbing fastness.

Wash at 60 deg.--> Wash at 60 deg.--> Wash at room temperature--> wash with softener

Why Softener:

1. The rope is going to be opened at Long Chain Beamer. It the softener is not used, opening will be hampered.

2. It is generally 1.2% of the weight of the yarn. It is a cationic softener. It is always having pH in the range of 4 to 55. Softening is done at room temperature. If high temperature is used there is always some chance of tendering of yarn.

3. Concept of Buffer pH is given by Virkler USA, they say by addition of this, there is 40% less consumption of Indigo for same shade depth.

4. Metering Consumption

If solution is of 900 litres
10% Indigo-->90 litres
Hydro--> 90*.7 = 63 kg
Caustic--> 63*0.445= 28 kg.


HEMAN said...

thnk u sir this document help me alot

mehmet said...

Dear Sir, Can you please advise also dyeing process of narrow width rib fabrics.

Mehmet Oner

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Total Pageviews