Abstract: A method for desizing, scouring and/or bleaching and/or mercerizing textile fabrics by foaming a composition containing an appropriate desizing, bleaching or scouring agent and a foam system to a blow ratio from about 2:1 to 30:1 and a foam density in the range from about 0.5 g/cc to 0.033 g/cc. The foam is applied to the surface of the fabric in a uniform thickness and is then collapsed and forced through the fabric. The fabric is then batched to allow the particular desizing agent, bleaching agent, scouring agent or mercerizing agent to be effective and then the fabric is rinsed. With the inventive process, a substantial reduction in the liquid volume normally required for such treatments as well as improved end results are obtained.

Abstract: The method of pretreating pile fabrics with resin at relatively low percentage levels in order to stabilize the appearance (pile shrinkage and distortion) of the pile as affected by a subsequent treatment with liquid ammonia.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method of treating a surface with reagents. The method comprises:(i) establishing a reagent in a liquid phase;(ii) forming a foam of said liquid phase;(iii) applying said foam to said surface to be treated;(iv) causing or allowing the foam to collapse at the interface of said surface being treated to deposit the reagent thereon and thereafter removing or deactivating the reagent on said surface when the treatment is complete, whereby the rate of foam collapse is controlled to control the rate of application of the reagent to the said surface.

Abstract: This invention relates to a process and plant for the continuous mercerization of raw or colored, open or tubular knitted fabric. According to the invention the knitted fabric is impregnated with soda, passed through a series of rollers for causing reaction of the soda, passed through a series of at least five wash stages, and deeply wringed and collected in the case of raw fabric or deeply wringed, sized and further deeply wringed in the case of colored fabric. One or more dimensional control sections are distributed along the cycle.

Abstract: A process for producing a polymeric-type film in the surface of cellulosic fibers is disclosed. Cellulosic fibers are irradiated in the colored area of a radiofrequency plasma of ammonia for a period of about 10 minutes to 2 hours in a reactor designed to admit ammonia between electrodes at a rate such that all of the ammonia molecules have been activated to plasma. A polymer coating is formed in the surface of the cellulosic fibers that is alkali resistant, water-repellent and improves the wrinkle recovery of the fabrics.

Abstract: A woven, predominantly cellulosic fabric, such as an open-weave cotton-based fabric, having at least about 11 percent stretchability in the weft direction with less than about 6 percent growth (after repeated wash-dry cycles) and having wrinkle resistance and shrinkage control within commercial tolerances, is produced by first subjecting a woven, predominantly cellulosic fabric precursor to warp-wise tension while maintaining the fabric in a relaxed state in the filling direction. Next, the fabric is contacted with aqueous alkali while maintaining the aforesaid warp-wise tension, after which the thus-mercerized fabric is subjected to a tensile force in the filling direction sufficient to impart to the fabric, while said force is being applied and while maintaining warp-wise tension, a width of within about -1 and +3 percent of the initial greige width. The fabric is then washed with water to substantially remove the aqueous alkali while maintaining warp-wise tension.

Abstract: Chemical bleaching pretreatment processes are provided for cotton goods and other cellulosic materials which have the effect of enhancing the bleached cloth whiteness levels and/or reducing the bleaching time or intensity. The goods may be pretreated by intimately contacting them, as by immersion in a bath, in an alkaline scour solution having a pH of 10 to 14 and a temperature of 160.degree.-212.degree. F. for from 5 seconds to 31/2 minutes. A second and separate pretreatment involves immersing the goods in such an alkaline scour solution and, immediately prior or subsequent thereto, in an acid solution having a pH less than about 3 at a temperature in the range 45.degree. to 212.degree. F. for from 1 to 10 seconds. Optionally, either the alkaline scour pretreatment or the combination acid/alkaline scour pretreatment may be preceded by an up to 31/2 minute water dip or rinse in water ranging from just above ambient to 212.degree. F.

Abstract: Process for finishing textiles of natural or regenerated cellulose, which have been pretreated with liquid ammonia, wherein the finishing agent used is an N-monomethylol compound or N-monoalkoxymethyl compound of 4-hydroxy- or 4-alkoxy-5,5-dimethylpropyleneurea. The process couples a high degree of finishing effect (in respect of improvement of the shrink resistance and wrinkle resistance) with only a very slight effect on the hand and especially on the tensile strength.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for making alkali cellulose having a desired predetermined degree of polymerization in which cellulose is steeped in an alkali hydroxide bath, generally 17-25% sodium hydroxide, and then passed through an RF treatment chamber where it is subjected to an RF energy field, to produce a controlled depolymerization thereof. Upon emergence from the steeping bath, the cellulose passes to an excess solution removing means, such as one or a series of pairs of nip rolls where the excess solution is expressed from the cellulose and the amount of absorbed alkali is controlled. Preferably, the excess solution is recovered and returned to the steeping baths. A second, lower concentration, steep bath may follow the RF treatment chamber.

Abstract: The disadvantages stemming from a high content of hemicellulose in recirculated sodium hydroxide solutions used for the mercerization of cellulose in the preparation of viscose are reduced or eliminated by subjecting at least a part of the spent sodium hydroxide solution to an ultrafiltration process to remove part or all of the hemicellulose therein. The filtered sodium hydroxide liquor is supplied with make-up sodium hydroxide and is returned to the mercerization step.

Abstract: Improved process and apparatus for making alkali cellulose comprises continuously steeping indefinite length sheets of cellulose in an alkali hydroxide bath, generally 17-25% sodium hydroxide, and then passing the cellulose strip through a chamber where it is subjected to extremely rapid mercerizing conditions, including an RF energy field, to produce depolymerization thereof. Upon emergence from the steep bath, the cellulose passes to an excess solution removing means, such as one or a series of pairs of nip rolls where the excess solution is expressed from the cellulose and the amount of absorbed alkali is controlled. Preferably, the excess solution is recovered and returned to the steeping baths. A second, lower concentration, steep bath may follow the rapid mercerization step.

Abstract: A heat-sensitive recording paper in which a necessary heat-sensitive image-forming layer is provided on a neutral or alkaline paper prepared by practising the sizing process by the use of a combination of anionic sizing agent and cationic fixing agent, a combination of reactive sizing agent and neutral fixing agent or a self-fixable cationic sizing agent is improved in the keeping quality of ground color so that the ground is protected against coloration for a long period of time even at high temperature at high humidity or at high temperature, which enables to use 3-pyrrolidino-6-methyl-7-anilinofluoran or 3-N-methylcyclohexylamino-6-methyl-7-anilinofluoran as a color-forming agent in combination with Bisphenol A as an acidic color-developing agent.

Abstract: A method for continuous weight reduction and mercerization of a cloth material. The cloth material which is impregnated with a caustic liquid is first treated with humid heat in a no tension condition to effect reduction in weight and then the cloth material is brought into frictional contact with friction rolls under the same humid heat to mercerize the cloth material in a continuous manner. The method is carried out within a high pressure steamer drum body in which the high humid heat is maintained. A group of rolls are arranged within the fore half portion of the high pressure steamer drum body to convey the cloth material in the no tension condition. In the hind half of the drum body, there are arranged a group of guide rolls to further convey the cloth material with a predetermined degree of tension applied thereto. Some of the group of guide rolls are driven at a variable speed to bring the cloth material into frictional content with them.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for wet treatment, especially treating with lye solution and mercerizing, of knitted tubular goods. According to the method, the tube is passed through the space between adjacent rollers. A longitudinal movement is imparted to one of the two respectively straight portions of the cross section of the tube, while a transverse movement is imparted to the other straight section. The apparatus for carrying out this method is a foulard having driven rollers, at least some of which are constantly movable in an axial direction, which is transverse to the longitudinal movement of the tube, successive axially movable rollers having a progressively delayed axial movement.

Abstract: The mercerizing of cellulose fibers is improved by using an aqueous alkaline bath composition having as a wetting agent alkali salts of alkene sulfonic acids having 6 to 10 carbon atoms and single or double branched structures in a concentration of about 1 to 5 grams per liter of bath composition.

Abstract: A process for treating textile materials such as yarns, fabrics or the like is taught. The specific improvement lies in impregnating the textile material with ammonia and applying to the impregnated material stresses of about 25% to 30% of the breaking load of that material for ten or more seconds; thereafter removing a first portion of ammonia to reduce the degree of impregnation to less than 75% by weight after less than 3 seconds while stresses are reduced to about 15% of the breaking load of the material; removing a second portion of the ammonia such that the degree of impregnation is less than 30% by weight after less than 60 seconds, while stresses remain approximately the same as those in the preceding step; and finally removing the balance of the impregnated ammonia while maintaining the stresses below 5% of the breaking load of the textile material, the ammonia being removed at such a rate that the degree of impregnation is less than 15% by weight after less than 300 seconds.

Abstract: Cellulose fiber textiles are whitened by boiling in an aqueous alkaline solution containing 0.1 to 10% by weight of a hydrazine phosphonate or a hydrazine alkali phosphonate.

Abstract: The invention relates to methods for treating cotton yarn and can be used to the best advantage in the treatment of yarn produced by pneumatic spinning. According to the proposed method, the yarn is impregnated with liquid ammonia and then stretched in an aqueous bath containing a sizing agent in an amount sufficient to increase the yarn strength 18 to 25 percent.

Abstract: The invention relates to a swellable surface product such as paper, fabric, tricot, non-woven fabric and the like for setting up self-stretching ceiling structures, wall coverings and the like. Said surface product comprises essentially cellulose fibres having a lower, preferably at least 5% lower crystallinity level than the crystallinity level of native cellulose (Cellulose 1), said fibres having good swellability in water, for instance, both in their longitudinal and their transverse direction.

Abstract: Improved process and apparatus for making alkali cellulose comprises continuously steeping indefinite length sheets of cellulose in an alkali hydroxide bath, generally 17-25% sodium hydroxide, and then passing the cellulose strip through a chamber where it is subjected to extremely rapid mercerizing conditions, including an RF energy field, to produce depolymerization thereof. Upon emergence from the steep bath, the cellulose passes to an excess solution removing means, such as one or a series of pairs of nip rolls where the excess solution is expressed from the cellulose and the amount of absorbed alkali is controlled. Preferably, the excess solution is recovered and returned to the steeping baths. A second, lower concentration, steep bath may follow the rapid mercerization step.

Abstract: A method for modifying fibers of a fabric which comprises applying an effective amount of an aqueous salt solution to the fabric to sufficiently wet all of the fibers of the fabric with the salt solution, removing excess solution from the fabric, contacting the wetted fabric with a pair of electrodes through which a sufficient electromotoric force is aplied to the salt solution in the fabric to generate an acidic and/or caustic solution at or near the surface of the fabric. Thereafter, the fabric is heated for a period of time and at a temperature effective to produce a chemical reaction between the fibers wet with the acidic and/or caustic constituent resulting from the above electrolysis of the aqueous salt solution. After the desired degree of fiber modification has occurred, the chemical reaction is quenched and the resulting product recovered. The particular salt constituent employed in the aqueous salt solution will be dependent upon whether the desired fiber modifying agent is an acid, base, or both.

Abstract: A method for modifying fibers of a fabric which comprises applying an effective amount of a heat activated fiber modifying agent to a fabric, applying an effective amount of a deactivating agent to one surface of the fabric, such surface being opposite a surface containing fibers wet with the heat activated fiber modifying agent, heating the surface of the fabric containing the heat activated fiber modifying agent for a period of time effective to initiate a chemical reaction between the fibers wet with the heat activated fiber modifying agent and such agent while maintaining a temperature differential between the heated surface of the fabric containing the fibers wet with the heat activated fiber modifying agent and the opposite surface of the fabric containing the deactivating agent, quenching the resulting chemical reaction and recovering a product having controlled fiber modification.

Abstract: A method for modifying fibers of a fabric which comprises the steps of applying an effective amount of a heat activated fiber modifying agent to a fabric, heating a portion of the fabric for a period of time effective to initiate a chemical reaction between the fibers of the fabric being heated and the fiber modifying agent while maintaining a temperature differential between the heated portion of the fabric and the remainder of the fabric to thus control the area of penetration of the chemical reaction into the fabric, quenching the chemical reaction, and thereafter recovering the product.

Abstract: A process of treating textile material of a cellulosic nature with ammonia includes the step of first applying water to the textile material before the material is impregnated with ammonia. The amount of water applied must be enough to raise the moisture content of the material to a level above that normally present in the prevailing conditions of atmospheric humidity but with a maximum value of 30% by weight of the dry material.

Abstract: A fabric comprising cotton and/or keratinous fibers, e.g., wool, is treated to impart wash and wear characteristics including dimensional stability by contact of said fabric with hot, aqueous, relatively concentrated solution of a sulfite for a time sufficient to impart said wash and wear characteristics to said fabric. A preferred sulfite is aluminum sulfite and preferred treatment conditions comprise contact of the fabric with a boiling solution containing from about 10% to 20% by weight of the sulfite for a time of from 5 to 15 minutes. Preferably the solution also contains sodium carbonate in an amount of about 1% to 50% by weight, preferably from about 5% to about 20% by weight, based on the amount of sulfite.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to equipment and techniques for the removal from fabrics of excess residual ammonia, remaining in the fabric after liquid ammonia processing. The process involves contacting the opposed surfaces of the fabric with a thin film of water, followed by removal of the water from the fabric. The amount of water which contacts the fabric is insufficient to wet the fabric, so that it does not require a subsequent drying step, but is sufficient to release most of the residual ammonia, causing the ammonia to be extracted from the fabric. To advantage, the thin film of water is achieved by condensation of steam on chilled rollers.

Abstract: A novel method of mercerization in which the cellulosic textile material is saturated for a period of 60 seconds or less and preferably 10 seconds or less in a solution of an alkaline swelling agent, usually caustic soda at a concentration of 8.75% or more and at a temperature of 50.degree. C or more.

Abstract: A process for the scouring and bleaching of textile materials containing cotton which comprises degreasing and dewaxing the materials by contacting them with an emulsion of an aqueous solution of an alkaline compound emulsified in a chlorinated solvent, removing the chlorinated solvent from the materials with steam, padding the materials with an aqueous solution of a peroxygen compound, and then subjecting the materials to the action of steam.

Abstract: The disclosure is directed to a system for the recovery of spent ammonia, in connection with the processing of fabrics and the like with liquid ammonia, and concerns particularly the elimination from the recovered ammonia of undesired water.Economic processing of fabrics by liquid ammonia requires recovery and reuse of substantial quantities of ammonia. In the course of processing, the ammonia unavoidably becomes contaminated with water. Separation of water from ammonia on a laboratory level or, in any kind of batch processing is a theoretically simple matter and can be coped with by conventional differential evaporation techniques, or otherwise. However, in a continuously operating processing line where large quantities of anhydrous liquid ammonia are being used as the treating medium, water accumulates rapidly, not only from the fabric being processed, but also from a certain inevitable amount of air leakage in the system.

Abstract: A process for increasing the water-absorbency of cellulose-containing materials by graft-copolymerizing onto said material a vinyl monomer containing a hydrophilic group and treating the graft-copolymerized material with a decrystallizing agent for cellulose.

Abstract: A method for treating a knitted fabric containing cotton fibers with an alkali hydroxide, which comprises impregnating said fabric with an aqueous solution of an alkali hydroxide while continuously feeding it in the open form in the longitudinal direction, allowing the fabric to shrink in the longitudinal direction, then feeding it to a tenter while giving an overfeed, thereby to hold it to a given width, and then washing the fabric. The knitted cotton fabrics so treated have superior dimensional stability, especially dimensional stability in the widthwise direction, a deep silky luster, a soft bulky hand, and a superior dyeability.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a continuous process for the treatment, with liquid ammonia, of moving webs of fabric, the fabric having at least a partial content of natural or regenerated cellulose fiber. Fabric in substantially continuous web form is guided into a treatment chamber and there impregnated with liquid ammonia, desirably by immersion in a bath thereof. The advantageous effects of the liquid ammonia reaction are substantially realized, while undesirable excessive shrinkage of the fabric is avoided, by strictly limiting the time within which liquid ammonia reactions may occur and controllably terminating the reaction at the end of the controlled period. In the process of the invention, the liquid ammonia reaction period commences when the fabric is first introduced into the bath of liquid ammonia and is controllably terminated by bringing the ammonia-saturated web of fabric into contact with a heated drum.

Abstract: A method for the manufacture of voluminous blended yarns and fabrics, consisting of flax fibers and non-shrinkable synthetic fibers, which yarns or fabrics are given a swelling treatment, the fibers being subjected to a tensionless shrinkage procedure such that the flax fibers maximally shrink by 35%. For that purpose in the event of fabrics a cloth is started from of such a construction that also in the wet state during shrinkage no tensions in the fabrics occur.

Abstract: Process and apparatus for improving the fiber structure of textile material containing cellulose fibers, wherein the material is impregnated with a swelling agent, is squeezed off, stretched, washed and cooled after squeezing and before stretching.

Abstract: An improved process for treating fabrics and similar cellulosic materials with liquid ammonia by conventional methods to achieve improved properties, which improvement consists of subjecting the fabric to pneumatic squeezing by means of a compressed gaseous ammonia stream.

Abstract: A process for the treatment with a fluid of textile materials in the form of threads, sheets of threads, sheets of webbing or in any other continuous form, the process being applicable in those cases where the final result does not depend on the duration of contact between the material and the fluid, provided this duration is above a minimum time. The process consists of bringing the material deposited on a carrier into contact with the fluid and of extracting the material continuously from this carrier while the action of the fluid on the material remaining on the carrier is made to continue.The process is especially suitable to treating thread bobbins.

Abstract: Dry leather is dyed with azoic dyes without wetting the leather with water by incorporating into the leather the required diazonium component and any required coupling component in a substantially non-aqueous volatile low-viscosity solvent and incorporating into the leather any other materials required for the coupling reaction in such a solvent or as a vapor. The coupling component can be a natural or synthetic phenolic tanning agent employed in tanning the leather. Dye patterns can be applied to the surface of the leather by using a light-sensitive diazonium component and photo-imaging the surface before effecting coupling. Dry leather is dyed by such processes without significant change in properties.

Abstract: The dimensional stability, crease retention, wrinkle resistance and smooth drying characteristics of a cellulose fiber-containing material such as a cotton fabric are improved by impregnating the material with an aqueous formaldehyde phase and curing the formaldehyde-containing material at high temperature in the presence of catalyst-forming sulfur dioxide while governing the amount of water in the system to provide a self-limiting reaction system, water being the limiting factor in the reaction by which an acid curing catalyst is formed from formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide and water. The aqueous formaldehyde phase may be applied to the material as such, or it may be formed in the material by exposing the latter in a humidified state to formaldehyde vapor. Sulfur dioxide may be introduced into the system either in the course of the aqueous impregnation step or in the curing step.