Denim dyeing

Denim production process

 Indigo dye
• The indigo colour is the principal source of the almost magical
appeal of denim. The dye imparts a brilliant blue hue to fabric. In
fact there is no other dye that creates such an intense blue colour
with so few carbon atoms in its molecule
• Indigo is unique in its ability to impart surface colour due to partial
penetration in cotton fibres. When cotton yarn dyed with indigo is
untwisted, it can be seen that the inner layers remain uncoloured.
• The dye also fades and abrades continually. This characteristic of
indigo lets denim fabric have its final worn look with different types
of washing and finishing applications. It enables denim fabric to
respond to finishing applications that give a real life to the fabric
 Indigo dye and other dyestuff
• Since denim is made of 100% cotton, therefore in addition
to indigo it can be dyed with dye classes such as direct, vat
(other than indigo), reactive, sulphur dyes and pigment
colours.
• In the last decade, denim was mainly dyed with indigo
(67%), sulphur black (26%) and other sulphur colours (6%).
The changing fashion trends have also led to vat, reactive
and direct dyestuffs, as well as pigments being used to
colour denim
• Direct dyes are currently being applied in garment dyeing
of jeans in light colours for the higher fashion market.
Direct dyes can also be used for tinting denim fabrics by
adding to finishing formulation
 Indigo and other dyestuff
• vat colours are best applied on denim with specially designed rope ranges
with an additional set of drying cylinders, steamer and small pad boxes for
dye pad, dry, chemical pad, steam methods.
• However, vat dyes produce shades with high fastness properties and
therefore it is difficult to get the classic denim look
• Sulphur dyes are of low cost and can be applied on indigo machinery,
fabric dyeing machinery, jiggers, pad-batch and garment dyeing machinery
with properly designed methods. Sulphur dyes have an appearance that is
more natural than reactives or directs, having a softer appearance and
allowing versatile wash down effects in laundering.
• Therefore among the different dye classes other than indigo, sulphur dyes
are more popular and are used for bottoming or topping or over dyeing of
finished indigo dyed garments to produce a variety of shades with fancy
looks.
• Pigments are relatively easy to apply, and since they are a surface
colouration, can produce a distressed look, but they present colour
fastness problems in darker shades and have a harsher feel than dyed
garments
 Reduction of indigo
• Indigo is insoluble in water, and since it belongs to the vat
dye class, it has to be converted into a water soluble form
by reducing under alkaline conditions.
• In ancient times the reduction process was carried out in
wooden vats; therefore, this class of dyes is known as vat
dyes. The process of dyeing of cotton with indigo
essentially consists of alkaline reduction of indigo into a
water soluble form known as leuco indigo, dyeing by
multiple dips and air oxidation to convert leuco indigo to its
water insoluble form.
• Some important reducing agent are sodium hydrosulphite,
Glucose, thiourea dioxide
Techniques for dyeing with indigo
Techniques for dyeing with indigo
 Denim
• The continuous dyeing techniques of cotton yarns by indigo
are mostly used for producing denim products. Denim
fabrics are 100% cotton with blue face and white back.
Traditionally, they are a 3 × 1 twill woven structure where
the warp yarns are indigo dyed and the weft yarns are non
dyed cotton. The dyeing of warp yarns is done continuously
using three major methods: rope dyeing, slasher dyeing
and loop dyeing
• Surface dyeing technology
• Wash-out effect
o Mechanical and chemical wash
o Mechanical contains garment wash and stone wash
o While chemical contains acid wash, enzyme wash etc.
 Rope dyeing
• This dyeing technique dates from 1915, when the first rope
dyeing machine appeared. A typical example of a rope
dyeing range is shown in Figure 4.5. With the rope dyeing
technique, 350–400 warp threads are bound on the ball-
warper machine to very thick cables of 10,000–15,000 m in
length
• Generally 12–36 cables are first fed into one or more
scouring baths containing wetting agents, detergents and
sodium hydroxide. The scouring baths are used to remove
naturally occurring impurities found in cotton fibres such as
dirt, minerals, ash, pectin and naturally occurring waxes. It
is very important to remove these substances in order to
achieve uniform wetting and uniform dyeing. Then, the
cables are fed into one or more water rinsing baths.
 Rope dyeing
• After that, the cables are dipped into a bath of leuco indigo
with an immersion time of 12–20 s, and then are squeezed
to give 70%–80% wet pick-up after each dip, followed by
exposure to air for oxidation, multiple times.
• The oxidation time takes at least 80 s. Generally, four to
eight dyeing vats are used for dipping. This results in the
fine layer of indigo on the surface of yarn. The cables of
yarn are washed in various water baths to eliminate the
non-fixed dye. Next they pass through a softener box,
which assists in obtaining a better opening of the cables in
the long chain beamer.
• Finally, they are dried on Teflon covered cylinders and
coiled into large cans.
Rope dyeing
 Topping and bottoming
• The additional processes of bottoming and topping were included in the
dyeing of denim fabrics especially due to fashion effects. Bottoming dyeing
is applied before dyeing by indigo. In fact, after scouring, the yarns are fed
originally into a bath of a reduced sulphur dye.
• The purpose of bottoming is to produce a much deeper and darker shade
with less indigo for lower cost, or to slightly change the shade of the blue
yarn in order to make it unique. Now, the bottom dye range is expanded to
other classes of dyes like reactive and vat dyes in order to produce new
shades.
• On the other hand, topping dyeing is a process in which the warp yarns
are dyed first with indigo and then they are washed and dyed generally
with sulphur dye. Although the sulphur dye will migrate towards the core
of the fibre/yarn, the sulphur top gives a different type of yarn colour
performance when the garment is washed than a sulphur bottom. Similar
to the bottom dyeing process, it is possible to use other dyes for topping
such as reactive and vat dyes.
• Another process called ‘bottoming indigo topping’ is also used in denim
dyeing. In this case, the warp yarns are first dyed with bottom dye. After
washing, they are dyed with indigo, followed by washing and a second
dyeing with another dye such as sulphur dye.
 Denim dyeing
• Cotton scouring
– Caustic conc. <5%; temperature > 85C
• Causticizing
– Caustic conc. 5-18%
– Hot causticise improves fastness
• Mercerizing
– Caustic conc. 18-30%
• Sulphur bottoming
– To produce dark shades using less indigo and save
cost
Dyeing process
Dyeing process
Dyeing process
 Dyeing considerations
Caustic Soda or pH value
Should be from 11.5-12.5
Dye concentration in Dye bath
it is measured by spectrophotometer. It should be
in g/l
Dipping Time
Longer the dipping time, better will be the
penetration and lesser will be the ring dyeing effect.
It varies from 15-22 seconds.
• Squeeze Pressure
High pressure will lead to lower wet pick up and result in
lesser color and better penetration. At rope dyeing,
squeeze pressure is 5-10 tonnes, ie. wet pick up is as low as
60%. Hardness of squeeze roller is about 70-75 deg. shores.
If squeeze rolls are too hard then there are chances of
slippage and uneven yarn tension. Surface of the squeeze
rolls should be ground twice a year.
Airing Time
It should be 60-75 seconds.
• Drying
Insufficient or unevenly dried yarns will result in poor re-
beaming