Continuous Shrink-Resist Treatment of Wool Fabric with Ozone

Abstract

Continuous, rapid pruduction of highly shrink-resistant wool fabric is obtained by passing ozone in a carrier gas over one surface of hot, wet fabric moving in the opposite direction. Exhaustion of ozone from the carrier suggests that utilization is efhcient. Effective treatment requires a temperature of at least 95°C, ozone concentrations of 60 to 80 mg/liter, and treatment time of at least 30 sec. The fabric is not significantly degraded in the shorter treatments. Longer treatments impart increasing shrinkage resistance, but also increase dye uptake and solubility in acid and alkali, and decrease resistance to abrasion. In these tests, useful control of shrinkage was obtained with 0.01 1b of ozone per square yard of fabric at a cost of $0.0015/yd2 for the ozone in high volume use.