ENCHANCEMENT OF WOOL FABRIC BY PLASMA TECHNOLOGY AND PIGMENT PRINTING

The textile industry is looking for innovative production systems to enhance the product quality and society requires new strategy working in natural aspect. India accounts for 1.8% of total global wool production. India has the world's seventh-largest wool and woolen textile sector. Worsted yarn, woolen yarn, wool tops, fabric (woolen/worsted), shoddy yarn, shoddy fabrics, blankets, knitwear, hand-made carpets, and machine-made carpets comprise India's wool and woolen industry. Plasma treatment modifies the surface properties of internal materials; it has an economic advantage over conventional wet processing due to its low chemical and water consumption; and closed plasma treatment systems is an environment friendly process because plasma byproducts can be trapped rather than released into the environment. (https://www.ibef.org/exports/wool-and-woollen) This present research aims to study the effect of pigment printing on 100% wool fabric by using plasma i.e., Di-electric barrier discharge plasma treatment. Wool fabric was treated with plasma for different time variation of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1hour and 2 hours. The water based and non-water-based pigment printing was done using the screen printing on untreated sample and plasma treated sample. The change induced in the fastness properties, UPF of plasma treated and untreated sample were studied. The experimental result indicate that the wash fastness and rub fastness of pigment printing both water based and non-water based pigment printing was better on the plasma treated rather than untreated sample the pigment doesn’t peel off so we can use with water based pigment printing as it is eco-friendly over non-water based pigment printing. UPF rating for water-based pigment printing revealed that untreated samples have a higher UPF rating than plasma treated samples. When non-water-based pigment printing was performed, plasma treatment for 1 hour and 2 hours has a higher UPF rating than untreated samples, and the same is true for 15 minutes and 30 minutes plasma treated samples. It uses less water energy but more electrical energy because this energy is used for a longer period of time in this study.