Studies on Effect of Various Washes on Denim Garments

Abstract

Due to the rigidity and hardness of finished denim, it is generally impossible to wear raw denim cloth before washing. Before washing, finished denim has a fairly lifeless appearance. Therefore, it is typically necessary for denim to undergo various washing operations in order to change both its physical and aesthetic properties. This project is done for comparing the physical properties like GSM, weight, shrinkage%, Dimensional Stability, physical appearance, Colorfastness to rubbing, Colorfastness to ozone, Colorfastness to washing and finally tensile and tearing strength of denim garment with different constructions after Acid. Different washing processes like Enzyme, Bleach, Acid washes were observed and the visual change is seen. The information about the change in physical properties like GSM, weight, shrinkage%, Dimensional Stability, physical appearance, Color fastness to rubbing, Colorfastness to ozone, Colorfastness to washing and finally tensile and tearing strength were tested from “In house Lab of Crown Wears (Pvt.) Ltd.” After compiling and comparing all the necessary data, it is seen that Tensile Strength has increased after wash process about 220.51% in warp side and 265.08% in the weft side. On the other side, tearing strength has decreased after washing process about 43.24% in warp side and 20.88% in weft side. In the colorfastness to washing test we have been observed that colorfastness to washing after washing process is very much better than the before washing process. Colorfastness to rubbing also got very good results in after washing process which is fulfilled the buyer requirement too. Colorfastness to ozone gave very bad result (2.5) in before wash test but which is improved in the after-wash test result (3.5) where buyer requirement is minimum 4.00. In the before washing test the GSM of this sample was 9.47 oz/yd2, but after washing process it has decreased about 9.11 oz/yd2. In the experiment of appearance after home laundering we got the satisfactory results and all requirement have been passed. And the last one is dimensional stability test. By this test we can observed that, the dimensional stability has been reduced slightly after washing process. That’s way the Shrinkage has done slightly in waist -0.8%, in out seam -2.4%, in the in seam -1.3% and also in HIP -0.6%.