Textile industry introduction
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production, and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth, and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery, and various industrial products.
Depending on the raw material, we have:
Natural fibers
Sheep, goats, rabbits, silkworms, and other animals, as well as minerals like asbestos, are sources of natural fibers (cotton, flax, sisal). These vegetable fibers can originate from the seed (cotton), the stem (bast fibres: flax, hemp, jute), or the leaf (sisal). All these sources require a number of steps, each of which has a distinct name, before a clean, even staple is produced. All these fibers, with the exception of silk, are short, only a few centimeters long, and have a rough surface that allows them to adhere to other like staples.
Synthetic fibers
Artificial fibres can be made by extruding a polymer, through a spinneret (polymers) into a medium where it hardens. Wet spinning (rayon) uses a coagulating medium. In dry spinning (acetate and triacetate), the polymer is contained in a solvent that evaporates in the heated exit chamber. In melt spinning (nylons and polyesters) the extruded polymer is cooled in gas or air and then sets. Some examples of synthetic fibers are polyester, rayon, acrylic fibers and microfibers. All these fibres will be of great length, often kilometres long. Synthetic fibers are more durable than most natural fibers and will readily pick-up different dyes.
Coloration process
Dyeing, printing, and coating are the coloration processes to produce beautiful motif and color effect on textile. Printing and coating are limited to surface coloration and may be applied to most of the fiber types, natural fabrics, and synthetics.
The dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing the pigment and particular chemical material. The pigment molecules are fixed to the fiber by absorption, diffusion, or bonding with temperature and time being key controlling factors.
Titanium dioxide has its main application on textile materials as an ultraviolet ray protecting agents. It can reflect, scatter, or absorb ultraviolet ray. Besides Titanium dioxide also modify the properties of fabrics. It’s also used as a delustering agent to produce semi-dull polyester filament fiber, staple fiber, acrylic fiber and to remove textile gloss and improve textile.
According to the crystal structure, industrial TiO2 can be divided into Anatase type and Rutile type. Anatase type has a compact structure, high relative density, and strong tinting strength. But it can not be used as a flatting agent, because its hard granule will wear and tear the manufacturing equipment very easily. While rutile one is very loose, white, and easy to disperse, so it is very suitable to act as delustrant in the chemical fiber industry.
The average diameter of textile-grade titanium dioxide is 0.35㎛. The particle of TiO2 is very slim and its superficial area is very large. As a result, any good quality titanium dioxide will flocculate or condense into a big particle cluster. So TiO2 must be grinded before usage. If not, it will have a poor dispersity, which leads to uneven dispersion of particles in fibers, a bad delustering effect, and even hairiness and breakage problem in yarn. After grinding, flocculated TiO2 will disperse again.
Our TYR-588 is the right selection in this industry due to its particle size distribution under 0.33㎛ and its easy dispersion in any dispersant media, also due to its extraordinary chemical stability keeping an average pH=7 that ensures a stable dispersive state avoiding the flocculation in service, keeping excellent suspension performance, improving weather-proof and anti-ageing performances.
The demand of TiO2 in textile industry is less than 4% of the global demand and Nano-TiO2 is the new trend in this industry, but this industry has big expectations in the future. The worldwide textile industry size was valued at USD 993.6 billion in 2021 and is tipped to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.0% from 2022 to 2030.
