A Preliminary Study of Dyeing Greige Cotton Nonwoven Fabrics with and without Traditional Scouring and Bleaching Processes

A previous study had shown that certain metrics and conditions of hydroentangling greige (non-bleached) cotton removed almost all of the cotton fiber’s natural hydrophobic impurities, such as the waxes, and made the resulting hydroentangled fabric highly absorbent – a well-known characteristic requirement for bleaching, dyeing and/or any special finishing of cotton fiber or fabric.  Under the umbrella of this uniquely novel finding, a preliminary study was conducted to convert a mechanically (gin) pre-cleaned cotton lint into different-weight hydroentangled nonwoven fabrics and then dye the fabrics with and without the conventional chemical scouring and bleaching processes.  The various scoured, bleached, dyed and specially finished versions of the fabrics were tested for their certain characteristics before and after multiple household laundering cycles.  This article briefly describes the fiber properties, the processing parameters, and the product evaluation.  This work is continuing on a much broader scale and, hopefully, the authors will be able to present more results in the near future.