Singeing in textile industry
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1. OBJECTIVE
Protruding fibre ends at the fabric surface disturb the surface appearance and produce an effect known as “frosting” when dyed. It is therefore necessary to remove the surface fibres by passing the fabric through a gas flame (BAT for the Textiles Industry, July 2003).
2. FIELD OF APPLICATION
Singeing can be carried out on yarns and woven fabrics, but it is more common on fabrics, especially on cotton, cotton/PES and cotton/PA substrates (BAT for the Textiles Industry, July 2003).
3. DESCRIPTION OF TECHNIQUES, METHODS AND EQUIPMENT
The fabric is passed over a row of gas flames and then immediately into a quench bath to extinguish the sparks and cool the fabric, The quench bath often contains a desizing solution, in which case the final step in singeing becomes a combined singeing and desizing operation.
Before singeing, the fabric is combed under aspiration to eliminate remaining dust and fibres.
Singeing has no effect on the effluents beause only cooling water is necessary. During singeing, relatively strong odours and emissions of dust and organic compound are observed. Odourous substances can be destroyed using catalytic oxidation techniques (with full heat-recovery).
The quality and quantity of air emissions in singeing depend strongly on:
- kind of substrate to be treated
- position of burners (angle and distance to the textile; one-sided or double-sides singeing)
- kind of emission abatement installed
Main emissions are:
- dust from the fibres burned-off
- organice-C from volatile substances on the substrate and/or crack-products and methane from incomplete combustion of burner gases
- formaldehyde from burner gases
4. COMPETITIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND ENERGY SAVING POTENTIALS
- a) Changes in the process
No information is available.
- b) Changes in the energy distribution system
No information is available.
- c) Changes in the heat supply system
No information is available.
