The secret of improving the pilling property of fabrics

The methods to improve the anti pilling of textiles are mostly based on reducing or improving the factors that cause fabric pilling, generally through the modification of fiber materials, fabric structure design and fabric finishing. Today, let's learn how to improve the pilling performance of fabrics.

Modification of fiber raw materials

There are two ways to improve the fuzzing and pilling properties of fiber materials: one is to reduce the breaking strength of fiber, so that the formed wool balls fall off; The other is to change the fiber section and surface state to increase the cohesion between fibers to reduce pilling.

Low strength anti pilling fiber: this fiber is made of polyester and acrylic fibers by chemical modification or physical treatment to reduce the fiber shear strength and breaking strength, so that its fabric can prevent or reduce the friction, entanglement and agglomeration of its fibers to form small balls during use.

The strength of polyester can be reduced by alkali deweighting treatment, or the low viscosity chip spinning method can be used to produce polyester filament. The breaking strength of this fiber can be controlled at a very low level. The low strength synthetic fiber is easy to fall off when forming fuzz on the surface of the fabric, and will not further generate wool balls.

The production of anti pilling acrylic fiber can adopt the method of reducing the content of methyl acrylate in macromolecules and increasing the content of sodium allylsulfonate to reduce the activity of molecular chain segments, increase the rigidity and brittleness of fibers and reduce the elongation of fibers. During spinning, the method of alternating low coagulation bath temperature and high coagulation bath temperature can be used to make the fiber form an uneven skin core structure, resulting in defects in the fiber structure, so as to improve the anti pilling performance of the fiber. The third monomer can also be introduced into macromolecules to produce anti pilling fibers.

Protease modification of wool fiber: neutral or alkaline protease is used to treat wool fiber, so that its scales are partially destroyed, fiber strength is reduced, and fabric plush is easy to fall off and pilling is reduced.

Anti pilling fiber with profiled section: due to the increase of surface area and cohesion between fibers, profiled fiber is not easy to be pulled out to form hairiness when subjected to external force, which can reduce the chance of pilling.

Fiber surface roughness: due to the rough fiber surface, the cohesion is enhanced, reducing the probability of fiber slipping to the fabric surface to form fuzz. Therefore, plasma etching can be used to improve the roughness of the fiber surface and increase the friction coefficient of the fiber surface, thus reducing the formation of fiber fuzz on the fabric surface.

Fabric structure design

Fabric weave: In the ternary weave, plain weave has the best pilling resistance, twill weave takes the second place, and satin weave is the worst.

Fabric tightness: increase the warp and weft density and fabric tightness, and the anti pilling property of the fabric will also be improved significantly. If the radial density of yarn is increased, the pilling resistance of the fabric can be improved under different friction conditions. If the radial density and weft density of the fabric are increased at the same time, the pilling property of the fabric will be significantly reduced at lower friction times.

Fabric finishing

In order to improve the fuzzing and pilling of fabrics, the methods of biological enzyme finishing, anti fuzzing and pilling agent finishing and silicone softening finishing can be used.

Biological enzyme finishing: the surface of the fabric treated by biological enzyme is clear, the number of pilling drops significantly, and the effect of reducing the pilling of the fabric is lasting. The fuzzing and pilling properties of cotton knits treated with acid cellulase were obviously improved.

Anti pilling agent finishing: The anti pilling agent is generally a specially processed water-based polymer resin, which is a mixed dispersion of a variety of macromolecular polymers. The main chain of the polymer has active groups, which is multifunctional and highly active. It can be cross-linked by itself or bonded with the active groups on the fiber, forming a mesh film with certain strength, washability, softness and good elasticity on the surface of the fabric. By using the function of cross-linking and film forming of polymer on the fiber surface, the fiber surface is coated with a layer of polymer film, which can reduce the slippage of the fiber and reduce the tendency of fuzzing. At the same time, the polymer is uniformly cross-linked and condensed on the surface of the yarn, so that the end of the fiber is adhered to the yarn, and it is not easy to pilling when rubbing, so as to have a good anti pilling effect.

Silicone softening finishing: Silicone softening finishing can endow the fabric with softness and improve the pilling resistance through film formation, but the amount of silicone must be appropriate to avoid excessive softness and lubrication, otherwise it will cause the fiber to slip to the surface and cause pilling instead.