GB1061322A - A process for preparing elastic fabrics containing or consisting of polyester fibres - Google Patents

Abstract

In a process for preparing elastic fabrics from fabrics consisting of or containing polyester fibres, the fabrics are stretched in either the warp or the weft direction and subjected whilst under the stretching tension to the action of a bath containing a swelling agent for the polyester fibres, e.g. a chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbon such as a chlorinated benzene, a phenol, an aromatic acid such as benzoic acid or salicylic acid, or an ester of an aromatic acid such as methyl salicylate, diethyl phthalate or dimethyl terephthalate. The swelling agent is employed in the form of a solution or af an aqueous emulsion. The aqueous bath is preferably maintained at a temperature at or near its boiling point. The impregnated fabric may be treated with saturated steam at about 100 to 120 DEG C. The fabric may be dyed after treatment with the swelling agent by adding the dye to the same bath without the addition of a vehicle for the dye. In an example, an unbleached fabric consisting of 76% of a polyester fibre and 24% of viscose rayon after treating under tension for 1 hour at the boiling point in a dilute aqueous emulsion of trichlorobenzene is dyed after the bath temperature has been reduced to 60 DEG C by adding to the bath 5% of a 50% paste of the dye C. I. Supplement: Disperse Blue 59 and the temperature of the bath is raised to the boiling point. The dyed fabric is thereafter treated for 30 minutes with steam at 140 DEG C.