GB825507A - Improved process for the desizing of glass fibres - Google Patents

Abstract

Textile fibres, filaments, strands, yarn, cords roving, matting or woven or knitted fabrics made from glass are desized by treating them for a period not exceeding 30 minutes with a solvent which is either trichlorethylene or perchlorethylene, optionally providing an opportunity for solvent to drain or be expressed or evaporated from them, and then treating them with water held at a temperature of at least 73 DEG C. in the case of trichlorethylene and at least 86 DEG C. in the case of perchlorethylene until their residual organic content reaches the desired figure. The solvent is preferably used at its boiling point. The hot water treatment may be long enough to remove not only the residual solvent but also such constituents of the size as remain unextracted at that point and are water-soluble or degraded or solubilized by hot water, or the hot water treatment may be applied in two stages, the first being carried out in the flash-off chamber where residual solvent is evaporated off and the second in an open vessel where residual constituents of the size are removed. The process may be combined with other desizing treatments such as heat treatment by passage over a gas-jet singeing machine or an enzyme desizing process, e.g. treatment with an aqueous solution of a malt extract. The Provisional Specification refers to the desizing of glass and other mineral fibres.