Step by Step Pigment Washing Process

Pigment Washing Process:
Pigment washing process is similar to a normal washing process but a bit costlier. Garments are made from pigment dyed or pigment printed fabric. Then the garments are subjected to pigment wash. By pigment washing, fading effect is produced in the garments.

pigment washed t-shirt
Fig: Pigment washed t-shirt

Pigment wash is costlier so washing mill may charge you a little more because of the following reasons.

When the garment is made of solid color pigment dye, we normally would want the solid color to fade evenly in washing, leaving a prominent washed effect on the garment. In order to achieve the result as described above, it is important that the washing mill observes the following in washing:

To use hot water to wash (Normal wash needs about 40ºC to wash). Pigment wash needs 50ºC to 60ºC to wash so that the color would fade more evenly.

Do not stuff the tumble with too much. Try to load the tumble with 60 or 70% of its capacity so that the garments inside the tumble can turn “comfortably”. As a result, the color of the garment fades evenly.

If you load the tumble full, the garment may turn out to be streaky after wash due to hard rubbing on the same spot inside the tumble for lack of random movement. In this article, I will explain pigment washing process with step by step.

Flow Chart of Pigment Washing:

Step 01: Desizing

Water is added (400 ltr)

Garments are added

Machine started running

320 gm Detergent added

320gm Caustic soda added

600gm Soda ash added

Temperature raise to 60°C

Time 20-60 minutes

Drop the liquor

Add water and cold wash

 

Step 02: Softening

Water is added (400 ltr)

Garments are added

Machine started running

240 gm Softener added

200gm Acetic acid added

160gm silicon softener added

Temperature Cold

Time 15 minutes

Drop the liquor

Unlaod garments on trolley

 

Step 03: Hydro Extracting

Load the garments on machine

R.P.M 700-900

Time 3-5 minutes

Unload the garments on trolley

 

Step 04: Drying

Load the garments on dryer machine

Temp 60- 70°C

Time 40-50 minutes

Time 10-15 minutes for cold dry

Unload the garments

Quality checking

During pigment wash, batch size should be less than 30% to 40% of the machine loading capacity. Otherwise fading effect produced may be unsatisfactory due to lack of frictional effect. This process may be applied on, single color or multi-color pigment dyed or pigment printed garments.

You may also like: Step by Step Bleach Wash Process in Garments

Share this Article!

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.