Study On The Technics And Properties Of Knitted Fabrics Made Of Milk/cotton Blended Yarn

Milk fiber is different form natural fibers and man-made fibers. It is also called Semi-synthetic regenerated protein fiber. It is a new textile material, which have both the advantages of synthetic fiber and natural fiber. It has a lot of good qualities. For example, it is strong, low-shrink, soft, skin-friendly, good in moisture absorption and air permeability. However, milk fiber also has its disadvantage as many other regenerated protein fiber. It is cream, alkali-labile. On high temperature, it is liable not only to be hard and harsh in handle, but also to shrink. When bleached, the content of protein in the fiber would be less. All of these restrict the development of milk fiber production.It is valuable to research and improve milk fiber to develop its potential valuation. Milk/cotton blended knitted fabric is skin-friendly and also improves drapability and gloss. This kind of fabric possesses of the good performance of both milk and cotton fibers and is popular with consumers.In this article, the milk/cotton blended yarns were supplied by Nenjiang Huaqiang Co., Ltd. This paper is aimed to develop the milk/cotton blended knitted fabric and research the properties of the knitted fabrics. Our research was started with the properties of milk/cotton blended yarn. By the comparative analysis of the milk/cotton blended yarn and the same count cotton yarn, it was determined that the mixed yarn could be knitted.In the development of milk/cotton blended knitted fabric, the treatment of bleaching and its effects were mainly discussed. By means of the experiments, the effective parameters were determined. It was showed that the concentration of H₂O₂ and concentration of Na₂CO₃ are the main effective factors in bleaching treatment, while the other factors such as concentration of Na₂SiO₃, concentration of urea, concentration of JFC, the bath of ratio are comparatively minor. In designing orthogonal test, based on considering interacting between concentrations of H₂O₂ and Na₂CO₃, the factors such as concentration of H₂O₂, concentration of Na₂CO₃, time and temperature, were selected to be the influence factors. Each influence factor had three levels. According to the orthogonal project, a random sequence for the independence of each test was arranged. From the testing results, there was a relationship between weight loss and strength decrement. Furthermore, the effects of each influence factor and each level on bleaching were also studied. According to the study, the preferable parameters for bleaching treatment were obtained.In the research on dyeing for milk/cotton blended knitted fabric, reactive dye of uptake and fastness was mainly studied. A suitable process was got by researching the effects of dye concentration, Na₂CO₃ concentration and NaCl concentration on dyeing. Because of the emphasis on fabric handle and appearance, after dyeing, heat setting and soft finishing were two essential steps for the milk/cotton blended knitted fabric.In order to make a deep study on the impact of bleaching, dyeing and finishing on the properties of the milk/cotton blended knitted fabrics, all kinds of fabrics' performances were tested. At the last, five factors, which contributed to fabric handle, were selected as parameters. According to the theory of fuzzy mathematical comprehensive evaluating, the parameters were used for evaluating the knitted fabrics' handle. The results showed that after bleaching and dyeing, the handle of the milk/cotton blended knitted fabrics was not good as before, but the finishing could make a good contribution to the handle of the fabrics after bleaching and dyeing.