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Demand for polyester-cellulosic fiber is growing worldwide. The blend combines the power of polyester and the comfort of cellulose to satisfy consumers who want apparel and home furnishings that perform better and look and feel good for longer.
Demand for polyester-cellulosic fiber is growing day by day.
The polyester fiber in the blend provides excellent crease recovery and shape retention, as well as easy care and durability. The cellulosic fiber offers absorbency, comfort and good heat conduction for winter warmth and summer cooling.
Unfortunately, there is a catch: producing polyester-cellulosic blends is challenging.
Processing challenges
Each fiber type has its own dyeing process, so the overall dyeing cycle is much longer. This drives up costs, as you need more dye, more chemicals, and more energy and water.
Using more energy and water also carries a high environmental cost, especially in an age of stricter government regulations and higher consumer expectations. Furthermore, the standard way to dye polyester-cellulosic blends uses hydrosulphite, which is harmful to the environment and makes wastewater more difficult to treat.
Many leading brands today have a clean, green image that means their suppliers must avoid pollutants and minimize the water and energy they use during production.
Difficult choices
Adding to the challenge, polyester-cellulosic blends command a lower price in the market than pure cellulosic fibers because polyester costs less than cotton or other cellulosic. Despite this, blends require longer to process, consume more utilities and create fastness and reproducibility issues.
All of these factors mean that textile mills are constantly making difficult choices as they strive to balance profitability and performance.
The selection of disperse and reactive dyes is fundamental to achieving good wet-fastness results and a shorter and most cost-effective dyeing process for polyester-cellulosic blends.
