Following are there dyes used for cotton garment dyeing:

a)    Direct dyes. (for low colour fastness) for fashion merchandise for boutique outlets. Which carries a hand wash separately care label.

b)    Reactive dyes-(for low colour fastness) best suitable for cotton garment dyeing. Due to good level dyeing properties and high migration, diffusion properties, both cold brand and hot brand HE and HEXL dyes can be used.

c)     Vat dyes limited use in garment dyeing. Economical for jade green shades.

d)    Sulphur dyes used for navies and blacks.

e)    Pigment dyeing In conventional exhaust pigment dyeing mainly there are three steps i.e., cationisation of the garment, pigmentation and treatment with binder. The above conventional process requires plenty of water and it is also time consuming which indirectly affects production. To counter this, Zytex India Ltd, Mumbai has developed a new system in pigment dyeing called OBOS (one bath one step). Following are the advantages of this system.

1)    Complete dyeing is carried out in single bath.

2)    Intervals between addition of chemicals is only 5 minutes.

3)    Water saving, equivalent to 3 drains.

4)    Dyeing time is only 80 minutes.

5)    40% time is saved.

6)    Excellent fastness and good reproductively. The process is as follows.

a)     Desizing, / Scouring

b)     Hot wash

c)     Cationic pre-processing.

d)     Garment pH should be neutral and good absorbency.

e)     Then add the following chemicals: anticreasing agent, dispersing cum leveling agent, polymeric cationising agent for cotton (Zycat PD) runfor 20-30 mins. At 60-70 deg c.

f)      Then add a range of pigment colors specially developed for exhaust pigment dyeing. (ZY-pigment). Run for 30 mins. At 70 deg c to 100 deg c.

g)     Add polymer based binding cum fixing agent for pigments. (Zyfix PF) then run for 30-40 mins at 30 deg c to 60 deg c.

h)     Rinse, unload

i)      Drying / curing for binder fixation at 90 deg c to 130 deg c for 10 mins.

One advantage of garment dyeing cotton is that there will be no problem with shrinkage for the customer. Al the above process is conveniently carried out in the new generation of rotary dyeing machines. They are of two types.

a)       Divided

b)      Open-drum

Accordingly the type of mechanical agitation can be selected, and fitted with a microprocessor controller and a dosing pump; they can be programmed to run through the full dyeing procedure automatically.

Among the most important chemicals for the garment dyeing sector are lubricants for preventing marking by creases formed during running or lying, bleaching and scouring streaks and chafe marks, which are some of the most common quality impairing problems of garment dyers and jean washers.

Different Color Depth Fabric:

To cut processing time, effluent load, and minimum damage to fabric and; minimum use of chemical, there are different depth of indigo in denim. For example, in case of ice wash where we remove more than half the dye during washing. One can use lighter shade fabric which will help to cut the process time, chemical consumption, effluent load, it will help garment processor to process garment processor to process garment more economically and with minimum faults

Flat look denim: Different chemicals and processes are used to get flatter look on the denim garments. To meet this requirement special denim fabric has been developed which offers flat look after washing.