A 3-per cent concentration of guar gum will be the better alternative for large-scale printing of cotton in home furnishing industries, find Priyanka Kesarwani and Archana Singh.

Cotton is the world's most used fibre. It is cool, soft, comfortable and the principal clothing fibre of the world. Its production is one of the major factors in the world's prosperity and economic stability. In the textiles industry more than 78% of the printed goods are of cotton fabric and it has been used for the apparel purpose since centuries. It forms the background of the world textile trades. Printing on these fabrics will produce a variety of designs attractively and economically.

The most commonly used thickeners for printing one cotton fabric is sodium alginate, but in view of its high price, partly substituting guar gum represents an acceptable alternative. Therefore, an attempt was made to print cotton fabric with sodium alginate and guar gum and compare its property and cost to the samples printed with sodium alginate.

Read Full Article

About the Authors

The authors are with the Department of Textiles and Clothing, MAB College of Home Science Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.