Apart from polishing the fabrics, the treatment offers a number of other benefits in physical properties such as improvement in pill resistance, cooler fill, brighter luminosity of colors and softness. At the same time, the treatment results in certain adverse effects like loss in weight and strength. All the above effects are influenced by a number of factors like, composition of the acid cellulase, history of pretreatments given to the fabrics and process parameters used at the time of treatment.

Various developments have taken place in the eco-friendly processing of textiles involving enzymes. Among the various enzymes, cellulase is extensively used on cellulosic material. There are two types of cellulase, namely, acid cellulase and neutral cellul ase. Acid cellulase used in bio polishing, which is very popular finishing treatment given to cellulosic fabric. Apart from polishing the fabrics, the treatment offers a number of other benefits in physical properties such as improvement in pill resistance, cooler fill, brighter luminosity of colors and softness. At the same time, the treatment results in certain adverse effects like loss in weight and strength. All the above effects are influenced by a number of factors like, composition of the acid cellulase, history of pretreatments given to the fabrics and process parameters used at the time of treatment. Moreover, the treatment has influence on post treatments given to the fabrics.

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This article was originally published in the Textile Review magazine, October, 2012,published by Saket Projects Limited, Ahmedabad.

About the Authors:

ChintaS. K., Landage S. M. & Ketan Verma are associated with the D.K.T.E.S.Textile & Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji