Effect of Soaping Process on Crimp Properties of Optim Wool

Abstract

Optim fiber is a kind of modified wool fiber by physical stretching of fine wool fiber, which changes the crimp ratio of the original wool. The effect of the soaping parameters, such as caustic concentration, temperature, treating time on Optim fiber crimp ratio was studied. The results showed that under the same caustic concentration, the crimp ratio is distinctly increased along with the temperature increase when the temperature is under 75 oC. However, when the temperature was higher than 75 oC, the crimp ratio started to reduce fast. Under the same soaping temperature, the caustic concentration change did not have the obvious effect on the crimp ratio change. When the temperature was above 80 oC, the crimp ratio reduced as a whole along with the caustic concentration. The change of the curl ratio was not obvious at the same caustic concentration within 20 min. However, the curl ratio reduced slowly with increasing the soaping time. At the same soaping time, the curl ratio of fibers reduced with increasing concentration of soaping. It could provide some technical reference for dyeing of optim fiber.