Laundering: An important aspect of silk care

Abstract

The importance of laundering in the silk care process is highlighted. Laundering includes both wet and dry cleaning and is necessary for removing soil from the textile product in order to bring it to a new or nearly new condition. Various methods of laundering have been studied using dyed mulberry and tasar silk fabrics. While perchloroethylene and petroleum ether have been used for dry cleaning, a launder-o-meter has been used for wet cleaning. New concepts of 'Sequential washing' and 'simultaneous washing' have also been attempted in the study. It is observed that color value of silk is hampered much in wet cleaning, as compared to dry cleaning. The results obtained in terms of soil removal are good in simultaneous washing when compared to both wet or dry cleaning. It is suggested that quality of water, the nature of the detergents, dry cleaning agents, laundering parameters, and skill of the operators all play a very crucial role in the laundering process.