INDUSTRIA TEXTILA, vol.64, no.5, pp.235-240, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, we aimed to eliminate the creasing tendency and optimize the easy-care properties of linen fabrics by using crease-resistant agents and the obtained results of linen fabrics were compared with that of cotton fabrics. For this purpose, the crosslinking treatments were carried out linen, linen/cotton blend (50/50) and cotton fabrics with the various formaldehyde-released characteristics of DMDHEU with the pad-dry-cure process. After this process, wrinkle recovery angle, breaking strength and dimensional stability of all treated fabrics have been tested and the results were statically evaluated. Results indicated that the crosslinking process improved crease resistance and dimensional stability of linen fabrics. But linen was very sensitive to the crosslinking process and significant decrease in the breaking strength especially at higher curing temperature (170 degrees C - 180 degrees C) for longer curing time (1.5, 2, 3 minutes). Therefore, it is important to optimize the processing conditions such as curing temperature and time especially processing with 50/50 linen/cotton blend and 100% linen fabrics. In this work, the optimum processing conditions were determined that the linen and linen/cotton blend fabrics were cured at 150 degrees C for 6 min and 160 degrees C for 4 minutes.