Stone Wash
Stonewash /washing is a textile manufacturing process used to give a newly manufactured cloth garment a worn in (or worn out) appearance. Stone washing also helps to increase the softness and flexibility of otherwise stiff and rigid fabrics such as canvas and denim. As the stones are used, they slowly disintegrate, reducing the severity of the stone wash effect over a period of time. The stones not only abrade the fabric but also gradually abrade the inside of the rotary drum. Process flow chart of stone wash is as follows:
Process Flow Chart of Stone Wash
BATCHING
↓
LOADING
↓
DESIZING (IF NECESSARY)
↓
STONE WASH WITH BLEACH WASH
↓
NEUTRALIZATION OF CHLORIN
↓
NEUTRALIZATION(WITH ACETIC ACID)
↓
FINISHING/SOFTENING
↓
DRYING
Stone-wash: To achieve the desired stone washing effect for the garments, the stone should be of proper hardness, shape, and size. It should be mentioned that, for heavyweight garments, large and hard stones are suitable. For lightweight garments, small and soft stones are suitable. It is a popular garment washing.
During stone wash of any garments, the degree of colour fading depends on some factors, such as- the garments to stone ratio, washing time, stone size, and material to liquor ratio. Stone washing times vary from 60-120 min. Stones can be reused until they disintegrate completely.
It is done to get the stone-wash effect to denim. Cellulase enzymes are natural proteins that are used in denim processing to get stone wash look on to the denim without using stones. Cellulase enzyme attacks basically on the surface of cellulose fibre, leaving the interior of the fibre as it is, by removing the indigo present in the surface layer of fibre. Matzyme BIO-W is a cellulase enzyme which can give excellent stone-wash effects.
Author of this Article: Rahat Khan Dept. of Apparel Manufacturing Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology Cell: +8801717781833 Email: rahat.info@gmail.com