Composition for pretreating fiber materials

Details Composition for pretreating fiber materials Composition for pretreating fiber materials

2000-10-13

2004-10-12

Einsmann, Margaret (Department: 1751)

Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification

Cleaning or laundering

Scouring, degreasing or bowking

C008S115510, C008S909000, C008S930000, C510S276000, C510S426000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06802871

ABSTRACT:

This invention relates to a composition which includes at least water, an organic sulfonate or a polyhydric alcohol together with an ethoxylated alcohol and an ethoxylated/propoxylated alcohol. It further relates to the use of such compositions for the treatment of fiber materials.
Fiber materials in the form of textile sheet materials, for example woven fabrics, normally have to be subjected to a pretreatment before they are dyed. One purpose of the pretreatment is to ensure a defect-free uniform dyeing. Depending on the prior history and provenience of the textile sheet materials or the equipment available, the pretreatment may include the measures of desizing, degreasing/scouring and bleaching the textiles. These measures may be carried out separately, but in the individual case it is also possible to integrate a plurality of these measures in a single process in order that costs may be saved. A successful pretreatment process requires that the textile be readily wettable by aqueous systems not only at the start of the pretreatment but also after the pretreatment, ie. that the textile possess good primary wettability and good rewettability. The latter ensures trouble-free dyeing. To meet the requirements of a useful pretreatment process, various chemical products are used in the pretreatment. These may include, depending on the stated object, wetting agents, laundry detergents, enzymes, bleaching agents, stabilizers, complexing agents, etc. Particular importance attaches here to products whose task it is to impart good post-pretreatment rewettability on the textile sheet materials. Textiles possessing good rewettability make for uniform dyeing in the subsequent dyeing process. But it is important in this connection that the products responsible for good rewettability should bring about no or only an insignificant increase in the foaming tendency of baths that contain the pretreatment products. This requirement is of particular consequence when the pretreatment is carried out as a batch process, for example in jet machines, where increased foaming can be very troublesome and which are more prone to foaming than other processes. The reason why there is frequently a demand for low-foaming pretreatment products is that it is in many cases undesirable to suppress increased foaming by adding antifoams such as silicones.
Since classic pretreatment steps such as desizing, degreasing/scouring and bleaching are in a number of cases integrated into a combined pretreatment process, there is also a demand for compositions which can be used for such combined pretreatment processes. The compositions have to be aqueous systems that impart good wettability to the textile material at the start of the pretreatment, but also good hydrophilicity at the end of the pretreatment. This good hydrophilicity leads to the good rewettability needed for the dyeing process.
Products for pretreating fiber materials in the form of textile sheet materials are known.
EP-A 98 803 describes graft polymers containing a hydrophobic moiety, an attached polyglycol ether moiety and a hydrophilic graft. The hydrophilic graft may contain ionic groups such as sulfonate or carboxylate radicals or the corresponding acid groups.
EP-A 462 059 reveals textile auxiliaries comprising an alkoxylated and optionally terminally etherified alcohol, a reaction product of such an alcohol and an acidic compound and optionally a hydrotrope. The reaction product from alkoxylated alcohol and acidic compound may be a sulfonate.
WO 92/15664 discloses textile treatment compositions comprising homopolymers of unsaturated sulfonic or carboxylic acids, a nonionic surfactant and optionally a hydrotrope. The surfactant, as with the above-cited EP-A 462 059, is an alkoxylate of an aliphatic alcohol that may also have an organic radical at the other end in place of hydrogen. Such surfactants and their use in textile treatment are also revealed in EP-A 420 802.
EP-A 360 736 describes textile pretreatment compositions comprising a phosphorus compound, an interpolymer having a hydrophilic and hydrophobic moiety, a nonionic surfactant and an alkali metal hydroxide.
The compositions described in the above-cited documents, although in principle suitable for textile pretreatment, do not have optimum properties in every regard. More particularly, the rewettability of the textile material after the pretreatment has been completed presents problems in a number of cases of compositions for the pretreatment of textiles. Good rewettability due to adequate hydrophilicity has to be present after the pretreatment in order that the dyeing properties of the textile may not be adversely affected. True, it is possible in principle to improve rewettability by using the right type and amount of surfactants in the pretreatment. However, it has been determined that such optimization of the rewettability will frequently have an adverse effect on the primary wettability and/or significantly increase foaming. As mentioned, primary wettability denotes the wettability of the textile sheet material at the start of the pretreatment, ie. at the point of first contact of the textile material with the pretreatment liquor. This primary wettability has to reach a certain minimum level in order that the pretreatment can take place without problems. If, then, compositions are used that lead to good rewettability, ie. good wettability after the pretreatment, this will in many cases result in an inadequate primary wettability. Attempts to optimize both primary wettability and rewettability by using correspondingly large amounts of surfactants, by contrast, frequently lead to increased foaming. This increased foaming becomes noticeable especially in pretreatment processes of the batch type, for example in the course of a batchwise pretreatment in jet machines. True, the foam can be controlled by means of silicones, but this is frequently undesirable.
It is an object of the present invention to develop a composition which has excellent utility for the pretreatment of fiber materials, especially textile sheet materials, in that it imparts good primary wettability as well as good rewettability to the textile material and which even without the use of high performance antifoams such as silicones does not produce unacceptable foaming.
This object is achieved by a composition which includes at least the components A, B, C and D,
where component A is either a sulfonate of the formula (I)
R
1
R
1
R
2
C—CR
1
R
2
—(—CR
1
R
2
—)
n
—R
1
  (I)
where n is from 0 to 8, any R
1
is independently of the others hydrogen, an alkyl radical of 1 to 4 carbon atoms, an unsubstituted phenyl radical or a phenyl radical substituted by a radical of the formula —SO
3
⊖
M
⊕
, and any R
2
is independently of the others R
1
or a radical of the formula —SO
3
⊖
M
⊕
, subject to the proviso that component A contains at least one radical of the formula —SO
3
⊖
M
⊕
and M is Na, K or NH
4
,
or where component A is a polyhydric aliphatic alcohol of 2 to 12 carbon atoms, preferably of 4 to 10 carbon atoms,
component B is an ethoxylated alcohol of the formula (II) or a mixture of such alcohols
R
3
—O—(—CH
2
CH
2
—O—)
r
—X  (II)
where r is from 1 to 8, preferably from 2 to 7,
component C is an alkoxylate of the formula (III) or a mixture of such alkoxylates
R
3
—O—(—Z—)
t
—X  (III)
where t is from 4 to 30, preferably from 6 to 18, 20 to 80% of all the Z groups present are —CH
2
CH
2
—O— and 80 to 20% of all the Z groups present are —CHR
4
—CHR
5
—O—, where in each case one of R
4
and R
5
is hydrogen and the other is CH
3
, R
3
in both component B and component C is a linear or branched alkyl radical of 4 to 20, preferably 8 to 18, carbon atoms and 50 to 100%, preferably 100%, of all the X's present are hydrogen and 0 to 50%, preferably 0%, of all the X's present are a methyl, ethyl or phenyl radical,
and component D is water.
This abovementioned specific combination of components surprisingly solves a whole series of problems due to prior art

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