**The Future of Dye House Quality Control with the Introduction of Right-First Dyeing Technologies**

Melih Günay *HueMetrix Inc. USA*

#### **1. Introduction**

118 Textile Dyeing

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The manufacturing of a textile begins with the fiber input, whereby each processing step results in an added cost to the final product. As dyeing of a textile is often the last step in the manufacturing of a fabric, it requires extra caution to get it right by avoiding waste and maintaining cost control. Only under favourable conditions is it possible to get it right the first time. In the past, it was not unusual for a dyer to re-dye until the target shade was reached. A typical strategy was to start with a base recipe that undershot the target shade. After each dyeing the missing dye component was added to the bath until the shade was matched. The smaller the number of reformulation, the more skilful the dyer was considered.

The Right-First-Time (RFT) dyeing concept was introduced in 1970 and became a desired feature of textile dyeing. This concept meant that at each dyeing the target shade was achieved the first time, hence not requiring re-dyeing. However, the successful evolution of the concept depended on work carried out over many years by a relatively small number of organizations. Many application research and development projects were carried out mainly by the laboratory, pilot-plant and bulk-scale equipment of the major users and manufacturers of dyes and equipment, as well as by universities.

Since the end of 20th century, with the increased competition, dye houses are asked to meet more exact requirements while they are under pressure to reduce the cost of manufacturing. In order to stay competitive and be in business, they were required to exercise tighter quality control and seek ways to optimize dyeings. This necessitated the understanding of a) dyes, chemicals and substrates and their compatibilities; and b) the parameters that influence the rate and extent of dye uptake by the substrate (Park & Shore, 2007).

The variables that are objectively measured and monitored during a dyeing for quality control purposes have traditionally been limited to time, temperature, pH, and conductivity. Measurement of the fabric shade reflectance is only utilized in the development of new recipes/procedures and the verification of the dyed fabric shade. The development of recipes/procedures and the debugging of dyeing problems continue to rely on indirect information obtained by ad-hoc trail and errors, subjective observations, and visual assessments of dyers.

The first prototype system (Beck et al., 1990; Keaton & Glover, 1985) to measure the dye build up directly in real-time during a dyeing was developed in 1990's. However, due to technological limitations such as; a) the high cost of spectrophotometers, b) the low computation speed that is not sufficient to process the data generated by the

industry. With this chapter, the author defines and shares this emerging terminology with

The Future of Dye House Quality Control with the Introduction of Right-First Dyeing Technologies 121

New plots that are used regularly in the analysis of dye absorbance / concentration data are

A typical dyebath monitoring system such as shown in Figure 1 enables dyers to monitor each dye concentration in the dyebath while measuring the temperature, pH, and conductivity of

The determination of dye concentrations in real-time works as follows once the dyes are

1. Approximately every 90 seconds during the dyeing process, the instrument takes a micro sample of dyebath via a small dyebath circulation loop connected to the dye machine. 2. The sample is conditioned, both physically and chemically for optimum spectral analysis. 3. Each micro sample is read with the state-of-the art spectrophotometer and analyzed. 4. The resulting data set (includes dye concentration, exhaustion, temperature, pH, and

5. The instruments post-processing software provides certain analysis features to aid dyers

The system determines individual dye concentrations according to the Beer-Lambert law

and the additivity of individual dye spectrums when they are mixed (Johnson, 1989).

*A*(*λ*) = *l�*(*λ*)*c* (1)

**2. Typical configuration and the setup of the dyebath monitoring system**

the academic researchers to facilitate communication.

the dyebath simultaneously.

Fig. 1. HueMetrix Dye-It-Right Monitor.

conductivity) is recorded by the software.

in determining dyeing performance.

calibrated:

(McDonald, 1997):

also introduced and discussed in this chapter for the first time.

spectrophotometer, and c) the insufficient computer memory restricting the amount of data that can be manipulated for the accurate determination of dye amounts, the adaptation of these prototype systems from the industry was delayed. For example, to determine the dye concentrations of a 3-dye combination precisely in real time (2+ decimal points), it is obligatory to have a computer with more than 500 MBs of memory. About eight years ago, computers with these configurations became available at low cost.

With advances in computation and electronics by the mid 2000's, the limitations listed above were overcome. As a result, two groups, one in England and the other in the US, began adapting dyebath monitoring systems (Dixon & Farrell, 2009; Ferus-Comelo et al., 2005). These systems became the back-bone of commercial RFT dyeing in select plants. The historical progress of these technologies were discussed in detail by Smith (Smith, 2007) in his acceptance of the AATCC Olney Award at the 2007 AATCC conference.

It was recognized that the successful practical dyer must achieve the following objectives:


Important factors to achieve successful dyeing at RFT include dye standardization, compatibility of dyes and chemicals, catching dyeing problems earlier in the dyeing cycle, reducing or eliminating wasted textile and optimizing dyeing and quantifying end product quality. Early adapters of the RFT technologies reported reduction in time and cost while increasing overall product quality.

Another important aim of dyeing research was the optimization of dyeing recipe and procedures by:


It is not the purpose of this chapter to discuss optimization strategies, although some of that optimization occurs with the quality control improvements discussed here.

It is perhaps somewhat surprising that no formal research and development program has yet to be undertaken to systematically develop RFT quality control and optimization procedures in practical dyeing processes.

In order to be consistent in communicating the analysis and interpretation of the dye exhaustion data, several new terms were introduced over the past several years by the industry. With this chapter, the author defines and shares this emerging terminology with the academic researchers to facilitate communication.

New plots that are used regularly in the analysis of dye absorbance / concentration data are also introduced and discussed in this chapter for the first time.
