- Color Fastness to Rubbing – There are two types of it, dry and wet. Dry rubbing is important for the materials like sofa covers where a person sits on it. Normally it is done using Croakometer with 10cm track length and 9.8 N force.
- For all colorfastness evaluation it is done either visually or using spectrophotometer. Normally worst rating is given.
- Colorfastness to water – It is done to measure colorfastness to water under intimate contact when getting wet, for example contact of inner wear to outer garments in rain. The sample is wet in distilled water , put between two acrylic sheets and then it is clamped under a force of 4.5 kg and put in incubator at 37 degrees Celsius for 4 hours.
- Colorfastness to Water is not the same as colorfastness to washing. In measuring colorfastness to water we use distill water, whereas in colorfastness to washing, the detergent is used which makes the pH alkaline. A case is cited where a fabric had excellent colorfastness to washing but poor colorfastness to water. It can be due to the fact that the fabric was dyed with reactive dyes. There was some hydrolyzed dye present, but it had no reactivity and hence it was unable to react with water so there was no bleeding. On the other hand that hydrolyzed dye migrated in case of pressure and water hence had poor colorfastness to water. Thus rigorous soaping could have solved the problem. Taking the other aspect, a fabric had poor colorfastness to washing but excellent colorfastness to water. It can be due to the fact the dye is probably sensitive to the pH.
- Colorfastness to Perspiration- Test is done similar to Colorfastness to water; the only difference is that a solution is prepared which simulate perspiration and the fabric is dipped in it, rest of the procedure is the same. Two types of solutions are prepared , one simulating alkaline perspiration with a pH of 8.0 and the other simulating acidic perspiration with a pH of 5.5. To prepare this solution Sodium Chloride and Lactic Acid are the main ingredients. The test conditions of 37+- 2 deg Celcius for four hours under a pressure of 5 kg. – Picture Source and Procedure.
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