THE EFFECT OF MELAMINE FORMALDEHYDE RESIN ON THE PROPERTIES OF BLEACHED JUTE FABRICS

An investigation is reported in which treatment of bleached jute (Corchorus olitorius) fabric was carried out with melamine/formatdehyde in a pad/dry/cure process, with magnesium chloride hexahydrate used as catalyst. The percentage resin add-on, total resin content, bound-nitrogen content, and bound-formaldehyde content of the treated fabrics were determined. Various physical properties of treated fabrics having different values of resin add-on were also studied and compared with those of the untreated fabrics. It was found that there exists a direct relationship between the resin add-on and (a) a significant improvement in the values of the dry and wet crease-resistance and (b) a reduction in the moisture-regain properties of the fabric. The losses in tensile strength and abrasion-resistance and the bigher flexural rigidity of the fabric on treatment with the resin were found to be proportional to the level of applied resin on the fabrics. © Textile Institute.