Denim is a sturdy warp-faced cotton twill fabric, which has gained the most popular among the young generations for exposing the western lifestyle
Although stone is being used vastly in washing, bearing some problems. For instance, stone leads to deterioration of fabric strength, machine wear and tear
On the contrary, the shoe sole is a rubbery material and does not dispose easily on earth. Surprisingly, post-used shoe soles can be seen on the field, roadside, or in the water flow drain which clogs the water flow drain. Moreover, these undammed materials are sometimes burnt, and hence forms carbon-di-oxide, which is a major driving force of global warming by ozone depletion
Washing is the most prominent vertical growing sector. In denim production over the globe, many disadvantages have been found by pumice stone wash. In order to cope with these problems, this endeavor has attempted to up-cyclic rubber shoe sole as a replacement for stone, and measured tensile strength, tearing strength, gram per square meter, abrasion resistance, fabric count, and crimp interchange sound intensity, etc.
The experimental wagon has been covered with a total of seven denim pants, one kept as raw, and also 3 pairs for different washing. 100% cotton warp-faced (3/1) twill indigo-dyed denim fabrics (GSM-434, EPI-100, PPI-54, Newp-16KW, and Newf-12KW) have been used to experiment.
It is well known that shoe soles are thrown out and now, small business firms (dust collectors) collect this post used material like water bottle, drum, tyre wheel, and many more thermoplastic polymers for their business interest. Accordingly, a significant amount has been collected and cut into different size shapes by mechanical hacksaw blades as a tone. After cutting, a total of 2.90 kg has been soaked into 3 g/L (w/v) caustic soda mixed water at room temperature for 24 hours. It is illustrated with the same amount of stone taken for this experiment.
In this experiment, we have used a rubber shoe sole due to having the properties of light in weight but sometimes heavy, good tensile/tear strength, good shock-absorbing ability, reusable and recyclable, etc.
The experimental work has been conducted in Natural Denims Limited, Ashulia, Savar, and Dhaka, Bangladesh with the constant help of the research and innovations team. In the first phase, a total of seven specimens have been taken, then desized with 0.7 g/L desizing agent (Eco-size AM), and 0.6 g/L detergents (Hostapur WCTH) with 0.2 g/L anti-back staining agent (Antistain- LP30) at 60°C temperature for 30 min. Henceforth, the hot rinsed wash is done at 70°C followed by cold water wash.
For enzyme wash with stone, 1.5 g/L enzyme, 1 g/L anti-back staining agent has been applied at 40°C temperature for 30 min. In order to bleach wash with stone, 3 g/L KCI, 50L water put it into the industrial washing machine (Sutlick, Singapore) for 7mins, and then added potassium thiosulphate 2000g, and starts the machine at 60°C temperature for 15-30 min. Again for an acid wash with stone are treated with potassium permanganate for 1 day then used potash 10 g/L, water 2 g/L, Sodium meta-bisulfite (Na2S2O3) 150g at 60°C temperature for 20mins. After every wash, a hydro-extractor machine (Zanussi, Roaches, England) has been used for 2 min with 180 rpm to remove excess amount water at 88°C temperature, and then dried in a dryer (Opti-Dry, Roaches, England) at 75°C for 35-40 min. Correspondingly, the same treatment with previous materials has been done with shoe sole instead of stone for three garments. Here, one desized garment has been kept as raw denim for comparing the properties with different washed samples.
For evaluation of different material properties on raw and washed samples the testing methods, gathered in
Test Name(s) |
Test Standards |
Atmospheric conditioning |
ASTM D1776 |
Tensile strength (US Grab test) |
ASTM D 5034 |
Tearing strength |
ASTM D1424 |
Fastness to laundering |
AATCC-61 |
GSM |
ASTM D3776 |
Abrasion resistance |
ASTM D 4966-98 |
Crimp interchange |
ASTM D 3883 |
Fabric count |
ASTM D 3775-08 |
Colorfastness to washing of studied samples has been visually assessed by the greyscale and shown in
From
From below the pictorial view (
The tensile strength of washed fabric samples along with the original one is shown in
The following
Crimp percentage refers to when warp and weft yarns interlace in the fabric they follow a wavy or corrugated path, crimp percentage delineates in
The horizontal axis of the following
The above discussion reveals that washing is an essential finishing in the denim industry which enhances fading effects along with softness and comfort, but it is the single most environmentally polluting industry in the fashion market. Averring that, producers cannot enforce individually without the collaborating supports of retailers. In this cornerstone, a post-used rubber shoe sole can be used to mitigate the adverse effects on nature, since the shoe sole provides similar fabric characteristics to a stonewash. Introducing the aforementioned alternative in denim washing, it shows the perfect results rather than stone one without compromising the trendy looks. Explicitly, a wash technician found another shade that can attract buyers more. Also, the minimum noise level has been experienced in this work. And hence, it can be concluded post-used rubber shoe sole would be effective for washing.
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.