Development of a Lab-Dip System for CO2 Waterless Dyeing

CO2 dyeing has been developed for the last two decades since it demonstrates strong economical and ecological advantages in comparison with the conventional dyeing process. From our previous project, CO2 dyeing has proved to be successful in dyeing of a wide range of synthetic textiles including polyester, nylon and PLA. In industrial practice, a laboratory scale dyeing system (Lab-dip) is a critical instrument in providing the correct recipe and parameters to achieve the required colour for bulk production. Since CO2 dyeing is a new production method totally different from the traditional dyeing, it is necessary to develop a Lab-dip system for CO2 dyeing. So far, no similar system is available in the market. The lab-dip system for CO2 dyeing consists of two major functions. Firstly, it should be able to offer precision control of dyestuff dosage; accuracy will be up to 0.1milligram. Secondly, the lab-dip device should be able to simulate the parameters including temperature, airflow, pressure and time of the bulk production. To create the right recipe to support sample preparation and eventually bulk production, it is necessary to perform a large number of trials to build up a practical coloring database.