An Analysis of Acid Washes Quality in Textile

6.8.17

Acid Washes

Take water in bath at required level. Load garment in the machine. Add Detergent . Circulate the garment and raise the temperature at 400C. Continue circulating the garments for 5 minutes.
Rinse and Drain. Add Acetic acid and circulate the garments for 2 minutes. Rinse and Drain. We are facing problems as follows : ...

Shade variation- Variation is higher in acid washes that is big difference compare to other washes like K398 is OK. We get minimum difference.

Damages - Fabric damage in this wash is slightly higher in the process of few fabrics like K3, L4. Solution – Need to change the fabric construction i.e., Yarn count or replace the fabric with substitute fabric or discontinue the wash.

Spray Spot

Drain and send the garments into the hydro extractor Maintenance of spraying gun regularly, if leakages found need to arrest the same by protecting not to leak the PP solution. High spray intensity is taken a trial by spray dry and spray process i.e., double time spraying process (some fabric may get damage due to this process). Example – R949 requires hot spots in spray (it is a recent style of washing)

Body Damage

Back stain problem avoided by increasing a dosage of chemical and increasing hydro time (cause – problem of fabric damage at scrapping area). Hence, decided to again decrease and control and damages at scraped area.
Add softener
Continue circulating the garments for 5 minutes
After send the garments for dryer
Continued the grinding with pneumatic grinder.
Operation is continued with only Experts.
Continued getting approval for minimum and maximum intensity of grinding.

Back Staining

Continued with the increased dosage of antiback stainer to control back stainining.The steps for heavy Garments wash with silicon oil Process are as follows:

Increasing hydro time causing damages on body of the garment!! Therefore decrease the time and increase the ABS% to 15%.
Heavy Garments wash with silicon oil. We still need to increase the no. of Drying machines.

Yello Stain and Garments

Take water in bath at required level. Cleanliness maintained in Laundry to avoid stains on garments, i.e., Washing machine, Drying machine, Hydro extractor.Load garment in the machine

Wash Effect

Add Detergent. Circulate the garment and raise the temperature at 400CStarted doing bulk trial and if any process difficulties, the same will be discussed with product. team to get approval. Currently, the fresh CMTs are being carried out as per this point.

Quality controlling of bulk garments.

Bulk garments which are sent to finishing department of the factory should be as per the customer expectations in terms of shade, handle, appearance, dry finishes and test parameters. Several procedures have been set at washing plant as follows to assure the customer expectations.

After drying audit (AQL audit)

This is t identify the defects soon as the processes are completed and to alert Relevant departments to stop getting more defects in similar categories, below is the detailed procedure of the Audit.

Receiving the wash loads as per the lot serial.
Add softener and silicon oil
Continue circulating the garments for 5 minutes
Drain and send the garments into the hydro extractor
Marking the lot number in the audit summery.
Taking the approved shade/dry process band from the rack.
Checking the approved sample card and the expiry date of the sample set
If sample set is a valid one laying the standards in the table properly to see the appearance dry processes etc.
Picking garments randomly for the audit. Qty should be 10% of the wash load or 10 pcs if the load size if less than 100 pcs.
Picking an additional garment and handing over to the testing QI for rubbing testing. The QI who is allocated for rubbing testing will do the rubbing testing and attached to the format which has been provided. Checking should be done against the minimum standard Provided.
Checking randomly selected garments as per standard by following the Criteria available at QA worksheet of the Lot card.
Continue circulating the garments for 10 minutes
Rinse and Drain
Add Acetic acid and circulate the garments for 2 minutes
Rinse and Drain
Marking each criterion as accept or reject.
If the defects are not found, and rubbing results are acceptable, the lot is passed for 100% checking.
If full load is reject for critical defect (Color too dark/dye uneven/rubbing test failure etc) the audit is failed and get the immediate attention of seniors of the QA and production departments.
Getting the lot card as well as the audit fail summery report acknowledged by the seniors to get the preventive actions.
Failed loads are sent to quarantine area and kept in red bags for easy Identifications and necessary actions are taken priority basis.
If consecutive 2 loads having audit failures due to a critical defect, was stop massage should be written at the lot preparation sheet to avoid loading the style to the machines.
If the audit result is majority defects but at least a piece is bound as passable, the lot will be passed to 100% checking secti8on to short out the defectives.

100% Checking

Wash loads which have been passed by the after dryer auditor, are taken by the 100% checking section . Route card should be available with the garments of the lot and the assistant executive of the checking section makes the decision for checking tables which different styles should be checked and advice helpers to load to the input bin of the checking tables.

Add Detergent
Circulate the garment and raise the temperature at 400C
Continue circulating the garments for 5minutes
Rinse and Drain
Quality inspectors go through the below procedure for checking the bulk garments.
Relevant shade band is taken from the counter sample cupboard
Sample tag is checked for the validity of the sample set.
if counter band is a valid band, it is laid on the checking table
“Things to check” format is read properly by both 1st and 2nd Quality inspectors.
Checking should be done as per the area break down/ things mentioned in things to check format for 1st QI and 2nd QI individually.
The steps for enzyme wash and softener Process are as follows:
Take water in bath at required level
Load garment in the machine
All the found defectives are be kept separately in the bin under the checking tables.
Quality inspectors should call to the Executive of the section to Get commercial standards during inspections if any minor Defect is found
After completing the checking of a wash load, Quality inspector should and executive will decide the decide the levels to be passed commercially and the levels which should be marked in the quality assurance worksheet
All identification defect types and the respective quantities are recorded in the quality assurance worksheet by the quality Inspectors.
The checking report is first acknowledged by the QA executive and then he calls to the production in charges to acknowledge the report. Defectives which were found in the load are checked by the production in charges and take necessary correctives and preventive actions after ackno0wledging the checking report.
If the defect percentage is over 5% production should be on hold and Necessary preventive actions are taken by the production in charges and the QA executive marks the lot preparation sheet as “stop production and do a trial load” and the reason for stopping will also be mentioned in the sheet.
Passed garments of the lots are sent to the final audit area to do a random check to assure the quality of the past garments. The audit is done as per AQL 1.5 and the results are marked in the quality assurance work sheet which goes with the lots.
After auditing, the quality assurance worksheets are handed over to the computer operator of the QA department and following procedure is followed. By the computer operator in terms of recording.
Entering the checking results to the XL sheets style wise.
Filing the checking sheets style wise/colour wise.
Keeping the sheets in the files till the style/ colour is completed from washing end.
After completing the style/colour work sheets are b8undled and kept in cartons for 3 months and then dispose.
Add softener
Continue circulating the garments for 5 minutes
Drain and send the garments into the hydro extractor
After hydro garments are send for dryer
Memo memorandum/notice with the results of few wash loads is sent to the relevant department if any unavoidable defect is found in many lots. Necessary lot details like lot numbers, defect type and defect Quantity etc. are marked by the QA executives who work in shifts and get the Acknowledgement of the relevant senior team members to decide preventive and corrective actions.

Testing Procedure

All the trial lots including mini bulks should be tested for different test parameters as per the customer expectations. Without getting a pass test Report, technical team is not allowed to go to the next step and if any test is failed, same trial should be repeated with necessary recipe amendments till all the test parameter are achieved.
If any practical difficulty found to achieve the requirements, it should be communicated to the customer and get conclusions before starting bulk Production.

Colour fastness to rubbing

Each and every lot which comes out from the dryers including trial lots. Should be tested for rubbing except white colour.
Test is normally done on a randomly selected garment from each wash load and the same garment is sent to internal Lab in pre bulk stage for Cross checking the results.
Continue the circulation for 30 minutes and raise the temperature at 550C
Rinse and Drain
Put on the safety masks while mixing or transferring alkali and acid.
Operator must be cautious while handling Hydrogen per oxide and caustic soda and use hand gloves, eye protecting glass for safety.
While starting orders of Marks & Spencer customer, five random Garments should be tested from 1st bulk and both best and the worst resulted gmts should be sent to internal laboratory for testing, If all pieces having passable results. Then next lot onward, one piece per lot can be treated internally at washing plant.
Rubbing testing specimen of the first bulks which are done at washing plant, are cross checked by the head of testing team against the specimen of Factory laboratory and set a minimum acceptable standard to be followed by the testing auditors of the both shifts.
While continuing bulk production, Each and every tested specimens has to b e put in to the given format lot wise and check against the minimum acceptable standard which has been set during first bulk.
Rubbing test requirements are different from customer to customer.
Dry rubbing on face side-required for the wash loads of all customers, all style, and all colours except white.
Dry rubbing on Reverse side-Required for all orders. (Except white)
Add Acetic acid to make the PH 4.5
Add enzyme circulate the machine
Wet rubbing-Required for the wash loads of all customers Except Marks Spencer customer. (Also not Required on white)

Colour fastness to water

Both of these tests are done for garment dyeing orders only and can be done through the Factory laboratory.
A randomly selected garment from the pilot wash loads to be sent to Factory laboratory. Both tests are done by the Lab team as per the given Procedure for each individual customer.
If the test results are not as per the required level of a particular customer, necessary recipe amendments are done by the technical head and more trial wash loads are repeated until the test requirements are achieved.
First bulk of all garment dyeing orders is tested for these tests. Until there is a pass test report, bulk shade bands are not presented for bulk approvals.
If any Acid Washes difficulty is found to achieve the expected results it should be
Communicated to the customer and get a conclusion before continuing bulk production.
This test is not advised by the all customers. Presently customer Esprit has advised to do this test for their all products. The test should be done for pilot acid washes load / first bulk etc and set a bulk recipe which achieves the test requirements, before continuing bulk production. Test can be done through Factory laboratory only.
Customer expectation is for the test is grade 4-5 but normally they accept Grade 3-4 commercially. If anything less than grade 3-4 and if there are practical difficulties to achieve the requirements necessary communications should have been done and got agreement by the development team during sample development stage.

Tensile strength

Should be for all customers. all type of washes except fabrics of soft washes. for soft washes, tensile strength is checked in fabric stage, Tests can be done through SDL laboratory.All above tests should be done for each 1000 pcs completed in bulk production in garment dyeing products for all customers. If any test Report is found with fail parameters, bulk production should be immediately stopped and take necessary preventive and corrective actions. All records should be kept for 6 months and then dispose.

Procedure of seconding/rejecting garments.

While continuing the bulk production, various defects are found in acid washes loads. Those are Minor defects, major defects and critical defects. All those defects are sent of quarantine are after highlighting to relevant Technical and production representatives.
Technical and production team take possible corrective actions to rectify the major and critical defects. If there is no way to rectify a particular Defect, such defects are segregated in two categories and kept ready to declare as rejects/seconds
A Meeting to review reject garments is held at washing plant daily with the involvement of heads of production, Quality, technical departments and all staff level members of the production team.
Each major and critical defect are reviewed by the senior team to see whether there is any chance to make the defects in to a commercial level. All the defects are then shown to the full team an discuss the preventive Actions too., Finally the defects which cannot be rectified are declared as seconds/Rejects and each and every declared garment is signed by head of Production and head of quality and then sent to SWL rejection room to do Necessary recordings.
Seconded garments are categorized by the rejection recorder as Grade B \Grade C and kill garments and marked in the record sheet accordingly and sent to the rejection room of the relevant factory.

Pre washing Quality Audit

Unwashed garments which are sent by the stitching factory, are audited by an auditor. Audit is done as per the AQL chart and Level 1.5 is used for decision making

Audit is mainly to identify stains, major sewing of fabric defects etc and all the audit results are recorded in the pre acid washes quality audit report.
Daily reports are kept for one month after getting the last output of an style/ colour, And then dispose.

About Author:

He is top ranked RMG Digital Marketing Consultant. He is Open Source Software Implementation Expert. He is certified professional from NCC, Aptech and New Horizons .Completed B.Sc.and M.Sc.in Software Engineering from London Metropolitan University. You can Hire Him.

Contact:Cell#+8801792525354 Email:apparelsoftware@gmail.com

Garmentspedia