Physico-chemical Analytical Techniques for Evaluation of Polyester Heatsetting

Abstract

A polyester fabric has been heatset in an industrial plant over a wide range of temperatures (160–220°C) to study the influence of this variable in the modification of the fine structure produced by this thermal treatment. For this purpose, the weft of the fabric has been characterised through physico-chemical tests such as critical dissolution time, differential solubility and iodine sorption. The heatsetting effective temperature has been determined by differential scanning calorimetry and the crystallinity calculated from density measurements in a density gradient column. Both parameters have been correlated. The fine structure parameters deduced from the above mentioned techniques have been correlated with the effective temperatures of heatsetting.