Why are silicone softeners being rapidly adopted by the textile industry?
Silicone softeners were once considered a novelty product but are now being widely adopted by the textile industry. From cotton mills & polyester manufacturers to garment manufacturers – all have adopted the use of silicone softeners into their processing plants. Thanks to their versatility and effectiveness on various substrates, silicone softeners have quickly become one of, if not the most, widely used finishing agents today. The silicone softener market as a whole is expected to reach $2.6 billion in value by 2022, according to Transparency Market Research (TMR).
Let's look at what are silicone softeners and why more and more industries adopt silicone softeners in their cloth production.
What are Silicone Softeners?
Silicone softeners are a class of specialty surfactants that the textile industry has increasingly adopted. Silicone softeners are silicone compounds that impart outstanding softness and suppleness to fabrics. These compounds are highly charged and dispersed in water to give a colloidal dispersion for a high-quality silky fabric feel. They can be formulated into detergent formulations to provide outstanding softness, especially in high-tech fabrics such as those used for sportswear and undergarments.
Why are silicone softeners being rapidly adopted?
In the last few years, the global textile market has been flooded with new technologies in fabric manufacturing such as special printing effects, water repellency, quick-dry etc., which have created a new demand for softening agents to improve fabric handling properties. Silicone softeners provide enhanced hand qualities and tactile impressions on both natural and synthetic fibers while also providing excellent anti-wrinkle properties. In addition, they offer exceptional soil release performance, which helps reduce staining of the fabric surface.
Silicone Softeners provide soft handling
Silicone softeners are used in hydrophilic and hydrophobic fibers to impart a soft and pleasant hand feel, high strength, and good dyeing properties to the product. The major applications are menswear, ladies' wear, children's wear, woolen wear, silk, cotton, synthetic fibers and blended fabrics.
Silicone Softeners are mild on skin
Another major advantage of silicone softeners is their mildness on the skin. Therefore their use can reduce or eliminate skin irritation problems caused by other surfactants.
Silicone Softeners are environment friendly
Silicone softeners are considered one of the safest, environment-friendly products rapidly adopted by the textile industry. The increasing demand for silicone softeners has increased with lifestyle and fashion trends.
Wide Applications
The popularity of silicone softeners is due to the performance parameters that make them suitable for a wide range of applications. They impart good dye uptake on cellulosic fibers & silk due to their hydrophilic nature. On the other hand, it imparts a soft handling property and good crease recovery ability on woolen & synthetic blends due to its lipophilic nature.
Silicone softeners provide multiple benefits
Historically, fabric softening was performed in the dryer with fabric softeners or finishing agents. However, newer technologies have emerged over the past few years that enable fabric softening during the wash cycle by using silicone softeners.
Silicone softeners are used in rinse-cycle applications to reduce the build-up and improve wash quality. They also exhibit anti-static properties and can improve the color fastness of dyed fabrics, especially at high temperatures.
Suitable for various substrates
Silicone softeners are widely used in the textile industry to treat cotton, polyester, and other synthetic fabrics that touches the skin. They are also used for dyeing purposes. Silicone softeners impart softness, flexibility and water repellency properties to fabrics and are widely used in the textile industry. The silicone softener market is witnessing rapid growth due to its popularity in the healthcare sector. It is also gaining traction in industries such as apparel & footwear, home textiles, bedding and automotive due to its extensive applications.
Backed by technology and innovation, Silicone Softeners have become the go-to product for the leading industry manufactures. Adding silicone softeners to the textile process increases softness, resilience, reduces creasing and wrinkling of clothing. The benefits of silicone softeners have opened many opportunities for textile manufacturers to produce high-quality results; hence they are rapidly adopted by the textile industry.
If you are looking for revolutionary and eco-friendly silicone softeners with premium quality for textile processing, then, your search ends at Cosmo Speciality Chemicals. HANATEX, LYOSIL BHL range, LOTOSIL BHB range, and other highly concentrated silicone softeners are manufactured by our professionals while focusing on sustainable science.
Get acquainted with silicone softeners manufactured by using eco-friendly composition keeping in mind the type of fabric being treated during the textile processing. Our silicone softeners range is manufactured with an aim to improve the surface smoothness of substrates. In addition, the quality of finished textile materials and their handle gets improved. For business enquiries, connect with us at www.cosmochem.in.