A study of fabric stiffness with guar gum in reactive printing

Alginate thickeners are the most frequently used thickeners in reactive printing. They hardly react with reactive dyes and consequently do not cause increased fabric stiffness. All other polysaccharides contain reactive hydroxyl groups of higher reactivity which must be substituted for their use in reactive printing. In view of the price, partly substituted guar gum represents an acceptable alternative. In the presented research the applicability of substituted guar gum was studied. It was shown by TLC and the measurement of fabric stiffness, that these thickeners are suitable for printing with monofunctional reactive dyes. If bifunctional reactive dyes are used, a chemical reaction that increases fabric stiffness takes place.