Greige cotton contains both natural as well as added impurities. In order to make the fabric suitable for dyeing and printing, it is essential to remove the impurities present in Greige fabric. The processes involved in the removal of these impurities are known as preparatory processes or fabric pre-treatment.
Dyeing process are value-added treatments for most textile materials. A dyeing process is the interaction between a dye and a fibre, which involves adsorption (transfer of dyes from the aqueous solution onto the fibre surface) and diffusion (dyes diffused into the fibre).
In the dyeing process, various dyeing auxiliary agents such as levelling agents for level dyeing, soaping agents for washing off unfixed dyes for improving dye fastness, fixing agents for fixing dyes to fibers or fabric are used.
The role of the textile finisher has become increasingly demanding, and now requires a careful balance between the compatibility of different finishing products and the application processes used to provide textiles with desirable properties.