The dyeing of knitted fabrics made from 100 % cellulose using on-line procedure vinyl sulfonic reactive dye, with or without ultrasound energy, is carried out in this paper. The impact of temperature has been observed. The dye exhaustion is monitored using the method of absorption spectrophotometry, and the quality
control of the coloration is monitored using color measurements. The acting of ultrasound on coloration consistency, as well as on some mechanical characteristics has also been examined. All examples of the ultrasound dyeing process show greater dye exhaustion in comparison to the conventional procedure. In
addition, all the samples, which have been dyed with the ultrasound energy at 40°C, are significantly darker and have deeper color in comparison with the referent sample. The temperature has a great influence on kinetic energy of the dye molecules, and therefore on the diffusion processes in the dyeing system. The exhaustion chart indicates that when the temperature is lower the exhaustion degree drops. However, all the samples dyed with the ultrasound energy have bigger exhaustion. Besides that, ultrasound energy contributes to warming up the processing environment, so the additional warm up with the electricity is unnecessary, unlike the conventional
way of dyeing. Since the reactive dyes chemically connect themselves with the cellulose substrate and in that way form covalent connection, the dyed fabrics have good washing consistency. Analysis results indicate that the consistencies are identical regardless the applied dyeing procedure. In other words, the dyeing method using the ultrasound energy produces the dyed fabric of the same quality. After analyzing the results of breaking force and elongation at break of knitted fabrics, it is noticeable that there is no degradation of previously mentioned
knitted fabrics features (horizontally and vertically) during the ultrasound wave’s activity
