Effects of ultrasonic laundering on the properties of silk fabrics

Silk fabric wrinkles or creases easily during conventional domestic machine laundering due to its poor wet resilience, leading to an undesirable fabric appearance and difficulties in daily care. In this research, ultrasonic energy was used to clean silk fabrics, aiming to improve their after-wash appearance. It was found that ultrasonic laundering performed much better in removing common stains from silk fabrics and in maintaining the fabric appearance and dimensions compared to machine laundering. Ultrasonic agitation caused a little more fading effect than that caused by mechanical agitation. After 15 laundering cycles, the K/ S value of the fabric laundered by ultrasonic agitation was only 2.7% lower than that laundered by washing machine, so the difference was not significant and could be acceptable. Ultrasonic laundering also resulted in less fiber damage to silk fabrics. The investigation indicated that the introduction of ultrasonic agitation in laundering could produce a significant benefit in the laundering of silk fabrics.