Theoretical study on the use of collars and outer wrapping to improve liquor flow in fabric beam dyeing

It is often difficult to obtain shade levelness in beam dyeing due to non‐uniform liquor flow, owing to the fabric remaining stationary while dye liquor is pumped through it. The flow profile of liquor through the fabric affects how uniformly dye is applied to the fabric. In this study, computational fluid dynamics was applied to model liquor flow in the beam dyeing of highly permeable fabrics. It was found that there are areas of fabric that receive appreciably less liquor flow than others. When the outer layer of the fabric beam is wrapped with a less permeable material, liquor flow uniformity improves. The use of collars to block perforations in the beam covered by the edges of the fabric also improved liquor flow uniformity. Some data from this paper was presented at the Industrial Simulation Conference, Valencia, Spain (2003).