Automating the Batik colouring process. I. An investigation of colouring kinetics on woven fabrics

Unlike textile printing technology, which has advanced rapidly and enjoys modern technological capabilities in most of the production processes, the Batik industry has changed little in the past few decades. Although the rapid technological advancement in this decade has influenced the Malaysian Batik industry to adopt new technology in some of the processes, there are many more processes which are still highly labour intensive. This has prompted an investigation into the Batik colouring process which has the general aim of incorporating automation into the process. The paper focuses only on the kinetics of reactive-dye diffusion on woven fabrics used in the Batik colouring process. The paper presents established theory and discusses the results of experimental works in relation to published literature.