Carboxymethyl Cellulose features excellent water solubility, film-forming property, thickening performance and water retention capacity, and ensures stable sizing paste. It serves as a core auxiliary agent for textile printing, dyeing and sizing. Available in low, medium and high viscosity grades, it is suitable for cotton, chemical fiber and blended fabrics.
Warp Sizing (Largest Consumption Volume)
- Primary & Auxiliary Sizing Agent
- It can replace starch and be compounded with PVA. The sizing liquid boasts good fluidity and resists caking.
- It adheres to yarn fibers to form flexible films, improving wear resistance and reducing yarn breakage;
- The thin sizing film is easy to desize without damaging fabrics;
- Moderate moisture absorption prevents static electricity and fuzzing of yarns.
- Advantages: Resistant to mildew, stable storage, soluble at low temperatures and easy for workshop operation.
Thickener for Printing (Reactive, Pigment & Disperse Printing)
- Reactive Dye Printing (Cotton & Viscose Fabrics)
- CMC is a traditional low-cost main thickener:
- It is prepared into printing base paste to increase the viscosity of color paste, prevent bleeding and feathering, and deliver sharp patterns;
- Excellent water retention enables full dye uptake for uniform and rich color yield;
- Easy to wash off with no residual paste left after printing, leaving soft fabric hand feel.
- Pigment Printing
- Used together with binders to stabilize color paste, prevent pigment sedimentation and sharpen printing outlines.
- Disperse Printing (Chemical Fibers)
- Serves as an auxiliary thickener to optimize the rheology of color paste and avoid screen clogging.
Dyeing Auxiliaries
- Leveling Agent Carrier
- A small dosage added into dye bath improves dye dispersion, achieves uniform fabric coloration and reduces uneven dyeing spots.
- Anti-migration Agent
- In pad-dyeing processes, it inhibits dye migration with water during drying to minimize color difference between fabric front and back sides.
- Soaping Auxiliary: Encapsulates loose dyes to enhance color fastness.
Desizing, Scouring & Pre-treatment
- Adding CMC into scouring bath stabilizes working solution, emulsifies impurities and avoids re-deposition of contaminants on fabrics;
- It assists in removing starch size during desizing, and the wastewater is easy to treat
Applications in Special Processes
- Discharge Printing & Resist Printing
- Acts as the skeleton of printing paste to separate base color and discharge agents, ensuring distinct pattern layers.
- Carpet & Towel Printing
- High-viscosity CMC paste for thick paste printing delivers strong three-dimensional effect without penetration into base fabric.
- Silk & Light Viscose Fabrics: Low-viscosity CMC forms soft sizing film without hardening the fabric.
election Guidelines of CMC for Textile Industry
- High-viscosity CMC: Thick printing paste, anti-migration treatment;
- Medium-viscosity CMC: General printing and warp sizing;
- Low-viscosity CMC: Light-color thin-layer printing, leveling auxiliaries;
- Special textile grade with substitution degree DS 0.6–0.9: Optimal water solubility and high paste transparency.
