Macro Silicone Emulsions

Macro silicone emulsions are softeners whose droplets are too large to enter the yarn. The silicone stays largely on the fabric surface and shows its effect as surface slip: the cloth flows under the hand and the needle runs more freely in the sewing room.

What does a macro silicone give the cloth?

The droplets of a macro-emulsion are too large to enter the yarn, so the silicone stays mostly on the surface. That is where its effect comes from: the fabric flows under the hand, surface roughness drops, and the cloth slides more easily over itself.

This has a direct counterpart in the sewing room. On a cloth with a slippery surface the needle runs cooler, and needle cutting and seam pucker fall back. When a lot draws complaints about sewability, surface slip is one of the first things checked.

On the handle side a macro silicone adds no fullness. The cloth can feel slippery yet flat. That is why many finishing recipes run macro and micro silicone together; DK SOFT MACROMIX is the ready-made blend of the two effects in one product.

Why does the emulsion break?

A macro-emulsion is less stable than a micro-emulsion, because the only thing holding a large droplet together is the emulsifier layer. Four triggers come up often:

1. Shear. An emulsion forced through a pump, a high-speed stirrer or a narrow valve can break.
2. Water hardness and electrolyte. Hard water and salt carried over from the previous step upset the emulsifier balance.
3. Temperature. A hot bath breaks the emulsion, and so does freezing in store. Frozen product does not come back once it thaws.
4. Order of dilution. The concentrate goes into the water, never water onto the concentrate.

A broken emulsion shows as an oil film on the liquor or as glossy spotting on the cloth. Spotting is hard to remove afterwards, so the check belongs before the bath, not after it.

Macro, micro, or both?

The table is not a ranking; the two do different jobs. Where sewability and surface flow are wanted, the recipe leans macro; where the buyer is judging fullness in the hand, it leans micro.

Does the slip survive washing?

Silicone is not chemically bonded to the fibre; it is held physically. Amino-functional grades anchor to the charge on the fibre and last a few wash cycles, while the slip from a non-functional silicone is largely gone after the first washes.

For that reason a durability claim in a specification also states the number of wash cycles it is measured after. Wash durability figures for Derin Kimya products are given on the product pages: pending from the client.

Padder or exhaust?

The natural place for a macro silicone is the pad-stenter line. Liquor concentration and the pick-up of the mangle together set how much silicone reaches the cloth, and the same liquor gives a different result once pick-up changes.

It is also applied by exhaust, though the shear inside the machine puts the emulsion under strain. Application conditions for Derin Kimya products are given on the product pages: pending from the client.

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