Studies on mechanical properties and atmospheric dyeing of solvent pretreated polyester multifilament yarn

23-26<span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:" calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:="" "times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-theme-font:="" minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;="" color:black;mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" ar-sa"="">Polyester multifilament yarns were subjected to swelling treatment with different solvents and subsequently dyed with a commercial disperse dye (Dispersol Red-B-3B; C.I. Disperse Red 11) at different temperatures in the range 70-100ᵒC with a view to save thermal energy. It is observed that without much sacrificing the tensile and other mechanical properties of PET and some increase in breaking extension, disperse dye uptake reaches the desirable level at 100ᵒC for pretreatments with m-cresol, dichloromethane, nitrobenzene and phenol at their optimum concentrations of either aqueous or non-aqueous solutions.