CARE LABELS

The warnings implied by modern care labels are subtle and varied. The definitions in the international care labelling standard published in 2005 are vaguer than in previous issues, but they still require cleaners to take specific precautions if the worst disasters are to be avoided.

The most notable change is the use of the word “gentle” to define the bar placed beneath the P in a circle symbol. Previously this bar was said to indicate that the cleaner should reduce mechanical action and/or moisture and/or drying temperature and/or solvent temperature.

Now many cleaners interpret the bar as just indicating a reduction in drying temperature but this is insufficient. Cleaners will sometimes need to reduce all four parameters to avoid problems with certain garments.

Some precautions, such as those concerning moisture and mechanical action on cashmere and angora, will mainly affect the drycleaning machine operator. Others, such as the warning not to use the steam air former – implied by the “do not iron” symbol – will mainly relate to the presser’s job.

The presser should routinely check the care label for each item to avoid substantial risks, but many businesses fail to do this.

The iron with a cross through it implies that steam may cause irreversible damage. However, this implication is often missed by the over-confident stain-removal operator, who does not realise that using a spotting steam gun on food stain on acrylic velvet can damage the pile permanently.

The main precautions that should be taken to avoid damage in cleaning, spotting and pressing are not documented in either British or international standards. The standard fails to mention either the need to reduce mechanical action when cleaning mohair or that all soft hair fibre materials should be aired for a couple of hours in a warm dry place before cleaning. It does not even mention the test method for drycleanability, but simply assumes that it will be part of the drycleaner’s craft skills and knowledge.

There are several ways of reducing mechanical action alone including: reducing the weight of the load, raising the dip, reducing the stage time, programming intermittent rotation, enclosing in a net bag, and placing a protective fabric over a delicate wired badge. It is the cleaner’s responsibility to decide the right method for any given circumstance. These precautions all feature in the Guild of Cleaners exam syllabus and in the new NVQ for the drycleaning operator.

Symbols used in this article are taken from BS EN ISO 3758:2005 Textiles. Care labelling code using symbols

Upholstery covers shrink

Fault: After being drycleaned in perc and given a light steaming on the buck of a free-steam press to remove wrinkles, these three-piece suite covers no longer fitted. The sofa cover was the worst affected.

Cause: The covers, which shrank by some 11%, are made from modacrylic fibre. The “do not iron” symbol means that the use of steam may cause irreversible damage.

The reason the sofa cover suffered most was because this is the longest cover and so 11% shrinkage meant a loss of over 15cm.

Responsibility: The cover is correctly care labelled. If the cleaner had avoided the use of steam and sent the covers back in a wrinkled state, explaining that the wrinkles would stretch when the covers were on the frames, then all would have been well.

Rectification: The sofa cover cannot be stretched sufficiently to recover 15cm shrinkage without tearing the seams, so rectification is impossible.

High heat damages duvet
Fault: This batch of duvets was care labelled with a tumble drying symbol containing one dot (shown below). The duvets were washed at 40C and tumbled in a gas fired dryer. Afterwards they were clean but much thinner and the users complained of feeling cold.

Cause: The duvets are usually made from hollow fibre polyester (such as Holofil by Dupont).

They give superb insulation provided the hollow fibre is not damaged. Tumbling on the high temperature setting is all it takes to flatten the fibre and destroy the structure, making the duvet thinner and the sleeper cold.

Responsibility: The blame here was taken by the cleaner. It is possible to set a gas-fired dryer to a cool setting but drying does take much longer.

Rectification: The fault is irreversible. The duvets are now only suitable for summer use.

Air before cleaning

Fault: The cleaner processed a batch of knitted garments on a delicates’ cycle. The load included mohair and angora items but two cashmere sweaters were the only garments that suffered matting, felting and shrinkage.?The sweaters were the same make and were brought in by the same customer.

Cause: Matting and felting are caused by drycleaning with too much moisture in the system. The moisture makes the scales on the cashmere fibres rise so that they look like a barbed spear. The mechanical action in drycleaning is sufficient to cause felting.

Responsibility: The cleaner is to blame for the felting and shrinkage. If the other sensitive garments were all right, then the moisture must have been confined to the two cashmere sweaters. The owner would not be expected to understand the importance of any slight dampness, so the cleaner should have taken the precaution of airing the garments, even though they did not feel damp.

Rectification: Felting shrinkage cannot be reversed.

Leather loses its colour

Fault: When this leather garment was cleaned in perc solvent with a normal charge of leather oil, there was great colour loss and significant shrinkage.

Cause: The leather symbol with the letter F indicates that the garment cannot be cleaned in perc. It should only be cleaned in white spirit or hydrocarbon.

The cleaner might have succeeded with a very mild solvent such as cyclosiloxane (which has a lower solvency power than hydrocarbon and the same drying temperature) but perc has stripped out the colour and probably the leather oils.

The three asterisks within the leather mark indicate to the cleaner that the garment needs higher than normal levels of leather oil in the solvent bath to maintain fullness and enhance colour.

Responsibility: If the cleaner had recognised the label then this fault could have been avoided.

Rectification: Re-cleaning in hydrocarbon with a maximum charge of leather oil ( check the supplier’s recommendations) and careful finishing with steam and vacuum may improve the garment but it is unlikely that the colour can be fully restored.