Scouring Sheep Wool in an Ultrasonic Bath. Effect on Some Surface Properties of the Fiber

The use of ultrasound for scouring sheep wool on an industrial scale is not yet known. The effect of ultrasonic wool scouring is influenced by several factors that should be investigated first on a laboratory scale. This study investigates the effect of ultrasonic bath temperature using a frequency of 38 kHz, with a container volume of 5 liters and 350 VA power. The experiment was conducted using tap water without the addition of any chemicals. The applied experimental conditions were water-to-wool ratio in the bath of 333:1, temperature of (20–40–60) °C, ultrasound intensity of (30–60–90) % regarding the installed power, and scouring time of (10–20–30) min in each combination of the parameters selected. A wool sample mass loss after the bath, residual wool grease on the scoured wool by maceration in chloroform, and digital microscopic observation of the scoured wool surface were tested. Although the results of experiments on non-homogeneous randomly taken samples are accompanied by large standard deviations, the optimal conditions of the process were estimated based on the observed trends. Under those conditions, optimal conditions were identified as bath temperature of 20°C, ultrasound intensity of 90% and scouring time of 10 min.