Viscose

Viscose was, in fact, the main fibre used during the early development of carpet printing and, although in the past cheap one- or two-colour overprinted viscose rayon carpets enjoyed a long commercial success in the UK, they are now of little importance (Table 4.10). The printing technique used was very simple, since many direct dyes can be fixed by steaming for 5–10 min. In the case of Stalwart machine printing (using no thickener), the prints had sufficiently good fastness properties without any washing-off treatment being given.