by William Morley

Created on: February 02, 2010

How the plastic button is dyed in a commercial application.

Around 12 years ago, I worked as  button dyer in a button manufacturing plant in Melbourne; they were a well-established and had a good reputation for quality button-making & supply.  As I had been in the 'rag trade' for over 5 years prior, it was a new transition in my career to do the job of dyeing buttons.  Where as a batch of cloth can take a few hours or more to be dyed to the correct and desired shade of colour - a batch of buttons takes only a few minutes to process with one exception.  The buttons that are dyeable are the 2 plastics being polyester and nylon, wood is also dyeable, and corozo nut is also able to be done.  Each kind of button requires a different type of dyestuff to colour it.  As I stated the exceptional button that takes almost an hour to dye is the nut button because of its structure and composition being a natural substance.

The plastics are dyed and do not achieve a solild colour - that is the outer surface is only dyed the dyestuff does not permeate completely through the plastic fully so if the button is scratched the white/clear plastic will then show through.  The main way a batch of buttons is dyed is in stainless steel pots of boiling hot water, chemicals and the various colours of dye.  Inititally the depth of colour of the dye bath is quite light and can always be added to so the concentration and thus shade of colour made darker.  Of course, dye is added regularly so the exhausted ( used ) dyestuff is replaced.  The batches of buttons are sorted into the different types as the nylon dyes will not colour the polyester button, and it's preferable to use specific dye for these ones.  Also the colour from light to dark is accounted for.

The batch of buttons which may be any quantity from 10 to over one thousand to any one colour will have a colour swatch to match the button to - perhaps it is a piece of fabric the size of one' hand or even a button itself that was done prior.  The batch of buttons is placed into a stainless steel mesh handled basket this allows the dye bath liquid to mix thru it easily and dye the buttons evenly.  With polyester buttons, one can move the baslet from one pot of dye to another without a problem.  However, nylon cannot do this.  This problem is if for example dyeing the shade of green, if you move from

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>