Once the respective process is terminated they are to be removed completely from the treated material; however, traces could still be present and interfere negatively with subsequent processing steps.

Sizing compounds and lubricants are applied to yarns before fabric formation to protect the integrity of the yarns. While increasingly faster weaving processes demand more enduring sizes, acrylic-based compounds, natural sizes that can be decomposed are still on the market.

Such compounds comprise starch and starch derivatives, as well as soluble. Cellulose derivatives, with waxes often admixed.Desizing with amylases is one of the oldest enzymatic processes used in the textile industry. A comprehensive description of the process can be found in Uhlig (1998).

Starch has also been very useful as a thickener in printing pastes and as a component of adhesives. In printing processes, starches are applied to guarantee a defined design and to avoid spreading of the printing paste. In the paper industry, starches increase sheet strength and, as coatings, improve the writing and printing properties of high quality paper.

Dyeing and printing auxiliaries may be defined as substances that, when applied to a substrate provide color by a process that alters, at least temporarily, any crystal structure of the colored substances. Such substances with considerable coloring capacity are widely employed in the textile, pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, plastics, photographic and paper industries. The dyes can adhere to compatible surfaces by solution, by forming covalent bond or complexes with salts or metals, by physical adsorption or by mechanical retention. Dyes are classified according to their application and chemical structure, and are composed of a group of atoms known as chromophores, responsible for the dye color. These chromophore-containing centers are based on diverse functional groups, such as azo, anthraquinone, methine, nitro, arilmethane, carbonyl and others. In addition, electrons withdrawing or donating substituents so as to generate or intensify the color of the chromophores are denominated as auxochromes. The most common auxochromes are amine, carboxyl, sulfonate and hydroxyl.

It is estimated that over 10,000 different dyes and pigments are used industrially and over 7 x 105 tons of synthetic dyes are annually produced worldwide. Textile materials can be dyed using batch, continuous or semi-continuous processes. The kind of process used depends on many characteristics including type of material as such fiber, yarn, fabric, fabric construction and garment, as also the generic type of fiber, size of dye lots and quality requirements in the dyed fabric. Among these processes, the batch process is the most common method used to dye textile materials.