White is still the undisputed choice for hotel terry towels when it comes to bathroom furnishings. This white should retain its brightness even after countless washes and the enjoyment of the product should not be spoiled by a gray haze or “yellowing”. Both make the textiles look slightly dingy - even if they are super clean! Towels that are often still fully functional are therefore sorted out, collected in containers and recycled into cleaning cloths, rags, etc. This is a loss-making process for the laundry. And it is always a shame for the product and the lost raw materials. But it doesn't have to come to that! Because we have a solution that has proven itself millions of times over with our customers. It is called “Pure White”, with color number “000” in our terry range. 

Floringo terry towelling has an unrivaled level of basic whiteness

What's behind the inconspicuous “000”? We work with a special optical brightener to give our products their radiant whiteness. In contrast to the brighteners most commonly used, it is not blue or reddish-blue, but neutral. This gives our pure white terry towelling a particularly high basic degree of whiteness and keeps it that way! On a scale of 100, it is 91! This value is an important basis for laundries that develop their own degree of whiteness according to RAL-GZ 992.  

There is a good reason for our decision in favor of optically neutral and against bluish brighteners. It is worth taking a look at the history of laundry whitening. 

Making blue - bluing textiles for brilliant white 

In the past, there were no optical brighteners - they were only discovered in 1929. Nevertheless, tricks were known to “whitewash” the inherent color of cotton and make laundry look particularly white. To do this, the fabric was blued after washing: a reddish blue dye - known as laundry blue - was added in the final rinse. This masked the yellowish inherent color of the natural fibers and the yellowing caused by frequent washing and made the textiles look particularly white. The fact that the illusion works is thanks to optics, or more precisely subtractive color mixing 

The absorption curves of red and blue of the dye complement each other with the yellow present on the fabric to form a subtle gray. “Since the blue is in excess, the fabric takes on a blue cast, while the small amount of gray is practically invisible. Experience has shown that the bluish white appears whiter to the eye than the yellowish white,” says Herrmann Rath, describing the effect in his textbook on textile chemistry. When he wrote his almost 500-page work, he was probably only thinking of local latitudes. In southern climes, the whitening effect seems to be different. Our mediterranean customers tell us that a yellowish white is considered particularly radiant there. 

Optical brighteners - the modern form of bluing

The bluing of laundry has long since been replaced by optical brightening. Optically effective dyes are dyed onto the fabric during the production process - after bleaching. They are able to convert short-wave UV light that is invisible to the eye into visible light. This results in a much stronger reflection, which every disco-goer knows: One shines as brightly as a star in the night sky in the cone of light of a black light lamp. 

Floringo terry towels in pure white last and last - and last 

Among the optical brighteners, those that have a slight blue luminescence are widespread. They basically have the same effect as the laundry blue - only in a broader wavelength range. Nevertheless, bluish and reddish optical brighteners are no match for optics or subtractive color mixing: their absorption curves combine with yellow to form grey, which reduces the basic white value of a textile. The fabric looks old and gray faster than you would like.  

For a long-lasting, measurable degree of whiteness, we therefore recommend our pure white towels. They withstand countless washes, remain brightly white and therefore guarantee a far above-average service life. We are sure that these advantages will not only make you shine, but also your customers!