Composition for pretreating fiber materials

A process for the pretreatment of fiber materials in the form of textile wovens or knits, said process being performed prior to manufacture of enduse articles from said materials, which comprises treating the fiber materials with a composition including at least the components A, B, C and D,

• where component A is either a sulfonate of the formula (I)
• R1R1R2C—CR1R2—(—CR1R2—)n—R1 (I)
• where n is from 0 to 8, each R1 is independently of the others hydrogen, an alkyl radical of 1 to 4 carbon atoms, an unsubstituted phenyl radical or a phenyl radical substituted by a radical of the formula —SO3⊖M⊕, and each R2 is independently of the others R1 or a radical of the formula —SO3⊖M⊕, subject to the proviso that component A contains at least one radical of the formula —SO3⊖M⊕ and M is Na, K or NH4,
• or where component A is a polyhydric aliphatic alcohol of 2 to 12 carbon atoms,
• component B is an ethoxylated alcohol of the formula (II) or a mixture of such alcohols
• R3—O—(—CH2CH2—O—)r—X (II)
• where r is from 1 to 8,
• component C is an alkoxylate of the formula (III) or a mixture of such alkoxylates
• R3—O—(—Z—)t—X (III)
• where t is from 4 to 30, 20 to 80% of all the Z groups present are —CH2CH2—O— and 80 to 20% of all the Z groups present are —CHR4—CHR5—O—, where in each case one of R4 and R5 is hydrogen and the other is CH3, R3 in both component B and component C is a linear or branched alkyl radical of 4 to 20 carbon atoms and 50 to 100% of all the X's present are hydrogen and 0 to 50% of all the X's present are a methyl, ethyl or phenyl radical,
• and component D is water,
• and optionally also a component E or a component F or a mixture thereof, component E being a magnesium salt or a calcium salt and component F being an alkali metal salt or ammonium salt of a sulfuric monoester of the formula (V)
• R8—O—SO3H (V)
• where R8 is a linear or branched alkyl radical of 4 to 12 carbon atoms, wherein the composition includes, per 100 parts by weight of water (component D), the following amounts of components A, B, C, E, F:
• 5 to 35 parts by weight of component A, 10 to 40 parts by weight of component B, 3 to 30 parts by weight of component C, 0 to 30 parts by weight of component E, and 0 to 20 pats by weight of component F.