Textile Finishing

TXCH 458
Introduction to Textile Finishing
• The name textile finishing covers an extremely wide range of
activities, which are performed on textiles before they reach the final
customer.
• The aim of textile finishing may be described as improvements in
customer satisfaction, which finishing can bring about. This
improvement in the perceived value of a product to the consumer
forms the basis of modern ideas on product marketing.
• All finishing processes are designed to increase the attractiveness or
serviceability of the textile product.
Introduction to Textile Finishing
• This could involve such techniques as
• putting a glaze on an upholstery fabric, which gives it a more
attractive appearance,
• The production of water- repellent finishes, which improve the in-
service performance of a tenting fabric.
• Technical textiles are defined as those materials with non-clothing
applications. Thus the fashion aspects of textiles will be ignored,
although aesthetic aspects of say upholstery and drapes will be
covered.
Classification of Finishes
• Permanent :- A permanent finish generally involves a chemical
process that changes the fiber structure that will not be subsequently
alter through-out the life of the fabric.
• Durable :- A durable finish may last throughout the life of the fabric
• Semi-durable:- A semi-durable finish will last through several
launderings or dry cleanings .
• A temporary finish will be removed or substantially reduced when the
fabric is laundered or dry cleaned.
Concerns of the Textile Industry today
Today the finishing industry is faced with utmost obstacles and challenges since they are ones
responsible for the ultimate results of quality on the final fabric.
These Challenges Encapsulate
• Understanding of Chemistry , i.e. reactions with the fabric,
• Safe handling of bulk quantities of hazardous chemicals,
• Safety of workers and environmental matters involving discharges of effluents and air
pollution.
• the Safety standards of machines used in production
• Optimization of controls/parameters during production for uniform quality and efficient
reproduction.
• Economic factors, i.e. chemical and process costs, output.
• certification of quality and timely delivery of products to customers.
Major Branches Of Finishing

•Mechanical Finishes

•Chemical Finishes
Mechanical Finishes
These involve the passage of the material through machines whose
mechanical action achieves the desired effects. A heating process, the
purpose of which is usually to enhance these desired effects,
frequently accompanies this.
Some Major Types of Mechanical Finishes
• Calendering: compression of the fabric between two heavy rolls to
give a flattened, smooth appearance to the surface of the fabric.
• Raising: plucking the fibers from a woven or knitted fabric to give a
nap effect on the surface.
• Cropping: cutting the surface hairs from the a fabric to give a smooth
appearance, often used on woolen goods where the removal of
surface hair by a singeing process is not possible.
• Compressive shrinkage: the mechanical shrinking of the warp fibers
in woven fabrics so that shrinkage on washing is reduced to the
desired level.
Some of the essential mechanical finishes
• Heat setting: this is a process for the stabilization of synthetic fibers so that they
do not shrink on heating.

Especially for wool fabrics

• Milling
• Crabbing :- the fabric is stretched or loosened where necessary and
finally set at the width at which the warp and filling yarns are in proper
relation to each other. Crabbing prevents creasing and uneven shrinkage
• Decating:- it is once again a mechanical process which improves
appearance , luster, and hand of the fabric without loss in success finishing
processes. There are two methods
• Wet Decating
• Dry Decating
Typical Calendering Machine
Flattening effect on Calendering
Effects of Calendering
smoothing the surface of the fabric
increasing the fabric luster
closing the threads of a woven fabric
decreasing the air permeability
increasing the fabric opacity
improving the handle of a fabric, i.e. softening
flattening slubs
obtaining silk-like to high gloss finishes
surface patterning by embossing
consolidation of nonwovens.
Two Bowl Calendar
Three Bowl Calendar
Parameters of Calender
• Pressure used in all of the above calendrers can be varied between 10 and
40 tones, with running speeds up to 60 mmin-1. However, these are very
much average figures with figures as low as 6 tones for a 1 m wide
Calender to as high as 120 tones for a 3 m wide Calender.
• In addition, running speeds of 20 mmin-1 are used on an embossing
Calender,
• On a glazing Calender speeds of over 150 mmin-1 have been quoted.
• The temperatures which are used in Calender rollers can, of course, vary
from room temperature to 250 °C. It must be stressed that temperature
control is of vital importance, with a tolerance of ±2 °C being commonly
quoted.
Parameters of Calender continued

• Cold bowls give a soft handle without much luster; warm bowls (40–
80 °C) give a slight luster.

• Hot bowls (150–250 °C) give greatly improved luster, which can be
further improved by the action of friction and waxes.
Swissing or Normal Glass
• Swissing or normal gloss: a cold Calender produces a smooth flat
fabric. However, if the steel bowl of the Calender is heated then in
addition to smoothness the Calender produces a lustrous surface. If a
seven-bowl multipurpose Calender is used then a smooth fabric with
surface gloss on both sides is produced.
• Chintz or glazing: this gives the highly polished surface which is
associated with glazed chintz. The effect is obtained by heating the
top bowl on a three-bowl Calender and rotating this at a greater
speed than that of the fabric. The speed of this top bowl can vary
between 0 and 300% of the speed of the fabric. In certain cases
where a very high gloss is required, the fabric is often pre-
impregnated with a wax emulsion, which further enhances the
polished effect. This type of Calendering is often called friction
Calendering.
• Embossing: in this process the heated top bowl of a two-bowl Calender is
engraved with an appropriate pattern which is then transferred to the fabric
passing through the bowls. The effect can be made permanent by the use of
thermoplastic fibers or in the case of cellulosic by the use of an appropriate
crosslinking resin.
Embossed fabrics have a pattern imprinted or embossed into the fabric. The
embossed pattern is created by passing the fabric between a heated embossing
roller and a shaped paper roll.
• Schreiner or silk finishing: this is a silk-like finish on one side of the
fabric. It is produced (see Fig. 7.5) by embossing the surface of the
fabric with a series of fine lines on the surface of the bowls. These
lines are usually at an angle of about 30° to the warp threads. The
effect can be made permanent by the use of thermoplastic fabric or,
in the case of cotton, by the use of a resin finish. This finish is
particularly popular on curtains and drapes because of the silk-like
appearance this type of finish gives to the product.
•.
Effect of Shriener finish
Chasing:
• the fabric is threaded through the Calender in such a way as to press
the fabric against itself several times. It is common to use a five- or
seven-bowl Calender, the fabric passing through each nip of the
Calender in two or three layers
• Delustering: this is commonly achieved by passing the fabric through
the bottom two bowls of a three-bowl Calender, where these are
elastic. However, steel bowls with a special matt finish have been
manufactured that are very effective for this purpose.
Decating
• Decating:- it is once again a mechanical process which improves
appearance , luster, and hand of the fabric without loss in successive
finishing processes. There are two methods
• Wet Decating:- this is usually applied to wool fabrics. The cloth is wound on
a perforated roller and treated in a hot water or steam boiler.
• Dry Decating:- In dry Decating a wool, cotton, silk , rayon , or blend fabric is
passed together with a special blanket around a perforated cylinder.
Tension in the blanket exerts pressure on the clot as steam is forced
through the fabric. The moist heat causes the fibers to become plastic and
stresses are released , and wrinkles are removed. The steam is extracted by
vacuum pump , the yarns are set and fixed in position as the fabric is
cooled.
Dry Decating
Raising
• Raising is the technique whereby a surface effect is produced on the
fabric that gives the fabric a brushed or napped appearance. It is
achieved by teasing out the individual fibers from the yarns so that
they stand proud of the surface.
Raising Machine
Raising Machine
Problems with Raising
• A good account of the causes of faults in raised knitted fabrics is given by Pehl.
(1)Variations in temperature and humidity conditions can affect the raising effect. Cotton
is usually processed in a warm, dry condition, although if it is badly creased it may be pre-
wetted and re-dried.
(2)If the pile action is much greater than the counterpile, the cloth may tend to cling to the
pile rollers. The cloth on the feed side then becomes very tight and on the backside very
slack. This may result in creasing. The machine should be reset to a more balanced action.
(3)Bad setting of the cleaning brushes ( fancies ) can do a lot of damage, but in general
uneven raising should be corrected by re-grinding or replacing the wire.
(4)Changing the fabric width may produce lines due to wire damage at the selvedge of the
previous cloth.
(5)Lateral striping can be caused by yarn variation, which may not show up before raising.
(6) Streaky or patchy raising may be due to traces of finishing agents.
Products of Rasing
Testing raised fabrics

• The raising effect is assessed by its influence on properties

such as:

(1) tensile strength;

(2) abrasion resistance;
(3) air permeability;
(4) thickness;
(5) thermal insulation;
(6) flammability and surface flash (cellulosic).
Sueding/ Emerising
• Emerising (also known as sueding or sanding, in the USA) is a process
in which fabric at open width is passed over one or more rotating
emery-covered rollers to produce a suede-like finish
• ▫ multi-roller emerising machines
• ▫ Single-roller emerising machines
Single layer Finishing Machine
Multi Roller Emerizing
Shearing:- Shearing is a process that is used to even out the length of
the pile of fabric in a controlled manner. Shearing can also be used to
create raised patterns or to smooth the overall nap of a fabric.

Spiral cutting cylinder

Ledger
blade
Cutting table
Scroll unit

Tension bars

Rotary brush

Scroll roller
Shearing