Finishes

• Textile Finishing

  General term for many processes and treatments applied to textiles before or after fabrication to affect the final appearance, hand, or performance of fabrics
• Greige

  Loom-state fabrics, straight from the loom or knitting machine, in an unfinished state
• Finishing Categories by process type

  • Mechanical: Dry finishing
  • Thermal: Heating processes
  • Chemical/Biological: Wet finishing
• Finishing Categories by level of permanence

  • Permanent
  • Durable
  • Semi-durable/may be renewable
  • Temporary
• Finishing Categories by purpose/function

  • General (mill) finishes
  • Preparatory and final finishes
  • Aesthetic finishes
  • Functional finishes
• Waterbath Finishing

  Use large volumes of water with fabrics immersed in the bath, high wet pickup (fabric needs to be dried later)
• Foam Finishing

  Reduce water consumption, chemical applied in a foam, may not be uniformly treated
• Solvent Finishing

  Uses organic solvent in place of water
• Minimum

  Smallest quantity of fabric that a mill will finish in a single process
• Run


  Quantity of fabric receiving the same treatment at the same time, as the length increases the cost per metre decreases
• Openwidth Finishing

  Fabric held out its full width for processing
• Rope or Tubular Finishing

  Fabric allowed to roll/fold in on itself
• Bath Processing

  Relatively short lengths (100-1000m) processed as a unit at one time in one machine
• Fulling (wool)


  Application of heat, moisture and agitation to thicken or shrink wool fabric
• Continuous Processing


  Works on longer pieces of fabric (> 1000m) that moves in and out of solutions in a continuous process
• Padding

  Dipping to apply finishing chemicals or dye, followed by squeezing between rollers to remove excess liquid and press chemical into fabric
• Wool fabric fulling


  • Most wool fabrics are given some level of "fulling" to finish them
  • The process is controlled to get the desired degree of compactness
• Light fulling


  • Will slightly compact a wool fabric
• Padbatch

  Chemicals applied by padding, then fabric split into batches for further separate processing
• Heavy fulling


  • Will felt and obscure the fabric structure
• Melton cloth


  • Resembles true felt, but has a woven structure inside
• Preparatory Finishes

  Cleaning operations to remove soil and additives used during weaving and knitting, necessary before dyeing, printing, or other finishing
• Napping

  Fabrics composed of staple fibres are passed over fine metal wires with hook-like ends which are mounted on cylinders to pull fibre ends to the fabric surface, creating a deep brushed surface
• Fabrics for napping

  • Must be woven with soft, low twist yarns in the filling direction to facilitate pulling fibres to the fabric surface
  • Stronger yarns are used in the warp direction to provide sufficient fabric strength
• Fleece knits

  • Are also napped
• Sanding/sueding

  Fabric is passed over rollers covered with coarse sandpaper to raised the surface fibres and produce a short nap, meant to imitate suede
• Preparatory Finishing Processes

  • Desizing
  • Fibre-specific Cleaning
  • Degumming
  • Keir Boiling
  • Carbonizing
  • Singeing
  • Bleaching and Adding Optical Brighteners
  • Stoving
  • Tentering, Drying and Heat Setting
  • Calendering
• Sanding/sueding process damages fabric and reduces the textile strength
• Desizing

  Removal of yarn additives applied during slashing to protect warp yarns during weaving
• Abrasion processes similar to sand blasting or pressure washing are also used on denim garments to create wear patterns
• Shearing

  After all brushing processes, the lifted fibres are cut to a uniform height by a cylinder of rotating blades passing over the fabric
• Keir Boiling

  Removal of natural waxes and pectins from cotton under alkaline conditions at high pressure
• Shearing

  • Is carried out on warp pile, weft pile, and knitted pile fabrics
• Carbonizing

  Removal of plant particles and other cellulosic impurities from wool using dilute sulphuric acid and heat
• Singeing

  Burning off protruding fibres or filament splinters from the fabric surface
• Calendering

  Finish for cotton, linen, rayon, some synthetics (but not wool or acrylic) where damp fabric, open-width is passed between two or more flat surface rollers to flatten yarns and provide more area for light reflection, increasing fabric lustre
• Stoving

  Bleaching wool with sulphur dioxide gas in the presence of moisture, forming sulfurous acid
• Optical Brightening

  Use of colourless dyes that absorb UV and reflect blue light to increase the appearance of whiteness
• Calendering is a non-durable finish that may be removed with washing
• Tentering

  Setting uniform width of fabric and aligning warp and weft at right angles, prevents bowing and skewing