Ways to Finish Fabrics

Introduction

When fabrics are woven or knitted, which are freshly coming off the machine, we cannot use them as they are to make garments because they are crude and coarse, they also shrink tremendously when we wash them. Fabrics at this stage are called grey goods which must be treated in different ways to give them the important finishing touch. We call this finishing touch “finish”. This finishes we apply to fabrics are either for practical reasons or appearances. There is a wide range of finish we use on fabrics today

Commonly used Finishing methods on Fabrics

• Pre–Shrinking Finish

  Pre-shirking is needed almost on all fabrics because most textile materials shrink when washed.

• Softening Finish

  Fabric softening is generally done together with resizing (desize means to destarch) and pre-shrinking.

• Brush and Sanding Finish

  In many cases, we may finish the fabric by brushing or sanding to give them smooth velvet–like or suede-like surface.

• Mercerizing and Singeing Finish

  Singeing and mercerizing are in many cases related and done at the same time. Singeing is passing the fabric through a flame (fire) so that the hair and nubs of the fabric are burnt off to give it a clean surface.

• Resin Finish

  Resin finish is to stabilize the fibre to make it shrinkage and crease resistant.

• Permanent Press Finish

  Permanent Press Finish (P.P.Finish) is generally done on TC fabrics;

• Skewing Finish

  Skewing is an operation done by machine to make the weft threads in the fabric skewed against the perpendicular warp threads.

• Chintz Finish

  Chintz finish is usually applied on TC CVC or cotton poplin to give it a glossy finish.

• Water Repellent Finish

  Water repellant finish is different from the waterproof finish. It means water, if showered on the fabric briefly, cannot make the fabric wet.

• Water Proof Finish

• Peach Skin Finish

  Peach skin is a smooth finish applied to finely woven Micro Fiber fabric.

• Soil Release Finish

  Repel the stains and soil using repellents such as fluorochemicals or create a surface that aids the removal of soils when cleaning or laundering using chemicals based on polyacrylic acid.

• Fire Retardant Finish

  The finishing of fabrics with flame retardants can reduce the tendency to burn or reduce the tendency to propagate the flame.

• Sanforization Finish

  Shrinkage in garments is a very important issue because when they shrink out of size, they cannot be worn.