Woven fabric manufacturers place a great deal of importance on fabric finishes, as they play a critical role in determining the fabric’s performance, aesthetics, texture, color, and usefulness.
A finish typically refers to a fabric’s aesthetic and functional characteristics after it is produced and processed by textile manufacturers. Depending upon the type of finish, the final fabric may look and feel a lot different from the raw material.
Fabric finishes are added on greige fabrics – the raw, unaltered fabric material that comes straight from a mill. Finishing is the final part of textile production that allows fabric suppliers in India to customize the textile for a specific application, including apparel, technical fabrics, medical fabrics, industrial fabrics, and home furnishings.
This blog overviews the woven fabric finishing and treatment process and explores the top nine types of woven fabric finishes offered by DMI for trading worldwide.
Woven Fabric Finishes and Treatment Processes
Once the greige fabric comes out of the mill, woven and knitted fabric manufacturers in India implement a wide range of finishing and treatment methods, following through several process steps to ensure they meet all the fabric finish requirements of the buyers.
Before starting the treatment process, the manufacturer must carefully choose the appropriate yarn to ensure that it is compatible with the desired fabric finish. When selecting yarn, various factors such as its type, stability, durability, density, weight, and stretch are taken into consideration.
Fabric finishes are applied via wet and dry methods and cold and hot processes. Different treatments are combined to achieve desired functional and aesthetic requirements.
Mending and Burling
Greige fabrics are commonly rough around the edges and have loose threads. However, various mending, burling, and scouring methods are utilized to remove these imperfections and smoothen the fabric before it is sent to the finishing plants.
Washing and Drying
Fabrics are washed with specialized detergents to remove impurities and change their appearance. Once the cleaning is done, the fabric is dried using a mixture of heat and air to ensure that it is completely free of any moisture. Trained operators at finishing plants adjust the drying time, tension, humidity, and temperature to suit the specific properties of the textile they are working on.
Heat Setting and Calendaring
After washing, fabrics must be stabilized to maintain structural integrity. Heat setting and calendaring are common stabilizing processes used by woven and knitted textile manufacturers in India. Heat setting is used to reduce shrinkage and wrinkling, while in calendaring, fabrics are passed through heated pressurized rollers to condense the fibers within. Different rollers are used to create different surface textures and finishes in calendaring.
Glazing, Dyeing, and Coating
Fabrics can be improved in appearance, texture, and functionality by applying different coatings and glazes. Some examples of these coatings include waxes, oils, plastics, starch, glue, and shellac. Aside from aesthetic benefits, these coatings can also offer practical benefits such as antimicrobial properties, glossiness, or new properties like flame retardance, UV resistance, and moisture management.
Various techniques are utilized when dyeing fabrics, including jet, beam, pad, and paddle dyeing. The chosen method is based on the amount of fabric and the desired outcome. Experienced color laboratories can also create unique colors or match any shade on the spectrum.
Surface Modification
The surface of the fabric is sometimes altered to improve its capability to stick, adhere, or bond to the surface during the pre-treatment stage.
Plasma, Flame, and Corona Treatments are commonly used to alter the fabric’s surface.
- Plasma treatment is a sustainable process that involves applying a specialized layer onto fabric to give it certain characteristics. These coatings can make the fabric water-repellent, also known as a hydrophobic surface, or provide protection to make it more durable.
- Flame treatment involves exposing the fabric to an oxygen-rich flame to improve adhesion. But it has multiple benefits, such as it cleans the surface of dust, fibers, and residual organic matter for easy coating and chemical interaction.
- Corona treatment involves creating a plasma by using high voltage between electrodes with air in between. This technique helps enhance coating adhesion by breaking and recombining molecular bonds on the material’s surface. The process increases surface polarity and improves wettability, making it beneficial for applying coatings to textiles.
Different Types of Fabric Finishes That You Can Buy through DMI
- Resin: Widely used fabric finish used by woven fabric manufacturers in India. Here resin-based chemicals are used to provide cotton fabrics and clothing with wrinkle-free, water-resistant, flame-retardant, sizing, and durable press finishes.
- Teflon: Coating made of a synthetic polymer called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is applied to protect the fabric against stains, repel water, and increase durability.
- Antimicrobial: Antimicrobial agents like silver nanoparticles, zinc pyrithione, and quaternary ammonium compounds are applied to fabric surfaces through embedding, impregnating, or coating.
- Antistatic: Agents like carbon-based materials, metallic compounds, and chemical additives are used to treat fabrics like nylon and polyester to reduce static electricity buildup, which occurs when two fabrics rub against each other.
- Antishrink: Chemical processes are used to secure the fibers and maintain the intended dimensions to prevent shrinking and distortion during washing or exposure to different temperatures.
- Nano: Nanoparticles are applied to fabric surfaces to achieve various results, such as water-repellence, stain resistance, UV resistance, self-cleaning, and wrinkle-free.
- Peach: Mechanical processes involving abrasive brushes are used on fabric surfaces to create a soft, velvety texture similar to peach skin.
- Sueded: Fabrics are passed through emery-covered rollers or abrasive brushes that gently raise the surface to create a soft, velvety, suede-leather-like texture. It offers the fabric a luxurious feel.
- Microsand: A mechanical process involving sanding the fabric surface with ultra-fine abrasives made of micro-sand-sized particles to produce a smooth and refined touch.
Damodar Menon International helps fabric suppliers in India trade all kinds of woven fabric finishes worldwide. We have 500+ business associates that can help you get the best deals for temporary, permanent, and semi-durable fabric finishes. If you are looking for greige nylon, polyester, or greige cotton fabric online in India for pre-treatment and finishing processes, register on the TEXchange Global web portal for free and create bids for instant deals.
