FABRIC AND GARMENT FINISHING

ASSIGNMENT 2
TOPIC: FINISHING PROCESS FOR WOOL BLENDS

Submitted by:
Bhagya Shree
Aanchal Chawla
Yamini Shah
 INTRODUCTION

• Wool is blended with other fibres to get the respective advantages of the fibres.
• Due to properties such as water repellence, flame resistance, extensibility, resilience and flexibility it is considered to
be blended with other fibres.
• Fibres such as nylon, polyester have high strength and are abrasion resistive.
• A small percentage of these fibres in a wool blend increases the processing performance of wool and durability of final
product.[1]
TYPES OF WOOL BLENDS [2]
WOOL AND COTTON
Wool is blended with cotton in various ratios. The properties of
the yarns and fabrics will be affected by the proportion of the
fibres blended.
• Wool contributes warmth, resilience, abrasion, and
drapability.
• Cotton adds strength and reduces the cost of the yarn and
fabric.
Both fibres are absorbent and can be blended to make a
comfortable, durable fabric with a nice hand.
WOOL AND LINEN
Wool is sometimes blended with linen.
Such a blend is stronger and cooler than a pure wool fabric, but
is more resilient and drapable than a pure linen fabric.
WOOL AND POLYESTER
In combination with wool, polyester provides outstanding wrinkle
resistance and crease retention, so that wet or dry, the shape
retention is improved according to the proportions used.
The greater abrasion resistance of polyester also provides longer
wear.
The wool contributes good draping quality and elasticity.
Less wool ratio will cause less pilling.
Blends of polyester and wool generally range from:
• 65% polyester and 35% wool ( best for summer suiting) to
• 60% polyester and 40% wool (best for medium worsteds),
• 55% polyester and 45% wool (suitable for year-around garments),
and
• 50% polyester and 50% wool (suitable for warm woolens).
 • Polyester is the most commonly used fibre for blending with wool to achieve easy care properties. [3]

A general method for the process sequence of wool-polyester blend is-

Grey Decatising
Inspection Scouring Drying Dyeing Singeing or Pressing

Removal of Pre –setting Heat Brushing Steam or

stains Setting and Damp
Cropping
FINISHING FOR WOOL BLENDS FABRICS
 SCOURING [4]

• Polyester-wool blend
• The blend of polyester and wool may contain spin finishes, lubricants, sizes etc. These can be
removed under relatively milder conditions.
• The scouring is carried out with following recipe:
 PRE SETTING( SETTING OF WOOL COMPONENT BY
CRABBING) [5]

• Crabbing is required to relax and set the strains introduced into the yarns and fabric during spinning and
weaving. If not set, they may be susceptible to the formation of distortions during subsequent wet
finishing.
• The Crabbing operation is carried out in the presence of heat and moisture, during which the
intermolecular bonds in wool are broken and then reformed in a more relaxed condition.
• Continuous crabbing of wool fabrics gives a light finish which may suit polyester wool blend.
Continuous crabbing
• Offers faster production and even fabric treatment.
• Two basic types of crabbing machines:
• Cylinder types:
• fabric is wetted through a trough of hot water-passed around a large , rotating, heated cylinder
• Pressed at high pressure against the heated cylinder by a specially engineered impermeable belt-special
seals resist escape of steam and entry of air at the edges of belt
• temperature is about 135-140 degree Celsius
• superheated is created in situ, setting fabric
• setting is arrested by shock cooling.
• Super heated water machines:
• have no pressure belt to maintain fabric cylinder contact
• use superheated water to facilitate setting
• fabric enters and exits through barometric columns.
• Temperature is around 110 degree Celsius
CONTINUOUS CRABBING [9]
 DRYING [6]

• Drying is carried out on the stenter.

• Stenters utilise hot air currents blowing over the fabric as it passes through
drying chambers.
• The fabric is held at the edges in an open and flat condition by pins or clips
located on endless chains.
• Drying temperatures are normally 120- 140°C
 HEAT SETTING [7][8]

• Wool-Polyester blend fabrics are normally heat set.

• Polyester wool fabrics can be heat-set at temperatures of 180°C ± 5°C for 30
seconds.
• It improves the wrinkle recovery of the blend of the fabric.
• Wool-Polyester blend fabrics tend to shrink during heat setting, but positive
dimensional control is possible by using stenter
 DECATISING [9]

• Decatising is used to improve certain characteristics of wool blends, namely those of appearance, shape, handle,
luster and smoothness, thereby producing a fabric which corresponds to the desired end product.
• Decatising is accomplished by steaming under pressure, or subjected to well-packed or firmly wound fabric to a
steam treatment.
• In decatising the fabric is interleaved with a cotton, polyester, cotton/polyester fabric and rolled up onto a perforated decatising
drum under controlled tension.
• The fabric is steamed for up to ten minutes and then cooled down by drawing ambient air through the fabric roll.
• The piece is then reversed and steamed again in order to ensure that an even treatment is achieved along the length of the
fabric piece.
• Because of the short time of contact of steam with the fabric, continuous decatisers can only give wool fabrics a light
finish which may suit acrylics, polyamides, viscose and blends of these with polyester and wool.
• The process is carried out immediately before final inspection and making-up , and the process is also effective on
acetate, acrylic, rayon, spun polyester and other synthetic blends.
BENEFITS OF WOOL BLEND FABRICS [1]
FELTING SHRINKAGE-

• Before Chlorine-Hercosett treatment was done, wool was blended with cotton to control shrinkage and
to soften the fabrics.
• Cotton is mixed with wool because it reduces the direct contact between wool fibres, which reduced
the ratchet mechanism operating between wool fibres and reduced , even eliminated felting shrinkage.
• Wool-polyester blends fabrics require no special finishing to prevent felting shrinkage for machine
washing.(wool ratio < 50%)
• If wool ratio is higher than 60%, then the fabric require special finishing and garment setting
procedures.
WRINKLE RECOVERY –
• Polyester is the only fabric that provides higher wrinkle recovery than wool.
• Wool/polyester blend fabric recovery increases with the increase in polyester ratio in the blend.
• Also 20-30% polyester blend, with appropriate heat setting can provide sufficient set of stabilise pleats
to repeated laundering.
PRICKLE RESISTANCE –
• Most of the wool blends achieve some degree of prickle reduction.

STRETCH AND FIT –

• Wool fibres are integrated with elastane fibres to increase the stretch of the fabric.
• A wool/ lycra knitted fabric is recently developed by CSIRO for the prevention of skin tears.
LIGHTWEIGHT FABRICS –
• Blending synthetic filaments with wool at the stage spinning can produce finer count composite yarns.

FLAME RETARDANCE –
• Wool and wool blends like Nomex, Kermel, PBI are used to make tunics of firefighters.
• Wool in blends with FR viscose and FR- treated cotton are used in base layer and secondary protection
for firefighters.
SOFTNESS TO HANDLE –

• Fine wool is blended with cashmere wool to achieve luxury softness.

• The blending of wool improves the processing and wear performances of the cashmere, and reduces
material costs.
• Many speciality animal hair fibres, such as camel, alpaca, rabbit, yak and possum, are blended with
wool to achieve smoothness, softness, and lightweight warmth.
• Natural cellulose fibres such as cotton and linen, as well as synthetic fibres are also blended with wool
to achieve soft handle.
 REFERENCE
• [1]. Advances in wool technology, edited by: N.A.G. Johnson and I. Russell
• [2]. TEXTILES: Fiber to Fabric, 6th edition, by: Bernard P. Corbman
• [3]. Chemical Technology in the Pre-Treatment Processes of Textiles, by S.R. Karmakar
• [4]. http://nptel.ac.in/courses/116102016/30
• [5]. WOOL: Science and Technology, edited by W S Simpson, G Crawshaw
• [6]. http://wiki.zero-emissions.at/index.php?title=Additional_information:_Finishing_of_wool
• [7]. Effect of Mechanical and Physical Properties on Fabric Hand, edited by: Hassan M. Behery
• [8]. http://www.indiantextilejournal.com/articles/FAdetails.asp?id=1050
• [9]. http://www.woolwise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/WOOL-482-582-12-T-15.pdf