Calendering
Encyclopedia
Calendering is a finishing
Finishing (textiles)
In textile manufacturing, finishing refers to any process performed on yarn or fabric after weaving or knitting to improve the look, performance, or "hand" of the finished textile or clothing...

 process used on cloth where fabric is folded in half and passed under rollers at high temperatures and pressures. Calendering is used on fabrics such as moire
Moire (fabric)
In textiles, a moire is a fabric with a wavy appearance produced mainly from silk, but also wool, cotton and rayon. The watered appearance is usually created by the finishing technique called calendering...

 to produce its watered effect and also on cambric
Cambric
Cambric, pronounced , "one of the finest and most dense species of the cloth manufacture", is a lightweight plain weave cloth, originally from Cambrai, woven in greige, then bleached and piece-dyed, often glazed or calendered. Initially made from flax, then cotton in the 19th century, it is also...

 and some types of sateen
Sateen
Sateen, not to be confused with satin, is a type of fabric often found in bed sheets.Sateen is usually applied to cotton, or sometimes rayon. Better qualities are mercerized to give a higher sheen. Some are only calendered to produce the sheen but this disappears with washing and is not considered...

s.

In preparation for calendering, the fabric is folded lengthwise with the front side, or face, inside, and stitched together along the edges. The fabric can be folded together at full width, however this is not done as often as it is more difficult. The fabric is then run through rollers that polish the surface and make the fabric smoother and more lustrous. High temperatures and pressure are used as well. Fabrics that go through the calendering process feel thin, glossy and papery.

The calendering finish is easily destroyed, and does not last well. Washing in water destroys it, as does wear with time.

Variations

Several different finishes can be achieved through the calendering process by varying different parts. The main different types of finishes are beetling, watered, embossing and Scheiner.

Beetled

Beetling is a finish given to cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 and linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....

san cloth, and makes it look like satin
Satin
Satin is a weave that typically has a glossy surface and a dull back. It is a warp-dominated weaving technique that forms a minimum number of interlacings in a fabric. If a fabric is formed with a satin weave using filament fibres such as silk, nylon, or polyester, the corresponding fabric is...

. In the beetling process the fabric goes over wooden rollers and is beaten with wooden hammers.

Watered

The watered finish, also known as moire
Moire (fabric)
In textiles, a moire is a fabric with a wavy appearance produced mainly from silk, but also wool, cotton and rayon. The watered appearance is usually created by the finishing technique called calendering...

, is produced by using ribbed rollers. These rollers compress the cloth and the ribs produce the characteristic watermark effect by moving aside threads as well as compressing them. This leaves some of the threads round while others get compressed and become flat.

Embossed

In the embossing process the rollers have engraved patterns on them, and the patterns become stamped onto the fabric. The end result is a raised pattern. This works best with soft fabrics.

Scheiner

Similar to the watered process, in the Scheiner process the rollers are ribbed, only in the Scheiner process the ribs are very fine, with as many as six hundred ribs per inch under extremely high pressure. The threads are pressed flat with little lines in them, which causes the fabric to reflect the light better than a flat surface would. Cloth finished with the Scheiner method has a very high luster, which is made more lasting by heating the rollers.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK