Cotton Incorporated’s bulletin ISP 1011 says a smoother fabric is “usually achieved by processing in the open width”, while “a softer and fuller fabric is achieved by rope processing”. The bulletin is written about cotton textiles. It states this without test figures.
What does Cotton Incorporated ISP 1011 say rope processing does to the hand of cotton textiles compared with open width?
ISP 1011 says the “mechanical action in the rope form permits easier movement of the structural components of the fabric thereby softening the goods.” The bulletin, titled “Methods of Imparting Softness to Cotton Products”, says: “One of the first considerations in finishing is whether the fabric will be prepared and dyed in open width or rope form.”
ISP 1011 says: “In most instances, knits are processed in the rope form, whereas woven fabrics are most often processed open width to minimize wrinkles in the final product.” The reason it gives, fewer wrinkles, is stated for woven fabrics. It gives no reason for the knit practice.
What does US patent 7930908 say open-width machines gain and give up compared with rope form?
US patent 7930908, assigned to Coramtex, says machines that process open width fabric “have the advantage of not damaging the fabric with folds or defects caused by constriction of the rope”. It says they also “have the disadvantage of being unable to obtain a strong effect of physical treatment and softening”, because of “the blander action that fabric impacted in width receives with respect to fabric in rope form.”
It adds: “The contrary occurs in machines that process fabrics in rope form.” This is the patent’s own description of existing machines in its prior-art section. It names no fibre and reports no measurement.
What did the MANTRA study report for modal fabric in rope form, and what did open-width jigger processing of woven modal give?
In what they call their “preliminary study”, S.R. Naik and B.S. Pancholi of MANTRA, Surat, ran modal fabrics in rope form and in package form, by the tapela process and the long-tube soft-flow process. They report that “as modal fibres swell to a higher extent”, fabric movement in both forms “was difficult”. “The crease marks were predominant and uneven shrinkage was to the extent of 8 to 11%.”
They then optimised the process on a jigger in open-width form. The fabric was woven 100% modal: 1/40s yarn, dobby weave, 130 GSM greige. After chemical finishing, the residual shrinkage “was adjusted by mechanical finishing, using sanforising”. The finished fabric’s residual shrinkage was 3.1% warp-wise and 2.8% weft-wise. The paper gives no open-width figure from before sanforising.
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