The singeing

The singeing

In singeing, the fibers which protrude from the fabric are burned away to give the fabric a smooth surface. Singeing is usually done by passing the fabric through a burning gas flame at a high speed followed by quenching in water or the desizing bath to extinguish the smoldering fibers. Alternatively, the fabric may be passed close to a very hot plate to ignite the protruding fibers. Singeing is sometimes done after scouring since heating of the fabric in the singer can increase the difficulty of removing size and solt from the fabric.

For gas singeing ,the cloth is passing over and in direct contact with an open gas flame. Before this cloth surface may be brushed lightly to raise unwanted fiber ends so that they will singe more easily, and at the same time some impurities in the cloth such as dust and hanging ends, are also removed. The modern gas singer is fitted with a single row or double rows of gas burners at the number of 4-6 and 8~12 respectively, the burners are so arranged that one side or both sides of the cloth may be singed during a single passage of the cloth over the flame, singeing speeds may vary with the different kinds of fabrics,as well as the number of gas burners and the intensity of the heat, generally, gas singer runs about 80~140 meters per minute.

Extreme care must be taken when singeing fabrics containing thermoplastic fibers in order to avoid dyeing problems, Thermoplastic fibers such as polyester melt when being singed, and the fiber ends form beads on the fabric surface, these beads have greater dye affinity than the polyester fibers so the dye ability of singed fabrics by batch processed is usually not satisfactory. Yarns, sewing threads, felt and carpet backing can also be singed. Singeing of carpet backing has been reported to reduce latex binder requirements by as much as 10%.