Jiede Fabric is a Professional Custom Fashion Apparel Fabric Manufacturer & Supplier Since 2013.
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Jiede Fabric is a Professional Custom Fashion Apparel Fabric Manufacturer & Supplier Since 2013.
Stage 1 · Base Fabric Selection & Greige Inspection
Purpose: to provide a base with even construction and stable lustre for crushing and foil transfer.
• The base is a satin-weave cloth. Five-end or eight-end satin gives long surface floats and continuous reflection — the precondition for the intended “broken shine” effect. The more uniform the construction, the cleaner the refraction after crushing.
• The base must be thermoplastic. A permanent crush depends on heat setting, and only thermoplastic fibres can “remember” a fold once cooled; polyester-type satin is therefore the usual choice.
• On receipt, inspect lustre uniformity, skew, thread density and weight, and retain a greige sample as the reference for later shade and shrinkage comparison.
Key point: batch differences in the base cloth are amplified by crushing into differences in lustre and relief, so one order should be run on one base-cloth batch.
Stage 2 · Pre-treatment & Pre-setting
Purpose: to remove internal stress and weaving auxiliaries, stabilise width and shrinkage, and prevent distortion in the finished fabric.
• Desizing and scouring: remove sizing agents, oils and impurities carried through weaving and transport, so that crushing, lamination and foil transfer all perform evenly.
• Pre-setting: heat-set under even tension to stabilise width and thread density. Done properly, this prevents the loose-and-tight wavy selvedge and uneven relief that otherwise appear after crushing.
Key point: tension in pre-treatment must be even from selvedge to selvedge, and the pre-set width should be slightly greater than the target finished width to leave room for crush shrinkage.
Stage 3 · Pleated Setting (permanent crush)
Purpose: to form irregular, three-dimensional folds in the satin that hold over time.
• The cloth passes through a crushing machine (heated calender or creping rollers), where temperature, pressure and tension together produce irregular creases; it is then cooled rapidly while still under tension, which fixes the creases.
• The direction, scale and density of the crush are governed jointly by the roller surface (hardness, engraving), temperature, pressure and in/out tension — controlled randomness rather than a repeating pattern.
• “Permanent” refers to shape retention under normal care conditions. It comes from molecular rearrangement of thermoplastic fibres at setting temperature, not from a mechanically pressed crease.
Key point: too little heat and the crush relaxes; too much and the cloth stiffens and the satin lustre suffers. Cooling must be thorough, otherwise the folds progressively flatten under tension and gravity during winding. This stage defines the character of the relief and is the foundation for the two stages that follow.
Stage 4 · Tulle Lamination (backing)
Purpose: to bond a light tulle to the reverse of the crushed satin, giving the folds a stable supporting structure while adding body, snag resistance and sewing stability.
• Why after crushing: the folds are “live” — they need to be fixed without being killed. If the backing were already in place, no clean three-dimensional crease could be formed between the layers; laminating after crushing instead locks the relief in its already-set state, so it does not flatten during foil transfer or in care.
• Method: the customary route is hot-melt point lamination (powder dots or adhesive dots) — an engraved roller applies hot-melt adhesive in fine discrete dots to the tulle or the base cloth, and the two layers are bonded by heat and nip pressure. Dot application retains softness and breathability while providing sufficient interlayer strength; hot-melt web film or screen-printed dots are also used.
• Tulle selection: a light polyamide or polyester tulle is normally chosen — fine mesh, low weight — giving structural support without noticeably increasing the weight or altering the lustre of the satin face.
• Critical constraint: lamination temperature must stay below the satin's setting temperature and nip pressure must be light. If lamination exceeds the setting temperature, the crush softens and is pressed flat, and the whole lot is lost at this stage.
Key point: the aim is to obtain sufficient interlayer strength with the least heat and pressure. When bonding is weak, slow the line and increase dot density rather than adding heat or pressure.
Stage 5 · Foil Transfer (ridges only)
Purpose: to deposit metallic foil on the ridges of a laminated, dimensionally stable surface, creating random gold veining.
• Adhesive application: an engraved or anilox roller transfers a very thin, even film of foil adhesive (or hot-melt adhesive) onto the cloth. Because the surface is not flat, the adhesive in practice contacts and adheres only to the raised ridges; the recessed folds receive almost none. This is precisely where the “ridges only” effect comes from.
• Lamination and hot transfer: metallic foil (gold, antique gold, champagne gold and similar) is brought into contact with the adhesive side and pressed by a heated roller, so that the foil layer transfers from its carrier film to the adhesive under heat and pressure.
• Cooling and peeling: once fully cooled, the carrier film is peeled off at a steady angle, leaving the metallic layer on the ridges as a broken, random gold line.
• Advantage of the tulle backing: because the reverse is already supported, the folds resist being flattened under the roller, so the pressure window is wider than on an unlaminated fabric and the integrity and definition of the gold line are easier to control.
Key point: three variables decide the result — adhesive pick-up, temperature and line pressure. Too much adhesive bleeds into the valleys and the gold line loses its definition; too little heat gives incomplete transfer and rub-off; excessive pressure flattens the crush and destroys the relief. In addition, because the reverse already carries a laminating adhesive, transfer temperature should be kept to the lower end of the working range so that heat does not penetrate to the bonded layer.
Stage 6 · Finishing & Hand-feel Adjustment
Purpose: to stabilise the finished form, unify hand-feel and lustre, and release residual stress from earlier stages.
• Re-setting: relax and set at low tension so that the crush returns to its natural state while width is stabilised.
• Matching the bonded layer: re-setting temperature must stay below the softening point of the laminating adhesive, otherwise the adhesive dots soften again and cause interlayer slippage, blistering or local delamination. This is the main difference between finishing a laminated fabric and finishing a plain one.
• Softening: apply softeners or mechanical softening according to the target hand — crisp-bodied or soft and full — while avoiding any damage to the metallic layer.
• Consistency check: confirm that relief, foil density and lustre are consistent within the lot before final inspection.
Key point: tension at this stage should be as low as possible — excessive tension flattens the folds and breaks the gold lines — and temperature must be set in step with the adhesive's softening point.
Stage 7 · Final Inspection, Rolling & Packing
Purpose: to confirm quality against standard and to protect both the metallic layer and the bonded layer during roll formation.
• Appearance: evenness of crush, continuity of the foil, and absence of missed transfer, adhesive bleed, dot strike-through, shade variation and holes.
• Foil adhesion: assessed by tape-peel or abrasion, together with performance after laundering.
• Interlayer bond: peel strength between tulle and satin assessed on samples, with a check for blistering and delamination.
• Physical data: width, weight, shrinkage and skew.
• Packing: rolled on a paper core and wrapped in protective film, avoiding creasing and abrasion — the metallic layer is a surface decoration, and rough stacking leaves marks that cannot be removed.
Key point: retain a sample from every batch as the physical reference for later orders and claims.
Jiede as one of the experienced apparel fabric manufacturer which can help you solve all your needs and problems in fashion fabrics.
