MXPA01008047A - Face finishing of fabrics containing immobilized fibers - Google Patents

Abstract

The inventive method provides highly desirable hand to various different types of fabrics through the initial immobilization of individual fibers within target fabrics and subsequent treatment through abrasion, sanding, or napping of at least a portion of the target fabric. Such a procedure includes"nicking"the immobilized fibers thereby permitting the fibers to produce a substantially balanced strength of the target fabric in the fill and warp directions while also providing the same degree of hand improvements as obtained with previous methods. Furthermore, this process also provides the unexpected improvement of non-pilling to synthetic fibers as the"nicking"of the immobilized fibers results in the lack of unraveling of fibers and thus the near impossibility of such fibers balling together to form unwanted pills on the fabric surface. Fabrics treated by this process are also contemplated within this invention.

Description

EXTERIOR FACE FINISH FOR FABRICS CONTAINING IMMOBILIZED FIBERS TECHNICAL FIELD The method of the invention provides a highly convenient feel to various different types of fabrics through the initial immobilization of individual fibers within the objective fabrics and subsequent treatment through them. abrasion, sanding or tufting of at least a portion of the target fabric. This method includes "notching" of the immobilized fibers, thereby allowing the fibers to produce a substantially balanced resistance of the target fabric in the filling and warp directions, while also providing the same degree of improvements in feel as it is felt. obtains with previous methods. In addition, this method also provides unexpected improvement of non-stacking to synthetic fibers as the "notch" of the immobilized fibers results in the lack of fiber fraying and thus the near impossibility of these fibers agglomerating together to form clusters unwanted on the cloth surface. Fabrics treated by this process are also contemplated within this invention. Prior Technique Materials such as fabrics are characterized by a wide variety of functional and aesthetic characteristics. Of these characteristics, a particularly important aspect is the feel of the cloth surface or "feel to the touch". The significance of a favorable feel to the fabric is described and explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,918,795 and 4,837,902, both given to Dischler, the teachings of which both are fully incorporated herein by reference. Proper touch characteristics of a fabric are usually obtained by conditioning prepared textiles (ie, fabrics that have been stripped, bleached, mercerized, and dried). Previous prepared fabric conditioning methods have included eroding or soft grinding of the finished product with textured rolls or cushions. It has now been found, surprisingly, that this conditioning will be favorably performed while the target fabric is in its raw state or unprepared. The conditioning of these fabrics provides hitherto unknown benefits in improvements in total fabric strength and the like (as discussed in more detail below). Of great importance and necessity then within the textile treatment industry is a process through which raw or unfinished fabrics can be treated and subsequently finished, which provides a desirable feel to the target fabric and does not adversely impact the ability by staining, decoration and similar of the textile at a future point in time. These processes have not been illustrated or substantially suggested within the pertinent technique. In this way, there is no prior teaching or just suggestion within the pertinent technique that has provided improvements in the feel to the touch for highly effective textiles and easily duplicated to raw and unfinished textiles. In the textile industry, it is known to finish woven fabrics by abrasion of one or both surfaces of the fabric using sandpaper or a similarly abrasive material to cut and lift the fibers of the constituent filaments in the fabric. Through this treatment, a resultant fabric is obtained, which in general exhibits a hair or hair that is closely raised producing a smooth and uniform surface texture that resembles suede or suede. This operation, commonly referred to as sanding or sanding, is conventionally carried out by a specialized fabric shrinking machine, where the fabric is tensioned over one or more finishing rolls, covered with sandpaper or a similarly abrasive material, which are rotated at a differential speed with respect to the web of the moving fabric. These machines are described in U.S. Patents. No. 5, 752,300 granted to Dischler, and No. 3,973,359 granted to Spencer, both here fully incorporated by reference. Another well-known technique for improving the aesthetic characteristics and performance of a fabric through the same type of surface lifting treatment is plush. This treatment provides a fabric that exhibits a softer feel, improved drapability, greater fabric thickness and better overall durability. The tufting machinery generally utilizes rotatingly displaced cylinders including peripheral wire teeth such as, normally, card trim, on which the fabric runs under a certain amount of tension. During a plush treatment, the individual fibers are ideally pulled from the body of the fabric in contrast to agamuzado, which ideally cuts the individual fibers. The agamuzado however, presents some disadvantages including the fact that a certain amount of plush occurs simultaneously. Grain particles contact the surface fibers of the target fabric and inevitably detach them from the body of the fabric resulting in a relatively long hair. This long hair traps air on the surface of the fabric creating an insulating effect that in this way produces a hot sensation against the skin of the user. This insulating effect is highly undesirable, particularly for garments intended for use in the summer. By using strong synthetic fibers (ie nylon or polyester), this tendency to detach the fibers from the surface of the fabric is accentuated. In this way more tension will be required to cut through these strong fibers (compared to the force needed to cut the weakest and strongest fibers then pull the filament more easily.) When coupling with a particle of abrasive grain, tension enough to pull rather than easily cut the fibers, it is granted.The stacking in this way is more noticeable with strong synthetic fibers and when a long hair is created (and in this highly disadvantageous way) because it is more likely to occur entangled between adjacent fibers, in this way resulting in highly objectionable and unwanted hairs on the surface of the fabric .. Methods have been used in the past on fabrics prepared to produce a short pile in order to decrease the piling potential. of very fine grain sandpaper, brush rolls with grain particles embedded in soft nylon bristles, and even stone blocks mez mounted on rocking bars. However, fine grain sandpaper degrades easily and quickly due to the loss of grain particles and the accumulation of debris between the remaining particles. In addition, the objective fibers are not cut in this way since they are generally eroded. In this way, fine grain sandpaper does not provide an effective process for replacing the agamuzado techniques mentioned above. Soft nylon bristles also seem to simply erode fibers instead of cutting and are also highly inefficient due to the slight pressure these devices apply to the target fabric. Pumice stone that is very soft, itself is subject to damage in these operations and also facilitates an unwanted accumulation of fibrous debris within the treatment surface of the stone. Undesirable wet procedures are generally necessary to produce effective agamuzado results for pumice and fine-grained sandpaper treatments. Another disadvantage of previous tufting and / or sueding treatment refers to the situation where the filler filaments are exposed on the surface of the target fabric. Being perpendicular to the tufting and / or agamuzado action, these treatments tend to act primarily on these exposed filaments instead of the warp filaments. The weaving economy generally dictates that the objective fabric would be constructed more strongly in the direction of a warp and thus it would be highly advantageous for the agamuzado to act primarily on these warp filaments since these filaments exhibit more resistance to yield during the process. abrasion. As noted above, one of the most unpleasant and ugly phenomena produced through the use of strong synthetic fibers within fabrics is pilling. This term is generally accepted to mean the formation of small balls of fibers that are created on the textile surface by entanglement of free fiber ends. These fibers that hold the hairs on the base fabric do not break or come off because the synthetic fibers (such as polyester) exhibit a higher flexural strength than natural fibers and in this way small balls of twisted and matted fibers hang on the surface of the fabric. A number of procedures have been developed to counteract this undesirable clutter effect within the textile industry. For example, polyester fibers with low molecular weights or low viscosities in solution have been produced, in order to reduce the strength of the fibers resulting in ends of fibers and nascent hairs that are more easily detached from the surface of the fabric (as well). than with natural fibers). However, this reduction in strength (in approximately 40% of the standard polyester fibers) leaves them highly susceptible to damage during further processing, thus preventing processing in rotating rotor frames or rings at the same speeds and with the same efficiencies as the normal types of natural fibers (such as cotton). An additional method for controlling stacking refers to the chemical weakening of the fibers within the woven fabrics. This is achieved through the application of steam over heated or aqueous solutions of acids, ammonia, ammonia vapors or amines. In this case, however, all the resistance of the fabric is sacrificed without concomitant improvement of the feel to the touch. In addition, the potential for fabric defects (such as spots and non-uniform staining) is increased. An additional method is to use filaments that have high twist. However, these resulting fabrics exhibit a hard feel to the touch and the internal compression generated by the twisting of the individual fibers makes it very difficult to detach or remove the sizing, mercerize and adequately dye the fabrics comprising these high-twist filaments. In this way, it would be highly convenient to obtain substantial piling reduction for fabrics comprising strong synthetic fibers without resorting to the above processes and methods. Unfortunately, the prior art has not granted this improvement with a simultaneous improvement in the feel of the fabric. The present invention provides an improved method for tactile sensing of non-finished fabrics in a manner not described in the prior art. This method also substantially eliminates stacking on fabrics comprising synthetic fibers, while simultaneously providing the aforementioned improvements in the feel of the target fabric. The primary objective of this invention therefore is to provide an improved grip feel to raw or unprepared fabrics, while also retaining a balanced strength over the entire structure of the fabrics. Thus, it is a further advantage of this invention to provide this method which is highly effective in cost and subsequent improvement of the processing of the fabric such as de-sizing, mercerizing, dyeing and the like. Another object of this invention is to provide a method for improving the feel of unfinished fabrics comprising synthetic fibers, which substantially simultaneously eliminates stacking on the surface of the fabric. Yet another advantage of this invention is to provide a blended polyester / cotton blend fabric, wherein the masked surface is dominated by relatively soft polyester fibers. These and other advantages will be partly apparent and in parts indicated below. Description of the Invention In order to improve the feel of fabrics in a manner that is consistent with use in a hot environment, the constituent fibers must be treated in a manner that provides consistently short hair, so that they do not get trapped in the cloth surface, a stagnant layer of insulating air. It has been found that, by first immobilizing the fibers that constitute the fabric with a temporary coating, followed by an abrasive treatment of the cloth surface, and then removing the temporary coating, you get a fabric with aesthetic characteristics and unique practices. Compared to a fabric that has been subjected to sanding or flocking, a fabric treated by the method of the present invention is cooler to the touch, softer to the hand and dramatically more resistant to stacking. To understand how these advantageous features are obtained, it is useful to compare the action of the carding wire on a polyester film (e.g., Mylar ™) to the action of the wire on a polyester fabric. When the carding wire is dragged through a film of Mylar ™ under pressure, many small scratches or scratches arising on the surface are seen, due to the combination of high pressure at the tip of the wire, in combination with the high hardness of the wire. wire with respect to polyester. When the wire is similarly dragged through the polyester fabric, scratches or scratches are generally not found as the movement of the fibers together allows the stresses to dissipate before abrasive wear occurs. Also, the interaction of wire and fiber typically stresses the fiber and pulls it away from the surface of the filament. When the fabric includes the characteristics of a film, the scratching of the fiber surface does not occur and the detachment of the filament fibers is avoided. In this way, the fabric is transformed into film (or composite), subjected to abrasion, and then transformed back into the fabric. What would be scratches or linear scratches in a film appear as notches of various sizes in the fibers of the surface including notches that completely cut through some of the fibers. The ends of staple fibers will come off during subsequent processing (e.g., de-sizing) to form a hair that is uniformly short. The short fibers resist the formation of hairs because the number of adjacent fibers available for entanglement is limited to those within range of each other. "Notches" in the fibers, serve as tension risers, allowing the fiber to break during the type of bending that occurs during hair formation. Since only the surface fibers have been weakened, the volume of fabric resistance has been withheld in comparison with chemical treatments, which necessarily weaken the entire structure of the fabric. The term "notch" basically encompasses the creation of cuts in random-sites in individual fibers, thereby providing tension elevators in the individual fibers. The immobilization of these fibers in this way increases the frictional contact between the individual fibers and prevents movement of the fibers during wear by sanding, abrasion or tufting. Abrasion, sanding, or tufting of non-immobilized fibers that move during processing may result in relative movement of the fibers and release of long fibers as the fibers interact with the abrasive or tufting media. This procedure does not provide improvements in the feel of these fabrics; however, the filling strength of the fabric can be sacrificed and the ability of the fabric to trap unwanted air (thus producing a "warmer" fabric) is increased. Therefore, the process of the invention comprises first immobilizing the surface fibers of a fabric with a temporary coating; second, treating the surface fibers immobilized by abrasion, sanding or tufting in order to cut and "nick" the fibers; and third, to remove the temporary covering in some way. The immobilization step in this manner comprises encapsulating at least the surface fibers (and possibly some of the internal fibers of the fabric) in a coating matrix which makes the fibers stationary to the point that the individual fibers are resistant to movement due to space filling characteristics of the coating matrix within the interstices between the fibers as well as the adhesion of adjacent fibers by the coating matrix. A typical coating matrix that imparts immobilization to the surface fibers of a target fabric is sizing (ie, starch, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylic acid, and the like) which can be easily removed through exposure to water or another type of solvent. Usually, the sizing is added to warp filaments before weaving. According to this invention, the size already present in the raw articles to be subjected to abrasion can be used for the purpose of immobilization; alternatively, additional size can be coated on the target fabric to provide a sufficient degree of stiffness. To be effective (ie, to impart the proper degree of rigidity or immobilization to the target fibers), the coating does not "have to fill all of the free space of the filament, however, a coating level of solids of between 5 and 50 % by weight of the fabric has been found to be particularly effective A coating range of between 10 and 25% by weight of the fabric is particularly preferred In a particularly preferred embodiment, a raw fabric is to be treated subsequently Through sanding, abrasion or tufting, but does not require major application of sizing.Always the sizing present during the tissue process is not removed later, there will be enough rigidity for adequate immobilization of the target fabric for further treatment by sanding, abrasion or filler within the process of the invention Another preferred method of immobilization through sizing application is to dissolve the coating agent in water and impregnate on the cloth followed by a drying step; however, this covers both fabrics with sizing (raw) and des-aprestadas.

Another temporary coating available within the immobilization step of the invention is ice. In this case, 50 to 200% by weight of water are applied to the target fabric, which is subsequently exposed to temperatures below freezing, until frozen. The cloth is then subjected to abrasion while it is frozen and then dried. One modality of this type of immobilization includes pal at least about 50% owf and at most about 200% owf of water and then freezing the fabric in itself. This method can be used in raw, prepared or finished articles and eliminates the need for adding extra quantity of sizing to the already woven fabric. This elimination of the need to add and recover sizing is therefore highly cost effective. If ice is used to immobilize the constituent fibers of the target fabric, flocking with metal wires or brushes is the preferable method for treating the target fabric. The wire allows the ice, to be melted and refrozen, to break free easily. The resulting ice film can render sanders and / or abrasion devices ineffective since the grain generally used in these procedures is very small and will not penetrate through the film to "nick" the individual fibers, as is necessary for the method of the invention works properly. The frozen target fabric is preferably kept at low temperature (at least about -10 to about -50 ° C), both to ensure that the ice has sufficient shear strength for immobilization and to provide sufficient thermal capacity to absorb the mechanical energy imparted by the abrasion procedure without fusion. As noted above, the size employed as a weaving aid can be retained subsequent to weaving and employed in the present invention to immobilize the target fibers. This is considered to be unique within the textile industry. Procedures such as singeing and thermoforming can be applied to raw articles, no procedure obtains the advantages by the presence of sizing in the raw cloth. Otherwise, the sizing is removed from the raw articles before further processing (such as mercerizing, bleaching, dyeing, flocking, sanding, and the like). The most important step for the method of the invention is the immobilization of the surface fibers. In this way, abrasion, sanding, plating and the like can be used within the process of the invention. Thus, abrasion through contacting a cloth surface with a cylindrical drum coated with abrasive that rotates at a speed different from that of a weft of the fabric, is a preferred embodiment within this method of the invention. This method is described more fully in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,752,300 and 5,815,896, both granted to Dischler, here fully incorporated by reference. Angled lofts, as in the U.S. patent application. No. 09 / 045,094 issued to Dischler, also here fully incorporated by reference, is also an available method. The preferred abrasive comprises diamond grains embedded in an electrocoated metal matrix which preferably comprises nickel or chromium as illustrated in US Pat. No. 4,608,128 granted to Farmer. Other hard abrasive particles can also be used such as carbides, borides and nitrides of metals and / or silicon and hard compounds comprising carbon and nitrogen. Coating methods without electrodes can also be employed to embed diamonds and other particles of hard abrasive grains into a convenient matrix. Preferably, diamond grain particles are embedded within the plated metal surface of a treatment roll with which the target fabric can be brought into contact, so that there is movement of the fabric with respect to the grain particles. Since both the diamond facets and the metal matrix are microscopically smooth, the buildup of sizing coating on the abrasive treatment surface is generally avoided easily. However, as noted previously, a more severe problem occurs where ice is used as the immobilization matrix. The pressure of the fabric in contact with the small particles of abrasive grains can cause the ice to instantly melt and re-freeze on the abrasive coated cylinder. Also, since ice is generally weaker than polymeric sizing agents, a greater weight addition is required to provide sufficient stiffness to the individual fibers. A thicker coating layer in this manner results in the surface and this thickness of surface ice interferes with the contact of the grain particles with the target fibers. As such, the grain particles will not be sufficient to "nick" the surface fibers. In this case, a tufting process is preferred to use wire brushes to condition the cloth surface as illustrated in US Pat. No. 4,463,483 granted to Holm. A cylindrical drum can still be used in this situation with a tuft wire wrapped around the drum which is then brought into contact with the target cloth, again at a different speed than the cloth web. Normally, plush in this way pulls the surface fibers away from the surface of the fabric; in the method of the invention, the fibers are held in place and the convenient and necessary "notching" of the individual fibers is thus achieved. The bending of the wire during contact with the fabric allows the ice to break freely in a continuous manner while the length of the wire ensures that the ice coating can penetrate and the "notch" process is again achieved. The particular types of fabrics that can be subjected to the method of the invention are a myriad. These include without limitation, any synthetic and / or natural fibers, including synthetic fibers selected from the group consisting of polyester, polyamide, polyaramide, rayon, lycra, and mixtures thereof, and natural fibers are selected from the group consisting of cotton, wool, flax, silk, ramina, and any mixtures thereof. The fabrics can also be constructed as woven, non-woven and / or knitted materials. Preferably, the objective fabric comprises synthetic fibers and is woven. More preferably, the fabric comprises polyester fibers woven into centrifuged filaments. It has been determined that twill or cross-woven fabrics with a warp front are particularly suitable for this method of the invention, because all the exposed surface filaments of the woven substrate are prepared which in this way result in immobilization of all the fibers desired and thus facilitating the "notching" procedure described above. In addition, the costs associated with filling or impregnation in sizing, drying and de-sizing can also be avoided in some cases by abrasion of the fabric in the raw state. Usually, the warp filaments are prepared before weaving in order to protect them against damage while the filler filaments are generally untreated. If the fabric has a warp front (eg, a cross-woven fabric or twill with a warp front), then the abrasion step can be performed directly on the front, without any additional processing steps required. Surprisingly, this approach has been found to be successful with simple woven fabrics, even when the filler filaments are not ready. In these fabrics, directly from the loom, the filling is comparatively straight and therefore buried in the structure of the fabric (and in this way much less accessible to abrasive treatment). In general, fabric that has been treated in this way is then processed in the normal way, which typically combines the steps such as de-sizing, mercerizing, bleaching, staining and finishing. In special cases, the fabric can be sold to converters, directly after the abrasion process. The converter will then do all or part of the subsequent processing. In cases where the sizing has functionality, it can be left of the fabric and be part of the final product. For example, in the case of abrasive coated fabric (i.e., when it is desired to bond particles of abrasive grains to the fabric), the sizing acts as a primer coating that holds the resin on the surface and physically prevents it from penetrating the body. of the fabric in an uncontrolled way. Also, of particular interest in this invention is the fact that shrinkage of the synthetic fiber / cotton blend fabrics in the raw state, before mercerization is now known to produce unexpectedly beneficial effects. Historically, synthetic fibers for use in garments, including polyester fibers, have generally been supplied to the textile industry in order to duplicate or improve upon the characteristics of natural fibers. These synthetic textile filaments were essentially denier by filament (dpf = deniers per filament) in a range similar to those of standard natural fibers (ie, cotton and wool). More recently, however, polyester filaments have been available at a commercial level in a range of dpf similar to natural silk (ie, of the order of 1 dpf) and even in subdeniers (below 1 dpf). These fibers are considerably thinner and more flexible than typical cotton fibers and are thus potentially potentially preferred in the industry over these natural fibers. It has thus been discovered that fabrics containing cotton blended with these low dff polyester fibers treated according to the method of this invention, then subsequently mercerized, exhibit a masked surface which is substantially dominated by the synthetic fibers. This effect occurs because the cotton portion of the generated hair tends to twist, bend and shorten due to the swelling effect of the caustic on the cut cotton fibers. These fibers tend to swell to the greatest extent possible as they do not stress. Twisted and folded are further accentuated by the presence of "notches" in these fibers, resulting in localized swelling where the cuticle of the cotton fiber is broken. The same effect does not occur with cut polyester or other synthetic fibers that do not swell in the presence of caustic, so that the synthetic fibers eventually dominate the aesthetics of the surface. This is advantageous when the objective fabric contains synthetic fibers that are more flexible than mercerized cotton fibers, usually in the range of 1.5 dpf or less for polyester fibers. This benefit has not been readily available to the industry until now. Detailed Description and Preferred Modalities of the Invention The foregoing as well as other objects of the invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description which represents the preferred embodiments of the invention. EXAMPLE 1 Four samples of twill fabric or cross-woven with a warp front of 194.4 g / linear meter (7.5 oz. Per linear yard) (with a width of 167.64 cm (66 inches)) constituted by an intimate blend of 65% polyester and 35 % cotton and completely constructed of open-end centrifuged filaments, were treated. One was a prepared fabric (ie, already des-aprestada, bleached, mercerized and dry) subjected to sanding only and the other three were of the same style of cloth before preparation. The combined level of abrasion for the front and back of all four test fabrics was the same, with varying proportions made of this individual front and back sanding. All four samples, along with an untreated control, were then stained, finished and finally subjected to 10 industrial washes before testing. The sanding operation was carried out through contact with two pairs of rollers with diameter of 11.43 cm (4.5 inches) with diamond diamonds of 320 U.S., in an electro-coated nickel matrix. Each side of the fabric was treated by a pair of rollers (unless otherwise noted below). The first roller for each side rotated against the direction of travel of the fabric and the second rotated with the direction of travel of the fabric. The fabric subjected to the process of the invention was a raw fabric, the fibers of which had already been immobilized sufficiently through the presence of the sizing (polyvinyl alcohol) applied to the constituent warp filaments before weaving. The resistance performance is analyzed through measurements of the tensile strength of the fabrics in different directions. The tensile strength (kilograms per centimeter (pounds x inch)) at break was measured in both the warp and fill directions. The warp / fill ratio, as used below, is the ratio of warp to fill tensile strengths. For a fabric with balanced total tensile strength, this ratio will be 1.0. Abrasion of a fabric in such a way that the warp / fill ratio is about 1.0 is ideal, as it results in an isotropic material with no weak direction, and makes the most efficient use of the tensile strength starting at the cloth. The stacking performance is measured through an empirical analysis and rating system. These ratings run from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), with the lowest numbers indicating a high degree of undesirable stacking on the surface and a higher number denoting the lack of appreciable amounts of hairs on the test cloth surface . The five samples were tested (3 subjected to the method of the invention, one as a sanded control and the remaining sample without sanding). Run # 1 involves the raw fabric with the sizing retained treated through a sanding process, which constitutes equal abrasion between the front and back of the target fabric (50% front / 50% posterior). Run # 2 was also subjected to the process of the invention and constitutes a sanding process of 60% versus 40% posterior. Run # 3 involves a 100% sanding process with the method of the invention. Run # 4 treated a control sample by a 50% / 50% sanding procedure, and Run # 5 was a control sample that was not treated by actual sanding (and thus exhibits a rough touch feel and other undesirable characteristics for uses in garments). The results of these analyzes are given below in tabular form: TABLE Traction Resistance of cloth run trace. Warp / Qualification Fill Padding Fill Stacking 1 148 115 1.29 4.5 2 135 130 1.04 4.5 3 148 139 1.06 4.5 4 (Control) 146 93 1.57 4.0 5 (Control) 176 138 1.28 4.0 Clearly, prepared fabrics (control) exhibit unbalanced tensile properties with the warp about 28% stronger than the filling. The sanding of both sides of these fabrics increases this imbalance to 57%, while the fabrics subjected to the processes of the invention exhibit an average reduction in unbalance of resistance in the direction of the fabric. Since the fabric resistance as a whole is regulated by the weaker direction of the fabric, the greater efficiency of agamuzado is achieved when the warp and the filling have final resistances as was achieved and better evidenced through the following procedure of the invention.

EXAMPLE 2 Two samples, one subjected to the process of the invention and the other a control, of cross-woven with a warp front of 162.72 g / m2 (4.8 ounces per square yard) comprise an intimate blend of 65% polyester / 35% cotton of open ended centrifuged filaments were treated in the same manner as in Runs # 1 and 5 of EXAMPLE 1, above. After 10 industrial washes, the control fabric exhibits a stacking rating of 2.0, while the fabric subjected to the process of the invention showed a stacking rating of 4.0. EXAMPLE 3 Two samples, one subjected to the process of the invention and the other a control, of simple woven cloth of 176.28 g / m2 (5.2 ounces per square yard) comprising open ended centrifuged polyester filaments, were treated in accordance with the Runs # 1 and 5 of EXAMPLE 1, above, with the following variation. Since both samples were prepared fabrics (ie do not contain a size) a solution of a 15% PVA size was dissolved in water and impregnated the fabric of the process of the invention for 100% wet harvesting. After drying at 135 ° C for 15 minutes, this cloth was then sanded on both sides (50% brow / 50% posterior). Both samples were then washed and thermo-fixed. The samples treated according to the method of the invention were found to exhibit approximately a stacking rating of 5.0. The thermo-fixed control sample on the other hand exhibited a very high stacking degree for a rating of 1.0. EXAMPLE 4 The same type of simple woven fabric as in EXAMPLE 3, was wetted with water so that the weight of the fabric approximately doubled. The wet cloth was then placed on a cold stainless steel plate for which the temperature was maintained between about -20 and -50 ° C through contact with dry ice directly below the plate. Upon complete freezing of the water, the front of the fabric was carved in the warp direction with straight carding wire. After this abrasion procedure, the fabric was dried to remove all moisture. A very short and even hair was developed that does not exhibit substantially stacking for a grade of 5.0. EXAMPLE 5 Again, the same type of simple woven fabric as in EXAMPLE 3 is used, but this time a continuous weft of the fabric is wetted and passed in a bath of liquid nitrogen. The front of the frozen fabric was then subjected to abrasion by contact with rotating rollers having axes oriented in the filling direction of the weft of the fabric and wrapped with straight carding wire. The first roll or roller rotates in the opposite direction to the fabric travel and the second with the direction of travel of the fabric. When heated and dried, the fabric exhibits a very short and even hair and is found to have substantially no hairs for a rating of 5.0. A control fabric, simple untreated woven fabric, on the other hand exhibits a high degree of stacking for a rating of 1.0. It is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the specific embodiments described herein, but on the contrary it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims (17)

1. CLAIMS 1. A process for finishing fabrics, characterized in that it comprises: (a) providing a weft of textile fabric comprising individual fibers; (b) immobilizing at least a portion of the fibers within a coating matrix; and (c) subjecting at least a portion of the fibers of step "b" to a treatment selected from the group consisting of sanding, abrasion and tufting; wherein the immobilized fibers remain substantially immobilized during and after the treatment of step "c". The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the fabric comprises fibers selected from the group consisting of synthetic fibers, natural fibers and any mixtures thereof. The method of any of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the fabric of step "a" is in its raw state. The method of any of claims 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the fabric comprises fabrics selected from the group consisting of woven, knitted, non-woven and any combinations thereof. 5. The method of any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the fabric is a twill fabric or cross weave with a warp front. The method of any of the preceding claims, characterized in that step "b" is performed by coating the fabric to immobilize the fibers within the fabric in a coating matrix selected from the group consisting of sizing and ice. The method of any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the coating matrix of the "b" is removed from the treated fibers after the treatment of step "c". 8. A fabric treated according to the method of any of the preceding claims. 9. A method for finishing a fabric, comprising the sequential steps of (a) applying a size to a plurality of filaments; (b) weaving the plurality of filaments together to form a fabric comprising at least some fibers immobilized by the applied size; (c) treating the fabric comprising the immobilized fibers through a finishing step selected from the group consisting of sanding, shrinking and tufting; and (d) optionally removing the size of the finished fabric from step "c". 10. A fabric treated in accordance with the method of claim 9. 11. The fabric according to claim 10, characterized by the fabric is a twill or cross weave fabric with a warp front. 12. A woven fabric comprising surface fibers subjected to abrasion, sanding or shrinking and which does not exhibit a harsh touch feel wherein the retained tensile strength of the woven fabric is in the amount of at least 80% the tensile strength of filling of the same fabric measured before abrasion, sanding or agamuzado. The woven fabric according to claim 12, characterized in that the surface fibers are constituted by a mixture of polyester and cotton fibers. The woven fabric according to any of claims 12 or 13, characterized in that the fiber blend is approximately 65% polyester and 35% cotton. 15. The woven fabric according to any of claims 12, 13 or 14, characterized in that the fabric has a warp front. 16. The woven fabric according to any of claims 12, 13, 14 or 15, characterized in that the fabric with warp front is twill. 17. The woven fabric according to any of claims 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17 characterized in that the fabric exhibits a low degree of stacking.