The finishing department in a textile factory is in part equal in size or larger than the dye house. Most consumers of textiles know little or nothing about the textile finishing process, yet it is integral to the life of the fabric.
Textile finishing is the process in treating the cloth to impart or to enhance at least one property of the fabric by introducing specialty and auxiliary chemicals. This is done by creating a finishing bath, which is similar to a dye bath by which an aqueous based formula is created for the textiles to pass through. Once the fabric passes through the finishing bath, it is then passed between two pressure rolls to extract excess liquids from the fabrics. The fabric will then typically run through a series of dry cans, which are hot steel cans that pre-dry the fabric prior to entering the frame. The fabric will be attached to the frame by either clips or needle pins, which clip or pin to the selvages of the fabric to transport it through the frame.
The frame looks similar to a pizza oven, accept the fabric never touches the bottom or the top and it can sometimes be as long as 50 meters in length. At the other end, the fabric comes out dry and with the desired width, hand feel and color fastness intact, thus, resulting in a finished textile. From this point, the large rolls of finished textiles are transferred to the inspection room, where they are loaded on to machines to be inspected for imperfections. They will then be cut into smaller rolls and prepared for shipment to the customer.