Hand building finishes

The hand building finish is not only one of the oldest but also one of the most important kind of finishes. Very different natural and synthetic polymers are used for an astonishing variety of hand effects. The main effects of fullness and stiffness enable a very interesting hand design, often in combination with other finishes. Softness and hardness or stiffness are incompatible contrasts, but there are -especially with the filling finish - many fluent transitions. Filling products can be combined as well with softeners as with stiffening products. 

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Examples of textiles with hand building finishes... 

Hand building finishes that lose their effect after one or two launderings are considered non-durable. The two major product types of non-durable hand builders are starch derivatives and polyvinyl alcohol. Natural starch is produced commercially from potatoes, com, wheat, rice and tapioca. Its two main components are polymers of a-glucose, amylopectin and amylose, shown in Fig. 4.1. The thickening effect of starch is mainly due to the long and branched amylopectin chains. 

Hand building finishes that retain their stiffening and fullness effects after repeated launderings are considered to be durable. These products are usually aqueous emulsions of polymers that form water-insoluble films on the fibre surface when dried. The three main types of products are vinyl acetate-containing polymers, acrylic copolymers and thermosetting polymers. 

Usable for anti-pilling Hand building finishes, for cellulosics easy-care Durable press finishes Cellulase finishes... 

Orcoset [Cyanic Dyestuffs] Pcdyvinyl acetate emulsion semidutable hand building finish for cellulosics and synthetics. 

In addition to the nature of resin and fibre, the laminate properties also depend on the degree of bonding between the two main components and the presence of other additives including air bubbles. Because of this some parts, fabricated by simple hand building techniques, may exhibit strengths no better or even worse than unreinforced materials. This problem is often worst with glass fibres which are therefore normally treated with special finishes to improve the resin-glass bond. 

In some textile production laboratories single reference standards or a simple set of hand standards with different hand values is used. This set of standards is produced from the same fabric as the one being evaluated by applying the same softener at incremental concentrations. If the softener is used in combination with other finishes, the concentration of the other fmishes must be held constant. Relatively simple methods to evaluate only the bending properties of fabric (flex rigidity) are the cantilever method and a similar device called Softometer, which are described in Chapter 4 on hand building. 

The following sections will discuss some of the more important test methods in use for fabrics with durable press, flame-retardant, soil release, repellent, UV protective, antimicrobial, anti-insect, anti-felting, hand building and weighting finishes. 

Table 6.8 shows the potential applications of biopolymers or their derivatives in imparting other functional properties such as insect-repellent, waterproof/breathable coating, hand building, easy care finishing/hand building to the treated cotton-containing fabrics. 

The addition of 0.02% of an aqueous emulsion of silicone liquid into sand fibre slate reduces its water absorption by two and noticeably increases its cold resistance. Silicone liquids can be also put on finished constructions in the form of a 5% aqueous solution, which penetrates to the depth of 3-6 mm and after drying forms a durable waterproof surface for 5-10 years. This treatment can be used on various works of art, famous architectural buildings, etc. Plastered facades can also be waterproofed with good results. Treated plaster does not absorb rain drops on the other hand, common plaster completely absorbs all rain drops after 30 seconds. 

In his public addresses, he was a most impressive presence on the lecture podium. He would build up his story to a crescendo of hand-waving animation, employing two projectors, two screens, and an impossible number of slides, but would still manage to finish within his allotted time slot and leave the audience gasping at his virtuosity. Most comfortable, naturally, in his native French, he was nevertheless little deterred when making his presentations in English. 

Now, I want to build much the same device - a master-slave system which operates electrically. But I want the slaves to be made especially carefully by modern large-scale machinists so that they are one-fourth the scale of the hands that you ordinarily maneuver. So you have a scheme by which you can do things at one-quarter scale anyway - the little servo motors with little hands play with little nuts and bolts they drill little holes they are four times smaller. Aha So I manufacture a quarter-size lathe I manufacture quarter-size tools and I make, at the one-quarter scale, still another set of hands again relatively one-quarter size This is one-sixteenth size, from my point of view. And after I finish doing this I wire directly from my large-scale system, through transformers perhaps, to the one-sixteenth-size servo motors. Thus I can now manipulate the one-sixteenth size hands. 

BURCO FINISH 55 has excellent running properties and will not present roll and clip build-up problems. It can be added directly to the finishing bath in an amount sufficient to produce the hand desired. 

DANFIRM VA is used primarily in finishing baths for fabric stiffening. It is a very efficient and economical hand builder. It tends to produce a stiff, full leathery hand as opposed to the thin, crisp hand produced by polyvinyl alcohol and starch derivatives. Being nonionic in nature, it is highly compatible with a wide variety of resins, softeners, catalysts and other finishing bath components. DANFIRM VA has excellent running properties and will not present roll and clip build-up problems. 

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