The Polishing machine is a Pile finishing machine and has two main functions, according to the kind of fabric that is processing :
1. It gives a shining effect to acrylic fabrics or to other fabrics with pile made in chemical fibres that react to temperature.
2. It allows to make treatment with chemicals to wool and cashmere fabrics to give them shining look.
3. It pumps up the loops of a cotton terry towel, with the mechanical and temperature effect.
This machine does not have a wide application like the raising and the shearing machine but it gives finishing effects that are quite interesting
The heart of a Polishing machine is the Polishing roller, this roller is made in hard chrome plated steel and it has 4 helical grooves on its surface. The roller is heated at temperatures around between 100 and 280 °C and it is rotating at speeds from 400 to 1200 rpm.
The fabric is brought in contact with the polishing roller, by a felt in a special temperature resistant fiber, that is supporting the fabric and it’s keeping it steady during the process. The approaching felt can be adjusted to make the fabric touch the roller on a smaller or on a larger area, to adjust the effect.
The high temperature of the roller has a thermal effect on the chemical fibres, it melts them, and the rotation of the roller is making a finishing action that gives the pile a shining look.
On wool and cashmere fibers, it dries off the chemical and with the combined thermal and mechanical action of the Polishing roller it gives them a shining look.
On the cotton fibres (and I am talking about cotton terry towels), the polishing roller has the function of making the fibre more soft and to lift up the loops. Therefore for lifting the loops, using a tumbler is also an application that is widely used.
If we make a consideration about the Polishing roller, we will immediately understand how the constancy of temperature on the roller width, is important for a good result. If the roller is more hot in the centre and more cool at the sides, we will see a difference of effect in the fabric.
For this reason we have equipped the Polishing machine with a sophisticate system for temperature regulation so that we can control the temperature in the center and in the sides of the polishing roller.