As part of my course at university, I have had the chance to visit W.T. Johnsons, which is a fabric finishing company. This is a part of textiles manufacture which isn't usually considered by people but it is an important stage in fabric production as it is what makes the cloth 'special'. This is a word which was used a lot by Alan, who talked to us about the company and gave us a tour of the factory. This word 'special' can mean different things to different people and so the techniques used can differ according to the client and their needs.
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| The washing of the fabrics, and through a bath in the base. |
They worked on a lot of suiting fabrics and they mainly worked on woven cloth. They are a world leader in this field - wool suiting fabric finishing. Unfortunately knitted fabrics aren't finished in the same way, as they have stretch in them. This difference in quality to woven fabrics means that then need to be treated differently in order to get the same high quality finish. So although I did not see any knitted fabrics, I still found the tour very interesting.
One aspect which I hadn't thought effected fabric finishing was the chemistry of the water. Apparently this does, and the location of the factory is on top of a bore hole. This means that they can get their water direct from the ground and it has the perfect chemistry to get the best results from the fabrics.
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| The roller in this picture had tiny holes along it through which air was blown. This meant the fabric goes from really wet at left side, to dry on the right. |
I especially liked being able to feel all the fabrics at the different stages. This meant that I could get a first hand insight into how the processes effected the cloth and how much nicer they were by the end.
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| These are the finished rolls of fabric, ready to be sent back to the clients. |
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