Process for conditioning textiles in the presence of impacting and vibrating

Claim 1

A process of treating an elongated fibrous sheet material, said process comprising the steps of ensuring that said material contains more than 25% of a swelling agent by weight of said material when dry, transversely stretching said material while permitting longitudinal contraction thereof, overfeeding said material to a drying and impacting zone to compensate for longitudinal contraction thereof and while in said zone directing opposite streams of dry gas at each face of said material in order to bias said material toward predetermined position and in order to dry said material until its content of swelling agent is less than that normal under ordinary ambient conditions, subjecting said material while so biased to a succession of sharp localized impacts from a multiplicity of incremental surfaces with the fabric gathering in folds between adjacent impacting surfaces, and calendering said material after departure from said zone while said content is less than said normal by pressing said material between platens and vibrating said platens such that the vibratory motion thereof has a vector normal to said material.