Process for imparting elasticity to woven textile fabrics

Claim 1

A process for imparting elasticity to a woven textile fabric made of thermoplastic blended spun yarns made of 50-80% of poly-ether-ester or polyester fibers and 50-20% of cellulose fibers in its warp direction and in its weft direction a member of the group consisting of the same yarns as used in its warp direction, 100% of textured poly-ether-ester yarns, and 100% of textured polyester yarns, wherein said woven fabric fed to said process has a low initial web density in its weft direction, and the resultant fabric of the instant process has an elastic recovery of 65 to 90% and an elongation of 10 to 25% in its warp direction and has 5 to 60% greater web density than said feed fabric, which comprises: a. rotating a heating drum, b. rotating a deformable elastic roller, the drum and the roller having a parallel axis and the same peripheral velocity, c. passing a flexible elastic belt through the nip between the drum and the roller, d. contacting the belt with the heating drum around a substantial proportion of its periphery beyond the nip, e. applying a cellulose reactive resin solution to the fabric, f. feeding the fabric so treated in its warp direction into the nip between the heating drum and the flexible belt so as to shrink the fabric by 10-30% in its warp direction, whereby said fabric is compressed owing to the deformation of the deformable elastic roller as well as the deformation of the flexible elastic belt, g. temporarily heat-setting the fabric in its altered state by contacting it with the heating drum at a temperature of 130°-150° C, and h. completely heat-setting the fabric at a temperature of 150°-200° C for a period of 1-5 minutes.