**4. Machines for joining the textiles using heat**

### **4.1. Fusing machines**

Fused panel can be manufactured either on a flat‐bed presses in static situation or conveyed continuously on a continuous fusing machine through a press in which they are heated, fused, and cooled without stopping.

Flat‐bed press and continuous fusing machine are the basic types of fusing machines. Flat‐bed press is a static method whereby the assembly is fed or positioned onto the bottom plate and the head, or top plate, is closed onto the assembly. At the end of a fusing cycle, the assemblies are cooled and then removed. In comparison, the continuous fusing machine has an endless‐ conveyor system for transporting the assemblies successively through the heating, pressure, and cooling stages, **Figure 4**.

**Figure 4.** Flat‐bed press (a) and continuous fusing machine (b).

Modern high‐tech interlinings often have a small temperature range for optimal bonding. Consequently, exact temperature control is very important, therefore the company VEIT has developed a new, innovative heating control system, **Figure 5**. It is intergraded in FX Diamond continuous fusing machine [14]. The new control element measures the temperature directly at the belt and therefore reacts extremely fast to any changes. The preset temperature can be maintained at a constant level and be precisely controlled.

**Figure 5.** Heating zone integrated in FX Diamond continuous fusing machine [14].

For materials, sensitive to pressure, a combination of FLEXO and standard pressure systems were integrated into the continuous fusing machine, **Figure 6**. The air‐filled FLEXO rollers offer flexibility as they adjust to the fabric thickness. Both FLEXO and standard pressure rollers operate independently from each other and allow continuous loading [14].

**Figure 6.** FLEXO Double Pressure System DXT 1400L/1600 CFC [14].

#### **4.2. Hot air/welding machines**

**3.3. Time**

222 Joining Technologies

**3.4. Cooling**

**4.1. Fusing machines**

and cooled without stopping.

and cooling stages, **Figure 4**.

**Figure 4.** Flat‐bed press (a) and continuous fusing machine (b).

It is important that between the fabrics a suitable intermediate temperature is reached. This can be obtained by the manipulation of the time of heating at the constant temperature settings. The time depends on the type of adhesive, type and thickness of the fabric, its thermal

Cooling is a very important process at the end of the technological process. In praxis, two types of cooling can be applied. Cooling presents the time needed for stabilizing the inner micro‐ structure of the heated textiles and adhesive resins. The most time consuming is living the assembles after heating on flat, horizontal area at least 24 h in the environmental temperature. The enforced cooling can be carried out by water‐cooled plates, forced‐air circulation, and

Fused panel can be manufactured either on a flat‐bed presses in static situation or conveyed continuously on a continuous fusing machine through a press in which they are heated, fused,

Flat‐bed press and continuous fusing machine are the basic types of fusing machines. Flat‐bed press is a static method whereby the assembly is fed or positioned onto the bottom plate and the head, or top plate, is closed onto the assembly. At the end of a fusing cycle, the assemblies are cooled and then removed. In comparison, the continuous fusing machine has an endless‐ conveyor system for transporting the assemblies successively through the heating, pressure,

Modern high‐tech interlinings often have a small temperature range for optimal bonding. Consequently, exact temperature control is very important, therefore the company VEIT has

conductivity, and the mutual action of pressure and temperature [7, 11].

vacuum. The assembly should be cooled in a horizontal plane [7, 11].

**4. Machines for joining the textiles using heat**

In order to create a welded area by hot air a heat‐transfer mechanism is applied between two thermoplastic surfaces by shaped or perforated nozzle to deliver hot air to heat between fabric surfaces before they are pressed between driven rollers to apply pressure and complete the welding. Hot wedge welding uses an electrically heated wedge that contains one or more cartridge heaters. The drive rollers pull the fabric through the machine and press the heated surfaces together, **Figure 7** [1].

**Figure 7.** Hot air (a) and wedge (b) welding equipment [1].

The Pfaff Industrial is a leader in manufacturing of machine for programmed seam sealing. The last model 8303i offers an increase in productivity of up to 20% compared with other taping machines, **Figure 8a** [15]. Manufacturer of welding machines and welding tapes company Framis [17] offers various welding machines for seamless joining and welding. Their trade‐ mark NoSo®, **Figure 8b**, heat bonding machines ensures depended on machine model raw cut edge for elasticated hem, raw cut edge with two sided adhesion tape for overlapped seams, folded edges in a single operation, seam sealing taping, decorative taping on open or finished garments, join of two fabrics where an adhesive tape has to have been applied between them.

structure and improve the shape of the garment, add warmth, increase bulkiness, improve handling during sewing, improve the feel or crease resistance, as well as to give a better folded

Applying Heat for Joining Textile Materials http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/64309/ 225

According to the structure, the support material of fusible interlining can be woven, knitted nonwoven. The thermoplastic adhesive is coating on the base fabric by the different kind of coating methods, **Figure 9** [4, 17]. The end form can be scatter powder, powder print, paste

For the paste print process, the adhesive polymer powder is mixed into an aqueous dispersion. This is applied with a rotation screen printing. The paste is forced through the preformation onto the interlining fabric. Afterward, the adhesive is dried, **Figure 9a** [13]. The 3P dot is a combination of the pate printing and powdering process, **Figure 9b** [13]. First, the paste dot is deposited onto the fabric, then the powder is scattered onto it. Afterward, the adhesive is dried and sintered. The underlying dot acts as a barrier in order to prevent the adhesive from penetrating into the interlining and direct it toward the outer fabric. In this way, the bond is optimized, difficult to fuse outer fabrics. The powder point process is a gravure printing process of adhesive onto the preheated interlining, **Figure 9c** [13]. In scatter powder process, the thermoplastic powder is drawn from a powder by a spiked roller. The adhesive is then heated with infra‐red heaters and bonded to the base material and flattened by pressing rollers,

The fusible interlining has not only great influence on the hand value of a fused panel, but also on the aesthetic appearance, functionality, shape or model stability, as well as on the end use

Welding tape for textile purposes presents a textile material coated with an adhesive on one or two sides of a textile substrate. The adhesives can be supplied in a variety of forms, such as film, web, tape, multilayer, fabric backed and release film backed, and the width can be adjusted according to the application issues. They may also be preapplied to the fabric, i.e., substrate in the form of dots or nonwoven layer, or built into the structure of the fabric as a low melting point fiber among higher melting point material. The following adhesives are

edge in the finished garment.

print dot, and 3P dot‐process [13].

**Figure 9d** [13].

of the garment.

**5.2. Welding tapes**

**Figure 9.** The types of coated adhesive on base cloth or substrate [13].

**Figure 8.** Hot air welding machines. (a) PFAFF 8303i [15] and (b) Framis MX 212 [16].
