Sanforizing and Compressive Shrinkage Machines
topic
Sanforizing machines mechanically pre-shrink woven fabric by feeding it into the nip between a heated cylinder and an elastic rubber belt under compression that buckles and compacts the fabric in the machine direction, permanently reducing the fabric length by the amount of residual shrinkage measured before processing, achieving residual shrinkage below 1 percent after three home washes at 60 degrees Celsius compared to 5 to 8 percent for unsanforized fabric.
Role
Provides the dimensional stability guarantee required for ready-to-wear apparel by pre-compacting fabric to its stable dimensions before garment making, eliminating the unacceptable garment shrinkage that would otherwise occur during consumer laundering and preventing the pattern cutting dimension changes that would make unsanforized fabric unsuitable for sized garment production without pre-washing allowances.