Hand building and

Weighting
Dr Saira Faisal
Assistant professor
Textile Engineering Department
Hand Builders
• Finishes that add firmness to fabric hand are often called
hand builders.
• Hand or Handle are the terms used to describe how a

Dr Saira Faisal
fabric drapes around an object or feels to the touch.
• When the fabric becomes stiffer or bulkier, the hand of
the fabric is said to be built.
• Chemicals that accomplish this are called Hand builders.
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Hand building and Weighting
• Often a textile fabric requires a firm feel or hand. This can be
accomplished by adding a chemical finish to increase the
fabric stiffness.
• Large quantities of hand builders are used today to improve the

Dr Saira Faisal
hand of fabrics that are too flimsy, limpy or raggy;
• for either the customer, as point-of-sale finishes, or
• subsequent processing, such as sewing or automated materials
handling.
• These finishes are also used to increase the weight of fabrics
that are below weight specifications.
• With increased bulk, stiffness or weight, the processability and 3
marketability of these fabrics is increased.
As point-of-sale finishes
Examples:
• Handkerchief Coloured woven dusters,
• Bleached or printed tea towels and
• Damask style table cloths

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These articles are always sold with a crisp finish.
• As the finish has to be temporary and has no
technical value (only for increased sale appeal) it
must be of low cost. 4
To aid making-up into the final article
• The light application of hand build finish can improve
aesthetic appeal or it can give fabric a temporary handle to aid
making-up into the final article.
• Fabrics with some degree of dimensional stability can be

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handles much more efficiently by sewing machines.

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To aid making-up into the final article
• Hand building finish is required where fabric patterns are
incorporated in the manufacturing of other products.
• Example;
• In shoe trade – small patterned components are cut out prior

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to assembly. Handling can cause fraying of cut edges, which
can be reduced by application of hand finish.
• It stick the yarns together for the machining process

Fraying of cut fabric edge

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industrial uniforms, such
as some jeans, overalls,
aprons and lab coats
• tapestries and awning
fabrics
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Classification
Hand Building Finishes
Starches
Non durable
Polyvinyl
Alcohol

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Polyvinyl Acetate

Thermoset
Durable
Polymers
Acrylic Co-
polymers 8
Glass Transition Temperature
• The glass transition temperature, often called Tg, is an important property when
considering polymers for a particular end-use.
• The glass transition temperature is the temperature below which the physical
properties of plastics change in a manner similar to those of a glassy or crystalline
state, and above which they behave like rubbery materials.
• A polymer’s Tg, is the temperature below which molecules have little relative

Dr Saira Faisal
mobility.

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Non-durable hand building finishes
• Hand building finishes that lose their effect after
one or two launderings are considered non-
durable.

Dr Saira Faisal
• These finishes are usually low-cost water-soluble
polymers.

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Non-durable hand building finishes
Starches
• starches are a mixture of amylose, a linear
structure of alpha-1,4 linked glucose
units, and amylopectin, a highly branched
structure of short alpha-1,4 chains linked
by alpha-1,6 bonds.

Dr Saira Faisal
• Most native starches are semi-crystalline
with crystallinity about 20–45%
• For pea, wheat, potato and waxy maize
starch the Tg is 75°C, 143°C, 152°C and
158°C, respectively.
• When the amylose/amylopectin ratio
increased a decrease in Tg was found.
• Therefore products with higher
percentages of amylose are more flexible. 11
Non-durable hand building finishes
• Polyvinyl Alcohol
• Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is colorless, flammable, odorless and
tasteless, clear, white granular fine particles.
• Having glass transition temperature Tg of 80C

Dr Saira Faisal
• It is water soluble, slightly soluble in ethanol, but insoluble in
other organic solvents.
• Generally, its molecular weight is between 26,300 and 30,000 unit.

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Non-durable hand building finishes
• PVA is made by dissolving
polyvinyl acetate (PVAc),
in an alcohol such
as methanol and treating it
with an alkaline catalyst

Dr Saira Faisal
such as sodium hydroxide.
• The resulting hydrolysis
reaction removes the
acetate groups from the
PVAc molecules without
disrupting their long-chain
structure. 13
Non-durable hand building finishes
• Reaction Mechanism
• Fixation of the poly(vinyl alcohol) onto/or within the
cellulose structure is accompanied by the formation of
semi-inter-penetrated network structure thereby

Dr Saira Faisal
enhancing the association as well as providing very
high stiffness and pilling resistance.

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Non-durable hand building finishes
• PVA is widely used as hand builder due to its;
• high tensile strength,
• better flexibility,

Dr Saira Faisal
• high thermal and chemical stability,
• water solubility and the good film forming ability
• can be applied by pad-dry-cure.

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Durable hand building finishes
• Hand building finishes that retain their stiffening and fullness effects
after repeated launderings are considered to be durable.
• These products are usually aqueous emulsions of polymers that form
water-insoluble films on the fibre surface when dried.

Dr Saira Faisal
• The three main types of products are;
• vinyl acetate-containing polymers,
• acrylic copolymers and
• thermosetting polymers
• Selection Criteria:
• Cost, ease of application and ultimate fabric properties are factors 16
to consider when choosing the appropriate material.
 Thermosetting Polymers
• Urea/formaldehyde and in particular, melamine/formaldehyde
are thermosetting resins that stiffen fabric.
• they can be used on other fibers as hand builders.
• Melamine/Formaldehyde

Dr Saira Faisal
• These resins form three-dimensional cross-linked polymers
that impart bulk and resilience to fabrics.
• They are used on synthetic fibers, e.g. polyester, nylon
acrylics, as well as cellulosic and are durable to repeated
laundering and dry cleaning.
• Urea/Formaldehyde are often used on rayon fabrics.
• However, the UF are not as durable to repeated laundry as are 17
the MF.
Vinyl acetate-containing polymers
• Polyvinyl acetate has a
Tg of 30 °C and provides
a stiff hand to treated
fabrics.

Dr Saira Faisal
• PVAc emulsions are
widely used as textile
finishes because of their;
• low cost and good adhesion
to natural and synthetic
fabrics 18
The hand building effect
• High molecular weight and especially the crosslinking hand builders
tend to provide mostly stiffness with some added fullness.
• This is due to their attachment at the fabric surface and accumulation
in spaces between yarns. Individual fibres and yarns are bound

Dr Saira Faisal
together, which accounts for the stiffness observed.
• Smaller macromolecules penetrate more easily between individual
fibres of the yarn bundle, binding the fibres with a minimum of yarn-
to-yarn connections and resulting in both fullness without a high
degree of stiffness.
• Crosslinkable products can provide both fabric fullness and stiffness
that is durable to laundering and dry cleaning. 19
Hand building and weighting testing
• The effects of a fabric stiffening treatment can be quantified by the
cantilever method described in ASTM D1388-96.
• A sample of specified length and width is placed on top of the test
device. The device has a horizontal surface connected to a downward

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incline. The fabric is pushed over the incline until the sagging leading
edge just touches the inclined plane of the device.
• The length of fabric that has passed over the point where the
horizontal and incline meet is used to calculate the fabric’s flexural
rigidity.
• Measurement of the degree of weighting can be done by comparing
the final weight of the fabric in g/m2 to the initial weight. 20