What do you need to know about hand ironing within your production lines?

Who are we and what can you find out in this article?

We are the only company focused on providing our customers direct support on the production lines. Furthermore, we offer free specialized seminars (in case you are or want to be our client).

In this article we want to draw your attention to the most important steps that need to be followed in the production process of your textile company, more precisely, manual ironing in underpressing and final stages.

Underpressing or final ironing? 

With 60 years of experience in the industrial field, we have learned that we have to take into account several important factors for an efficient production line.

The sequence of the operations in the underpressing and final stages of the ironing process is extremely important when we want to be efficient and at the same time offer the highest product quality.

During the interactions with our clients we have noticed that most of them focus on the final ironing stage and pay little to no attention to the underpressing stage. Therefore, our recommendation is that special attention is to be paid to hand ironing in the underpressing stage, because this is where all the component parts of the clothing product are ironed. We call this constructive ironing. This means that each seam to be ironed, each dart to be created, as well as others , must be performed correctly and at the same time fixed (dried and cooled) so that the result obtained will not damage in the following phases (assembly of components).

First we need to pay attention to the workflow equipment – which is the most important part of the production process. Most of our clients have very experienced operators who in most cases succeed through hard work to get an acceptable result, which, in most cases requires investing a lot of time and efforts.  Remember that in the end you are paying for everything.

What do you need to take into consideration?

The setup of the workstations within underpressing lines must be carefully chosen:

• High quality steam – dry and strong steam which softens the fibers of the fabric or knitwear. Its quantity must be adjustable with the help of the solenoid valve.

• The industrial steam iron – it is very important that the iron has a robust design and a low weight to simplify the ironing operation for the operator. Apart from the small weight, another aspect that helps the operator to handle the iron for longer periods of time is the steam release switch. The steam release switch should be ergonomically positioned at the top of the iron handle. Industrial irons, produced by our partner –  VEIT, have a very special feature that allows the operator to calibrate the exact temperature needed for the ironing process. Precise control of the iron sole’s temperature helps to iron even the most delicate fabrics. For example for the industrial iron Veit HP 2003 the temperature is electronically controlled (using VEITRONIC) obtaining the right temperature needed for the application – with a maximum tolerance of +/- 1 ° C.  A standard iron, which is controlled by a bimetal thermostat, has a high tolerance of +/- 15-20 ° C, which means inconsistent temperature and quality.  Nowadays, as you already know, the textile yarns used for weaving or knitting are of inferior quality. The quality of the fabric or the final knit is achieved through many and various chemical treatments. For this reason, from our experience, these materials are not sensitive to high temperatures but to steam and mechanical pressure. Most of our customers are using industrial irons equipped with teflon soles during the underpressing stage, which reduces the ironing temperature up to 40 °C. Thus, at low temperatures you can only soften the material by using steam which can cause damage to the material. Our solution for over 90% of the material to be ironed is to replace the teflon sole with the teflonised stainless steel sole which can deliver the same temperature as the iron sole itself. With a reduced amount of steam and temperature of the stainless steel sole we can soften the material sufficiently to be formed very easily later on.

• With the help of an ironing table, which is usually rectangular shaped, that offers a very good suction (vacuum) so we can cool down and dry the fabrics after they are shaped. This operation is very important because we set the result obtained by forming the material. The risk for the material parts to be damaged in the next operations  is eliminated by cooling and drying correctly.

• The table covers represent a very important part in the construction of an ironing table, but at the same time they can be very tricky to obtain the needed result. All the covers that are currently on the market, have a similar appearance, but the percentage and quality of the materials from which they are produced are very different and this radically influences the final quality of the product. Our partners design the covers so that the production costs for them are the lowest possible and the customer’s expected results are obtained. In our experience there are two different sets of covers for the ironing tables. So, in the underpressing ironing stage, where 90% of the materials are ironed “on the inside”, you need a solid cover set, while at the final finishing stage, where the materials are ironed “on the outside”, you need a soft cover set. We make this distinction to avoid imprints, a shiny appearance, deformation of the appearance of the material’s surface, and other defects.
  If you find this concept interesting and you want to know more about how to equip your ironing tables correctly, please do not hesitate to ask us.

• The operator – we tend to believe that it is a very important factor in regards to the efficiency and the result of the ironing process. However, from our experience, the correctly defined set-up of the workstation as well as better performing tools, makes  the operator’s work much shorter and easier throughout the process. With the help of professional and quality equipment, the operator can afford to make mistakes, regardless of the ironing method used.

Alongside the leaders for this segment, Veit Group, we have defined 8 clear and precise manual ironing methods. 4 methods for underpressing stage and 4 method for final stage of manual ironing. With these methods and a correct set-up of the equipment, you can iron any material in a short time in order to obtain the highest quality. Without headaches!

If we caught your attention, ask us about the methods of ironing and what you should also consider in the final ironing. TEXCO team together with specialized technicians from VEIT is offering you the opportunity to directly train operators at their workstations. The fact that we are always receptive to your needs and have the necessary resources to help you, makes us special. After the seminar offered by us, each of your operators will benefit from a very well established “TO DO LIST”, which will help them working correctly and efficiently.