Commercially practicable preparation and finishing techniques have been studied that can be combined to produce improved durable-press or easy-care woven cotton fabrics, especially lightweights. Fabric mercerization combined with extensive stretching in the filling direction was highly effective in improving tensile and tear strength after subsequent finishing, especially in the filling direction.As an alternative to mercerization, liquid-ammonia treatment on commercial equipment had the additional benefits of greater fabric softness, better abrasion resistance, and better fabric appearance after laundering. Finishing with so-called buffered glyoxal crosslinking resins gave a consistently better balance of durable-press rating to strength than the older, less-buffered ones. Application of finish with a low wet pick-up technique resulted in better chemical efficiency and abrasion resistance than a conventional pad application.

Although formaldehyde has many advantages as a crosslinking agent, including low chemical cost and high finish durability, formaldehyde processes are notorious for lack of control, high strength loss of treated cotton, and excessive fumes around the treating range. This paper describes attempts to develop techniques that suffer less from these deficiencies. The first experiments were aimed at developing a version of the gaseous formaldehyde/sulfur dioxide process, hitherto successfully used on garments only, for continuous processing of fabric. This led to comparisons of different means of applying formaldehyde and catalysts, both in gaseous form and in aqueous solutions. The preferred systems proved to be based on application of aqueous formaldehyde at very low wet pickup, with one of a variety of catalysts.

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