The top-dyed worsted route runs in three relays — top-dyed recombing, spinning and weaving, then dyeing and finishing — because the tops are dyed before spinning and weaving, so nothing in the finishing chain that follows is a dyeing step. The route's key choices sit across the dyeing-and-finishing end: whether crabbing comes before or after scouring, how scouring and milling are combined, which decatizing method is chosen — these decide the finished cloth's clean face, crisp hand and dimensional stability. QL supplies the wool tops backwashing line in the top-dyed recombing workshop, yarn steaming in the weaving workshop, and the wet- and dry-finishing stations from crabbing through to decatizing in the dyeing and finishing workshop.
View this process route diagram.
What worsted finishing is for: clean face, crisp hand, dimensional stability
Worsted finishing has to deliver three things: a clean face — the weave stays visible, not buried under nap. A crisp hand — the piece holds its shape once cut. Dimensional stability — it does not move once the garment is made and washed for the first time. None of the three comes from a single finishing machine; they come from a relay of steps down the wet- and dry-finishing chain, set out in the order below.
From coloured top to yarn-dyed greige: connecting the workshops
This route dyes and recombs the tops before spinning and weaving. Loading, dyeing and hydro-extraction come first; the WPF-MTFX backwashing line then removes residue, applies auxiliaries and dries the tops, with the WPF-NJ splicer joining the incoming strands. After drying, choose either the WPF-PT Wool Tops Coiler for cans or the WPF-CQ Wool Tops Ball Winder for balls to suit the following operations. These are alternative configurations at the same delivery position. Blending, weight-adjusting gilling, recombing, can-delivery gilling and finisher gilling produce coloured top. The top-dyed recombing guide explains those stages.
The coloured top passes through preparatory gilling and roving, followed by spinning, winding, doubling and twisting. Before weaving preparation and weaving, the WPF-ZS handles yarn steaming to set twist; the yarn steaming guide explains its role. Inspection and mending then prepare the yarn-dyed greige for finishing, so no piece-dyeing station is added below.
Crabbing before or after scouring: what each order solves
Where crabbing sits relative to scouring is this route's first fork. The mainstream order scours first — spinning oil, size and soil are washed out of the greige before crabbing, so none of it gets set into the face during the hot-liquor bath. Qualities with sharp patterns, higher elasticity requirements or a tendency to distort take the other order — crab first, relieving the weaving stress and fixing the shape before the fabric meets the wash, so the stages that follow do not distort it. Either way, crabbing itself still comes down to a batch-or-continuous choice, covered further down.
Scouring: rope or open-width, what is removed and how far to go
Scouring forks first by quality. Clear-finish types — gabardine, serge and the like — are the mainstream: scouring only, no milling, because the weave has to stay visible. Face-finish types — flannel and similar — take a light milling step on top of scouring, covered in the next section. Scouring form is the second fork: rope scouring (WPF-XN) cleans more thoroughly and suits most everyday fabrics that are not crease-sensitive, removing spinning oil, size and soil in rope form; mohair, silk and synthetic-fibre fabrics, which crease easily and do not take well to rope form, go to open-width washing (WPF-JXPX) instead — the whole piece sewn end to end into a loop and run in open width throughout, with none of rope scouring's crease marks, and even treatment right into crabbing with no untwisting or spreading needed.
Wool milling for face finishes and the scour–mill set-up: separate, combined, or mill then open-width wash
Milling works through wool's directional frictional effect: under wet mechanical action the scales on the fibre surface interlock, driving fibres toward the root and into one another, an irreversible tightening that gives face-finish qualities their fullness and cover. Configuring it comes down to three routes, chosen by the finish you want rather than run in sequence:
- Separate, mill then scour (steady batches): the WPF-1S wool milling machine, then the WPF-XN rope scouring machine to wash it clean.
- Combined, one machine (batches that routinely mix colours and weights and must run together): the WPF-4XS combined scouring and milling machine, its four channels each set independently so nothing cross-shades.
- Mill, then open-width wash (qualities that should not go back into rope form after milling): the WPF-1S, then untwist and open the fabric out and wash the soap liquor off on the WPF-JXPX in open width.
Crabbing: batch versus continuous, setting depth and end-to-end variation
Whichever side of scouring it sits on, crabbing itself is a batch-or-continuous choice. Batch crabbing (WPF-ZN) uses a single-bath, twin-cylinder reciprocating structure — the fabric exchanges position pass after pass within one liquor, giving the whole piece one identical heat history with no head-to-tail variation, the industry benchmark for setting depth. Continuous crabbing runs the crabbing section of the WPF-LXZH continuous crabbing and drying line — five submerged baths in series, each pressed flat by a roller pair and each chargeable with its own liquor, tension, pressure, heat and time controlled stage by stage — suited to continuous, higher-volume runs that should not be slowed by batch loading.
Why hydro-extraction and drying are separate steps, and when cylinder drying pays
Wet fabric coming off rope scouring or milling needs untwisting and open-width spreading first — some lines add mangling too — before it can move on; QL covers that stage with pre-owned refurbished equipment. Hydro-extraction and drying stay as two separate steps rather than one: hydro-extraction removes surplus water, and drying then completes the drying task; these are separate stations. Drying itself is then a choice between adding the WPF-LXZH continuous drying section (cylinder-type) or keeping the drying equipment already on the floor — neither has to replace the other. The continuous drying section is a contact-cylinder tower built to head off wool's usual risk on cylinders, a glazed face and a stiffer hand, with PTFE-coated cylinders, tier-by-tier temperature control and alternating double-face contact, suited to a line that wants to run straight off the crabbing section. Where the existing dryer already meets output and handle requirements, keeping it works just as well. The continuous crabbing and drying guide explains the two equipment sections separately.
Dry finishing: brushing, shearing, pre-shrinking and decatizing in order, and the handle decision
Dry finishing starts with moisture: fabric off the dryer usually sits below its normal regain, so it is reconditioned first on the WPF-PP rotating disc moistening unit, since raising, shearing, pressing and decatizing all need that moisture to work. The next fork is by quality: face-finish types that have been milled go to raising, to lift the pile, and clear-finish types go to shearing, to level the surface, both currently covered by QL with pre-owned refurbished equipment. Either way the piece then goes to brushing on the WPF-SM Vertical Brushing Machine, which combs the fibres back into one direction and clears loose debris, then on to calendering, also pre-owned refurbished equipment, for a temporary lustre.
Pre-shrinking is a choice of two, and it decides where weft straightening sits:
- Pin-chain: the WPF-LTYS pin-chain steaming-shrinking machine locks the width for the whole cycle, so straightening runs first, on the WPF-ZW pin-wheel weft straightener, at infeed — the route for wovens.
- Belt-type: the WPF-WDYS belt-type steaming-shrinking machine relaxes the fabric freely, so straightening runs after — the relaxed pre-shrinking path.
Decatizing closes the dry-finishing chain. Shade variation and head-to-tail variation mostly trace back to steam reaching the width unevenly, with condensate dripping inside the steam-rise chamber adding local hot spots. The choice is one of four, set by throughput and setting depth:
- Continuous, covers fringed qualities: the WPF-LXZN continuous decatizing machine builds the heating bank into the steam-rise chamber itself, staging the temperature up to prevent that condensation, paired with QL's proprietary Decatizing Uniformity Technology so steam reaches the full width in sync. Continuous travel also accommodates fringed scarves and shawls that are difficult to load on batch equipment.
- Batch, for a deeper set: the WPF-JXZN-MAX discontinuous decatizing machine runs a Ø2000 oversized cylinder with the QL Micro-Pressure Uniform Steaming Technology.
- Continuous-pressure, deeper set without stopping: the WPF-LXZN-P continuous-pressure decatizing machine raises the vessel to 0–3 bar at continuous throughput, reaching light-kier-grade setting depth.
- Kier decatizing: QL supplies pre-owned refurbished equipment.
The last fork is by handle: standard qualities go straight to final inspection and rolling, and qualities wanting a loftier, softer hand add an air-flow softening step, which QL also supplies as pre-owned refurbished equipment.
Bring your fabric types, batch sizes and current machine list to QL and we talk process before configuration: WhatsApp +1 380 900 2442, or +86 189 2110 8080.