Singeing

Singeing is the burning off of loose fibers sticking out of textile goods. Singeing a part of the pretreatment processes carried out in textile processing, and is usually the first step carried out after weaving.

Singeing is often carried out on cotton fabrics, or fabrics with cotton blends and results in increased wettability (better dyeing characteristics, improved reflection, no "frosty" appearance), a smoother surface (better clarity in printing), improved visibility of the fabric structure, less pilling, and decreased contamination through removal of fluff and lint.

Singeing usually passing involves exposing one or both sides of a fabric over a gas flame to burn off the protruding fibers. Other methods of singeing include infra-red singeing and heat singeing for thermoplastic fibers. Singeing of yarns is called "gassing."

Cellulosic fibers such as cotton are easily singed because the protroduing fibers burn to a light trace ash with is easily removed. Thermoplastic fibres are harder to singe because they melt and form hard residues on the fabric surface.