The cotton calender consists of at least one heated cylinder (with diathermic oil or with steam) and cylinders that can rotate with variable and different speeds.
The appearance obtained on the fabric depends on the material (synthetic, cotton, paper, etc.) that covers the cylinders that work with the cylinder in rectified tempered steel or in pairs.
In a three-cylinder calendering process, the fabric, packaged in large rolls or folded on pallets, placed on the front in the center of the machine, passes:
through a fabric tensioner (see figure A, point 1), by a metal detector (fig. A, 2) which, if it detects metal elements in the fabric, stops the machine, between the return cylinders, another tensioner (fig. A , 3) and to a fixed expander (fig. A, 4).
Then the fabric arrives at the calendering unit which consists of a heatable central cylinder (fig. A, 5) in steel, a lower cylinder (fig. A, 6) and an upper one (fig. A, 7), both coated with different materials depending on the effect to be obtained on the fabric.
The lower and upper cylinders are controlled independently of each other so that, during its path, the fabric can undergo two different pressures on the central cylinder.
The fabric is then collected in a large roll (fig. A, 8), but some machines are also equipped with a folding machine.