Mercerization is a treatment that is carried out on the cotton fabric under tension with caustic soda, concentrated at 30 ° Be (Baumè), at a temperature of 10/15 ° C. It is also possible to mercerize fabrics of cotton mixed with viscose rayon, for which the most suitable parameters are 13 ° Be and a bath temperature of about 20 ° C. Due to the high tension that can be exerted on the fabric, the chain machine is the most suitable for making a mercerization with a high degree of brilliance, but for its greater compactness
and yield are usually used cylinder machines. In any case, these are fully automated machines, whereby the piece, after rinsing, is mercerized and ready for subsequent processing. Due to the difficulty of soda penetration, it is necessary to use wetting substances.
For knitted fabrics, given the particular structure of the fabric, the machine is equipped with motorized cylinders that avoid excessive stress on the fabric.