Abstract: A creping machine comprising a driven rotary carrier roll; a stationary blade assembly which is positioned to press sheet material into entrained engagement with the circumferential surface of the carrier roll and which includes a resilient spring blade projecting downstream from the immediately adjacent portion of the assembly; and a stationary retarder extending downstream from the circumferential surface of the carrier roll adjacent to the projecting resilient spring blade and over which the sheet material passes on disengagement from the said surface; the retarder having a transverse upstream facing wall extending downwardly from its upper surface whereby a cavity constituting a creping zone is defined upstream of the said wall and beneath the projecting resilient spring blade. Operation of the machine, which can in some cases be effected without a projecting blade causes a true creping action at wall.

Abstract: A method for the longitudinal compressive treatment of a flexible web, e.g. of paper or textile material, in which the web is continuously driven longitudinally into and through a retarding treatment zone defined by and between a pair of opposed surfaces at least one of which is stationary and rough and retardingly engages the web, the value of the retarding force applied to the web over at least a part of the length of the retarding treatment zone varying in oscillatory fashion across the width of the zone so that the treatment improves or provides a directional property (e.g. stretch) of the web in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. In machines for obtaining this effect, the degree of roughness of retarder surface to which the web is subjected in the zone suitably so varies across the zone.