Abstract: Fabric-handling equipment which removes a fabric web from a stack of such webs or from a supporting surface, dries ink printed on a fabric, and removes a porous fabric held onto a surface by a vacuum. To remove a fabric web from a surface, like a stack of such webs, a device places needles partially into the web. Since the needles extend into the fabric less than about nine tenths of the fabric's thickness, they can only attach to the upper surface of a single web. The needles, after insertion into the web, separate from each other to effectuate a firm connection. When the device raises, it can only lift a single web. When a fabric web receives printing, touching it with a heated block having a Teflon surface cures the ink. This permits its subsequent printing or collecting and stacking. A fabric web may adhere to a supporting surface through suction.

Abstract: Waistband interlinings are made by ultrasonically cutting a fabric having warp yarns and fill yarns of a thermoplastics material along lines parallel to the warp threads. An acrylic finish on the fabric permits it to undergo the ultrasonic cutting, will retard the development of brittleness in the fused fibres, and keep the resulting fused edge intact. The fabric should have at least 30 fill yarns per inch but no more than 42 warp yarns per inch. The fabric is cut by passing it between a stationary pressing element, or knife, and the horn of an ultrasonic generator. The fill yarns melt as they pass between the knife and the horn and fuse into adjacent fill threads to form a continuous edge along the length of the cut fabric. The resulting waistband material has a smooth edge formed from fill, or weft, fibres fused to each other and to not more than one warp thread. The waistband interlining finds use in a waistband assembly for slacks and pants.

Abstract: An elongated interlining material for facings, for example waistbands, having slits on at least one and possibly both of its elongated edges. The slits permit the sewing of the facing to a curved edge of a garment in the normal fashion. In particular, the material will follow curves in the garment without utilizing any special guides, sewing techniques, or equipment. The facing incorporates the interlining, at least partially enclosed in a stretchable, elongated fabric, or outerlining. The facing, in turn, is sewn to the garment's edge, with the exposed surface of the interlining, if any, adjacent to the garment. The slits, directed away from the edge of the garment, permit the interlining to adapt to a concave curve by opening and allowing the portions of material on either side of the slit to slightly separate from each other. Around a convex curve, portions of interlining material adjacent to a slit may overlap.