High-end men's formal jackets are made with fine craftsmanship and can involve around 150 operations. Precise stitching, sewing, and finesse are essential to create these niche engineered products. However, without proper ironing, the final product may lose its charm and the carefully crafted shape.

The pressing of jackets primarily involves two methods: in-line pressing and end-line pressing. In-line pressing focuses on pressing darts, pockets, side seams, and edges, while end-line pressing encompasses the front and back of the garment, collars, lapels, shoulders, armholes, and sleeves. The final finishing of jackets requires a series of operations.

Traditionally, bespoke manufacturers used flat surface bucks with irons to finish various components of jackets. However, with advanced and specialized finishing equipment, bespoke garment makers now have more efficient options. Different types of machines are available for specific purposes in jacket pressing.

The end-line pressing of jackets involves various tasks, which can be categorized as follows:

Front& Back Pressing

Pressing the front and back of the jacket can be done separately or in a simultaneous operation. Some machines can iron a jacket placed vertically or horizontally. Various brands offer different techniques, including separate machines for left and right front pressing, center and side back ironing, and simultaneous pressing of both right and left foreparts. Other machines can press the entire front and back with horizontal and vertical closing bucks.

There are also robot machines for  vertically pressing the front and back of the jacket together. In this process, the jacket is placed on a hanger, and air is blown inside to open the bottom circumference. Robotic arms then position the jacket on a vertical dummy and press it in a top-down motion. Only one operator is needed to align the jacket manually and engage the clamps. The jacket remains on the hanger throughout the process, preserving its shape and highlighting different parts. Steam and suction operations can be performed using different chambers within the bucks.

These advanced pressing methods and machines have revolutionized the jacket pressing process, ensuring that high-end formal jackets maintain their shape, quality, and finish.

Pressing of Collar, Lapel and Shoulder


The collar pressing machine consists of vertically closing upper bucks to iron both the collars simultaneously. The jacket needs to be placed manually on a diamond shaped buck and are aligned in such a way so as to prevent the fabric underneath the collars to have an impression mark on the body. The bucks used in such type of machines have vacuum for collar, lapels with single programmed air blowing, and the head buck for steaming the collar and the lapel areas.


In a shoulder pressing machine there are two bucks, one for the right and the other for the left shoulders of a jacket. These machines come with features like unique buck designs for different sizes, rapid changing bucks to save machine downtime, and pre-heating of bucks for decreasing the style changeover time. The shoulder ironing machines usually have two lower bucks and two movable upper bucks that revolve in necessary directions to achieve a perfectly orthogonal pressing.


Armhole and Sleeve Pressing


The machines for pressing armhole and sleeves of jackets come with different kinds of equipments. Some machines have two lower dummies that are equipped with vacuum and steaming provisions in the shoulder region, air blowing and steaming in the sleeves and arm holes, and flapper screen. The vertically heated head which releases steam to press the shoulder and then begins the air blowing of the sleeves, and at the very end the flapper screen covers the whole sleeve and armhole area. Few machines have special air bag system, wherein the pressure can be adjusted so that the garment can be held at its place. There is also an added provision for push-up and roll-on sleeve models of pressing with used of these machines.


Such highly engineered machines with precise provisions help provide complete finishing to a perfectly designed jacket. The more commercially available machines, which are also used by dry-cleaners, do not provide end-line pressing of each and every component of a jacket. Professional machines make it easier to achieve finer and crisper finishing results.


References:


1.      Stitchworld.net