Scientific Guide to the Three Core Production Processes of Garment Interlinings: Paste Dot, Powder Dot, and Double Dot
I. What Is Fusible Interlining?
Fusible interlining is an indispensable auxiliary material for garment manufacturing. Hot-melt adhesive dots are evenly coated onto woven or non-woven base fabrics. After heat pressing, the interlining firmly laminates with outer fabrics to deliver dimensional stability, stiffness, anti-deformation performance and structural reinforcement.
Three mainstream mass-production coating technologies are widely adopted globally: Paste Dot, Powder Dot and Double Dot. They feature obvious disparities in coating mechanism, hand feel, peel strength and applicable scenarios, which serve as the core reference for garment buyers to select matching materials.
Universal pre-coating production flow for all three processes:
Base fabric unwinding → Pre-shrinking & heat setting → Dust removal → Adhesive coating (core differentiating section) → Multi-stage gradient drying & sintering → Cooling & shaping → Slitting & winding → Quality inspection & packaging & warehousing
II. Powder Dot Process
1. Production Principle
No primer paste is used in this process. Hot-melt adhesive powder is uniformly scattered onto moving flat base fabrics via cold or hot powder scattering equipment, temporarily adhered by static electricity or slight pre-melting. A negative-pressure vacuum system removes redundant floating powder between dots to leave regular granular adhesive dots. The substrate then enters a high-temperature oven for complete melting and sintering, forming independent solid glue pellets after cooling.
Applicable adhesive powders cover HDPE, LDPE, PA and PES. PE-based powder is widely used for cost-effective standard products, while PA powder boasts a broader melting range and fits a wider variety of shell fabrics.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages
- Raised distinct glue dots provide strong supporting force and excellent shaping effect after lamination.
- No barrier paste layer exists on the surface; direct contact between hot-melt pellets and outer fabrics ensures high instantaneous peel strength.
- Low equipment investment, fast production speed and competitive unit cost, suitable for mass-budget interlining orders.
Disadvantages
- Adhesive pellets only attach superficially to base fabrics, easily causing dot shedding and blistering after repeated washing cycles.
- Relatively rigid hand feel with ordinary air permeability, not suitable for lightweight, drape-sensitive fashion fabrics.
- Requires high heat pressing temperature (150–180°C); thin or heat-sensitive fabrics face risks of scorching or adhesive strike-through.
3. Typical Applications
Shirt collars, waistbands, hat brims, front plackets and other positions requiring rigid shaping; affordable workwear, disposable shaping interlinings and rigid non-woven interlinings.
III. Paste Dot Process
1. Production Principle
Hot-melt adhesive powder is blended with water, thickeners and functional additives to prepare flowable water-based adhesive paste. A rotary screen roller engraved with dot patterns transfers the paste onto base fabrics through doctor blade coating. The coated fabric undergoes low-temperature drying to fully remove moisture, followed by high-temperature sintering to melt and cure the adhesive paste. Finally, adhesive dots penetrating fabric fiber gaps are formed to achieve solid anchoring.
Rotary screen paste dot technology has optimal compatibility with non-woven substrates, which is why it dominates the lightweight and mid-to-high grade non-woven interlining market; it also works well for thin woven interlinings.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages
- Adhesive paste permeates fiber interstices of base fabrics, forming firm anchorage that resists integral peeling and particle shedding during washing.
- Thin and flat glue dots offer softer, smoother hand feel compared with powder dot interlining.
- Precise control of adhesive add-on, ideal for customized lightweight woven and premium non-woven interlinings.
Disadvantages
- Additional moisture drying procedure increases energy consumption and lowers production efficiency versus powder dot lines.
- Single-layer adhesive structure sees noticeable decline in peel strength after long-term high-temperature washing.
- Narrow heat pressing window; insufficient temperature will lead to poor lamination performance.
3. Typical Applications
Lightweight chiffon, knitwear, dress lining, mid-range suit pocket interlining and various types of fusible non-woven interlinings.
IV. Double Dot Process (Mid-to-High-End Mainstream Industrial Process)
1. Production Principle
The most commercially prevalent double dot structure adopts a two-step continuous coating design: base paste primer layer + surface powder overlay, with the most complex structure and superior comprehensive performance among the three processes.
Step 1: Rotary screen coats water-based primer paste onto base fabrics to form bottom dots specially engineered for strong bonding with substrates.
Step 2: Before the primer paste dots are fully dried, hot-melt adhesive powder is scattered onto damp paste dots and naturally adheres to the moist surface.
Excess loose powder is extracted via vacuum suction. The fabric then passes through multi-zone gradient ovens: moisture is removed first, then high-temperature sintering fuses the two adhesive layers into an integrated whole. After cooling, a dual-layer composite dot system takes shape – the bottom primer anchors tightly to base fabric fibers, and the top hot-melt layer laminates with outer shell fabrics.
Apart from paste-powder double dot, the industry also develops double powder dot variants with adhesive powder for both bottom and top layers yet different composite structures. Nevertheless, paste-powder double dot occupies an absolute dominant share of mass production.
Common adhesive systems include PA and copolyester PES, customized for premium garments demanding outstanding resistance to repeated washing and dry cleaning.
2. Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages
- Dual-layer structure delivers dual protection: the primer locks firmly onto base fabric fibers, and the top adhesive layer achieves full wetting with outer fabrics, offering exceptional anti-wash, anti-dry-clean, anti-blister and anti-delamination performance for long-term use.
- Balanced hand feel: soft yet supportive, combining fine drapability and stable shaping capacity, with air permeability far superior to powder dot products.
- Ultra-wide heat pressing temperature window ranging from 110°C to 160°C. Advanced micro-dot double dot interlining can operate at 110–130°C to perfectly match heat-sensitive fabrics, while conventional standard grades maintain stable lamination at 130–145°C.
- Customizable low add-on micro dots, applicable to luxury raw materials such as silk, worsted wool and stretch knit fabrics.
Disadvantages
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