Nonwovens is one of the youngest and most promising new fields in the textile industry. China’s nonwoven industry started late but is developing very rapidly. At the early stage of development, nonwovens were mainly used in the garment industry as auxiliary materials. With the rapid development of the social economy and science and technology, new products and technologies of nonwoven fabrics are emerging and changing day by day, and their applications are becoming more and more widespread.
The definition of the nonwoven fabric is: oriented or randomly arranged fibers that are combined with each other by friction, holding, or bonding, or a combination of these methods to make a sheet, fiber web, or flocculent mat, excluding paper, woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, tufted fabrics, and wet shrinkage of felt products. Because it is a fabric formed without spinning and weaving, but only the textile staple fiber or filament for directional or random arrangement, forming a fiber network structure and then reinforced by mechanical, thermal or chemical methods.
Classification of nonwoven fabrics
Nonwoven fabric breaks through the traditional textile principle and has the characteristics of short process, fast production speed, high yield, low cost, wide application, and many sources of raw materials, etc. It is a new generation of environmental protection material with the characteristics of water repellent, breathable, flexible, non-combustible, non-toxic and non-irritating, and rich in color.
The main fibers used in the production of nonwoven fabrics are polypropylene (PP) and polyester (PET). In addition, there are nylon (PA), viscose fiber, acrylic, ethylene (HDPE), and chlorine (PVC).
According to the application requirements: nonwoven fabrics are divided into two categories: disposable application type and durable type.
According to the production process is divided into:
1, hydroentangled nonwoven fabric: hydroentanglement process is a high-pressure micro-fine water jet to one or more layers of fiber network so that the fibers are entangled with each other so that the fiber network can be reinforced and have a certain strength.
2、Heat bonded nonwoven fabric: Heat bonded nonwoven fabric refers to the addition of fibrous or powdered hot melt bonded reinforcing material to the fiber web, which is then heated and melted and cooled to reinforce the fabric.
3, pulp airflow into the network of non-woven fabrics: airflow into the network of non-woven fabrics can also be called dust-free paper, dry paper non-woven fabrics. It is the use of airflow into the network technology to open the wood pulp fiberboard into a single fiber state, and then use the airflow method to make the fiber agglomeration into a network curtain, fiber network, and then reinforced into cloth.
4、Wet nonwoven fabric: Wet nonwoven fabric is placed in the aqueous medium to open the fiber raw materials into a single fiber, while making different fiber raw materials mixed, made of fiber suspension pulp, suspension pulp transported to the web-forming mechanism, the fiber in the wet state into the web and then reinforced into cloth.
5, spunbond nonwoven fabric: spunbond nonwoven fabric is in the polymer has been extruded, stretched and formed a continuous filament, the filament laying into a network, the fiber network and then through their own bonding, thermal bonding, chemical bonding, or mechanical reinforcement methods, so that the fiber network into a nonwoven fabric.
6、Meltblown nonwoven fabric: The process of melt-blown nonwoven fabric: polymer feeding — melt extrusion — fiber formation — fiber cooling — web formation — reinforcement into cloth.
7、Needle-punched nonwoven fabric: Needle-punched nonwoven fabric is a kind of dry nonwoven fabric. The needle-punched nonwoven fabric uses the piercing effect of the needle to reinforce the fluffy fiber network into cloth.
8、Sewn nonwoven fabric: Sewn nonwoven fabric is a kind of dry nonwoven fabric. The sewn method uses the warp knitting coil structure to reinforce the fiber web, yarn layer, non-textile materials (such as plastic sheet, plastic thin metal foil, etc.) or their combination to make nonwoven fabric.
9、Hydrophilic nonwoven fabrics: mainly used in the production of medical and sanitary materials to obtain a better feel and not scratch the skin. Like sanitary napkins and sanitary pads are using the hydrophilic function of hydrophilic nonwoven fabric.
Application of nonwoven fabrics
1、Geosynthetic materials
Geosynthetics are high-tech, high-value-added industrial textile materials with a wide range of uses. Nonwoven geotextiles mainly include: spunbond geotextiles, short fiber needled geotextiles, hot melt bonded geotextiles, geonets and grids, geomembranes, and composite geotextiles. Geotextiles have functions of reinforcement, isolation, filtration, drainage, and impermeability in geotechnical construction.
2、Non-woven filter media
Filtration material has become an important product essential to modern society. Non-woven filter media as a new type of filter media with its unique three-dimensional mesh structure, uniform distribution of pores, good filtration performance, low cost, and a variety of advantages is gradually replacing the traditional textile filter media, becoming the leading producer of filtration media, the development rate is very fast.
3、Nonwoven fabric for medical and health care
Medical nonwoven fabric is a product with development potential, which gives full play to the advantages of fiber as a health care material and is the product of an emerging industrial discipline formed by the fusion and intersection of various disciplinary technologies. It includes surgical gowns, protective clothing, sterilization wraps, masks, diapers, civil wipes, wiping cloths, wet face towels, magic towels, soft towel rolls, beauty products, sanitary napkins, sanitary pads, and disposable sanitary cloths, etc.
4、Nonwoven fabric for agriculture
The agricultural nonwoven fabric has a long service life, good effect, and low investment, and the promotion of the use of agricultural nonwoven fabric is conducive to the promotion of agricultural modernization. Agricultural use is mainly for shading, insulation, heat preservation, windbreak, fruit protection, pest prevention, seedling, sowing, mulching, etc.
5、Nonwoven fabric for clothing
Non-woven bonded interlining for garments is light, soft, low cost, wide range of thinness and thickness, adaptable, non-directional arrangement of fibers, stretchability, etc. It is easy to match with various fabrics. Including lining, bonded lining, wadding, shaping cotton, various synthetic leather backing, etc.
6, home decoration, household goods and packaging materials
It mainly refers to sofa and bed lining cloth, curtain and drapery, table cloth, household appliance cover cloth, suit cover, car upholstery, car protection cover, wipe cloth, equipment material commodity packaging cloth, etc.
Properties and Uses
Durable, disposable. Insulation, conductive. Flexibility, rigidity, stiffness. Fineness, swelling.
Isotropic, anisotropic. Filterability, air impermeability. Elasticity, stiffness.
Light, loose, warm. Thin as cicada wings, thick as felt. Waterproof and moisture permeable.
Ironed, sewn, molded. Flame retardant, anti-static. Water permeability, water resistance, abrasion resistance, pileability.
Crease-resistant, good elasticity, high moisture absorption, water repellency.
Medical and health care: surgical gowns, caps, hoods, plaster sponges, women’s sanitary napkins, baby diapers, wet face wipes, sanitary underwear, dust covers.
Agriculture: harvest cloth, greenhouse cloth.
Industry: floppy disk lining, speaker cloth, filter material, speaker sound insulation felt, sealing ring lining, cable cloth, fiberglass-reinforced towel, industrial wipe, shockproof liner, insulation material, tape baselining, pipe baselining, ventilation duct, sand skin cloth.
Packaging: composite cement bags, bag linings, packaging base linings, quilt wool, storage bags, mobile jacquard bag cloth.
Clothing and footwear: garment lining, wadding, toe hard lining, heel lining, underwear, artificial deerskin, synthetic leather, thermal shoe lining, cloth shoe sole lining.
Automobile industry: waste spinning insulation heat felt, anti-vibration felt, headliner, cushion lining, carpet, door lining, car filter core, molding cushion.
Household apparel: sofa lining, carpet, wall coverings, mirror cleaning cloth, tea bags, vacuum cleaner filter bags, shopping bags, printed bed sheets, party covers, upholstery, sleeping bags, dry cleaning wipes, cleaning cloth, curtains, tablecloths, lampshades.
Civil engineering, construction: reinforcement, reinforcing, filtration, linoleum backing, drainage board, roofing waterproof material, railroad, highway, berm, water slope, harbor sound insulation, sewer, heat protection, separation, drainage.
Other applications: launch vehicle, missile head heatproof cone, tail nozzle throat liner, advanced printing paper, space shuttle heat-resistant tile, map cloth, calendar cloth, artificial cloth, oil painting cloth.