The origin of non-woven fabrics can be traced back to ancient China, where nomadic peoples made felt by adding animal hair, water, urine, or milk powder through mechanical actions such as stepping on or beating with sticks. This is the early prototype of nonwoven materials in history. According to the "General Examination of Documents", there were practical activities in the Song Dynasty of China, such as "hair cocoons, cocoons, and self made quilts". Make flat cocoons with a length of 8m and a width of 1.3m by using "ten thousand silkworms tied together".
The industrial production of non-woven fabrics has been happening for nearly a hundred years. The modern industrial production of non-woven fabrics began in 1878 when William Bywater, a British company, successfully developed the world's first needle punching machine.
The true modernization of the non-woven fabric industry began only after World War II, and with the end of the war, the world was in a state of great need for various textiles. In this situation, non-woven fabrics have achieved rapid development and have roughly gone through four stages so far: embryonic stage, commercial production stage, important development stage, and global development stage.
Medical non-woven fabrics are mainly composed of 3-5 layers of non-woven fabrics, namely SMS or SMMMS combination. The important one is the barrier layer, which is the meltblown non-woven fabric layer M (MelTbow). The fiber diameter of this layer is relatively fine, ranging from 2 to 3 μ m. It plays a crucial role in preventing the infiltration of bacteria and blood.
Although medical non-woven fabrics do not belong to medical devices, they are related to the sterilization quality of medical devices. As a packaging material, the quality of medical non-woven fabrics themselves and the packaging method are crucial to ensuring the level of sterility.The non-woven fabric used for medical packaging complies with the GB/T 19633 standard, which is equivalent to the international standard ISO 11607 "Packaging of Final Sterilized Medical Devices".In Chapter 5 "Packaging Materials", the characteristics of packaging materials are specified as follows: ① Microbial barriers. ② Toxicological characteristics. ③ Physical and chemical properties. ④ Adaptability to the sterilization process expected for the material. ⑤ Adaptability to forming and sealing processes. ⑥ The storage life limit of packaging materials before and after sterilization.
Issues to consider in the use of non-woven fabrics:
1. Insufficient weight: The weight of non-woven fabrics can directly affect the weight of customers' products, which may be caused by uneven layering during the mesh laying process and failure to accurately connect the two ends.
2.Uneven thickness: Uneven thickness of non-woven fabrics is also caused by uneven laying of fiber cotton during carding and mesh laying, insufficient technical experience, and inaccurate equipment.
3. Antistatic properties: Non woven fabrics with static electricity are prone to adhesion, which seriously affects subsequent processing or affects their wearing and usage performance.
After high-temperature sterilization, the internal results of medical packaging non-woven fabrics may change, affecting the penetration and antibacterial properties of the sterilization medium. Therefore, medical non-woven fabrics should not be reused for sterilization. The changes in the performance of various parameters before and after sterilization of medical packaging non-woven fabrics are extremely important for their antibacterial properties.