What are the features and applications of nonwoven fabrics in South Asia?

Nonwoven fabrics,  also known as needle punched cotton, needle punched nonwoven fabrics, etc., the use of polyester fiber, polyester fiber (abbreviation: PET) material production, after the needle punching process, can be made of different thicknesses, feel, hardness and so on.

Nonwoven fabrics are moisture-proof, breathable, flexible, lightweight, flame-retardant, non-toxic, odorless, inexpensive and recyclable. It can be used in different industries, such as sound insulation, heat insulation, electric heating pads, masks, garments, medical, filling materials and so on.

I. Characteristics of Nonwoven Fabric

Nonwoven fabric has no warp and weft threads, is very easy to cut and sew, and is lightweight and easy to shape, which is very popular among craft enthusiasts.
Because it is a kind of fabric formed without spinning and weaving, it is only the textile staple fiber or filament that is oriented or randomly arranged to form a fiber network structure, and then reinforced by mechanical, thermal bonding or chemical methods.
It is not interwoven and knitted together by one yarn after another, but the fibers are directly bonded together by physical methods, so when you get the viscose lining in your clothes, you will find that it is not possible to draw a single thread. Nonwoven fabric breaks through the traditional textile principle, and has a short process, fast production rate, high yield, low cost, wide range of uses, raw material sources and other characteristics.

II. Spunbond Nonwoven Fabric

Spunbond fabric and nonwoven fabric are subordinate. There are many production processes for manufacturing nonwoven fabrics, and spunbond is one of the nonwoven production processes (including spunbond, meltblown, hot rolled, and spunlace, and most of the nonwoven fabrics on the market now are produced by spunbond)

According to the components, there are polyester, polypropylene, polyamide, spandex, acrylic, etc.; different components will have very different styles of nonwoven fabrics. As for spunbond fabric, it usually refers to polyester spunbond and polypropylene spunbond; and the styles of these two kinds of fabrics are very close to each other, which can only be discerned by high temperature test.

Nonwoven fabric is a kind of nonwoven fabric, it is directly using polymer slices, staple fibers or filaments will be fiber through the airflow or mechanical into a network, and then through the hydroentanglement, needle punching, or hot rolled reinforcement, and finally through the finishing of the formation of non-woven fabrics. With a soft, breathable and flat structure of the new fiber products, the advantage is that it does not produce fiber shavings, strong, durable, silky soft, but also one of the reinforcing materials, and there is also a cotton feeling, and cotton woven fabrics compared to the nonwoven fabrics of the bag is easy to form, and the cost is cheap.

III. Advantages

1. Lightweight: polypropylene resin as the main raw material, specific gravity of only 0.9, only three-fifths of cotton, with fluffy, good feel.

2. Soft: composed of fine fibers (2-3D) light point-like hot melt bonding molding. The finished product is moderately soft, with a sense of comfort.

3 .Water-repellent, breathable: polypropylene slices do not absorb water, water content of zero, the finished water-repellent good, composed of 100% fiber with porous, breathable, easy to keep the cloth dry, easy to wash.

4.  It can purify the air, utilizing the advantage of small holes to keep bacteria and viruses away.

5. Non-toxic, non-irritating: the product is made of FDA food-grade raw materials, does not contain other chemical ingredients, stable performance, non-toxic, no odor, does not irritate the skin.

6. Anti-bacterial, anti-chemicals: polypropylene is a chemical blunt substance, not insect, and can isolate the presence of bacteria and insects within the liquid erosion; anti-bacterial, alkali corrosion, the finished product does not affect the strength of the strength due to erosion.

7. Antibacterial. Products with water pulling, not mold, and can isolate the existence of bacteria and insects in the liquid erosion, not moldy.

8. Good physical properties. Spun by the polypropylene directly laid into a network of thermal bonding and become, product strength than the general short-fiber products for the better, the strength of non-directional, similar strength in the longitudinal and transverse directions.

9. In terms of environmental protection, the use of most of the raw materials of non-woven fabrics is polypropylene, while the raw material of plastic bags is polyethylene, two substances, although the name is similar, but in the chemical structure of the difference is very far. The chemical molecular structure of polyethylene has a fairly strong stability, extremely difficult to degrade, so plastic bags need 300 years to decompose; while the chemical structure of polypropylene is not strong, the molecular chain can be easily broken, which can be effectively degraded, and in a non-toxic form to enter the next step of the environmental cycle, a non-woven shopping bags in 90 days can be completely decomposed. And non-woven shopping bags can be reused more than 10 times, the degree of pollution of the environment after the disposal of only 10% of the plastic bag.

IV. Disadvantages

1. Less strong and durable than textile fabrics.

2. Cannot be washed like other fabrics.

3. The fibers are arranged in a certain direction, so they tend to split at right angles. Therefore, the improvement of the production method is mainly focused on the improvement of the prevention of splitting.

V. According to the production process is divided into:

1. Hydroentanglement nonwoven fabrics: Hydroentanglement process is a high-pressure micro-fine water jet to one or more layers of fibers, so that the fibers are entangled with each other, so that the fiber network can be reinforced with a certain degree of strength.

2. Heat bonded nonwoven fabrics: heat bonded nonwoven fabrics refers to the fiber network in the addition of fibrous or powdered hot melt bonding reinforcement materials, fiber network and then heated and melted and cooled into a cloth reinforcement.

3. Pulp airflow into the net nonwoven fabric: airflow into the net nonwoven fabric can also be called as dust-free paper, dry paper nonwoven fabric. It is the use of airflow into the network technology will be wood pulp fiber board open into a single fiber state, and then use the airflow method to make the fiber coagulation in the net curtain, the fiber network and then reinforced into a cloth.

4. Wet nonwoven fabrics: wet nonwoven fabrics are placed in aqueous media fiber raw materials into a single fiber, while making different fiber raw materials are mixed, made of fiber suspension slurry, suspension slurry transported to the netting mechanism, the fibers in the wet state into the net 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, filament laying into the net, fiber network and then after its own bonding, thermal bonding, chemical bonding or mechanical reinforcement methods, so that the fiber network into a nonwoven fabric.

6. Meltblown nonwoven fabrics: meltblown nonwoven fabrics process: polymer feeding - - melt extrusion - - fiber formation - - fiber cooling - - into the network - - reinforcement into cloth.

7. Needle-punched nonwoven fabrics: needle-punched nonwoven fabrics is a kind of dry nonwoven fabrics, needle-punched nonwoven fabrics is the use of felting needles to puncture the role of the fluffy fiber mesh reinforced into a cloth.

8. Sewing nonwoven fabric: sewing nonwoven fabric is a kind of dry nonwoven fabric, sewing method is the use of warp knitting coil structure on the fiber network, yarn layer, non-textile materials (such as plastic sheet,  plastic thin metal foil, etc.) or a combination of them for reinforcement, in order to make nonwoven fabric.

9. Hydrophilic nonwoven fabrics: mainly used in the production of medical and hygienic materials, in order to achieve a better feel and not scratch the skin. Like sanitary napkins, sanitary pads is the use of hydrophilic nonwoven hydrophilic function.

Ⅵ. Main applications

(1) Nonwoven fabrics for medical and health care: surgical gowns, protective gowns, sterilized wrapping cloths, masks, diapers, civilian wipes, wiping cloths, wet face towels, magic towels, soft towel rolls, beauty products, sanitary napkins, sanitary pads, and disposable sanitary cloths.

(2) Nonwoven fabrics for home decoration: wallpaper, tablecloths, bed sheets, bedspreads, etc.

(3) Nonwoven fabrics for garments: lining, bonded lining, wadding, shaping cotton, various synthetic leather backing fabrics, etc.

(4)Nonwoven fabrics for industrial use; substrate for roofing waterproofing membrane and asphalt shingle, reinforcing material, polishing material, filtering material, insulating material, cement packing bag, geotextile, wrapping cloth, etc.

(5) Agricultural nonwoven fabrics: crop protection fabrics, seedling fabrics, irrigation fabrics, thermal insulation curtains and so on.

(6) Other nonwoven fabrics: space cotton, thermal and acoustic insulation materials, oil-absorbing felts, cigarette filters, bagged tea bags, shoe materials, and so on.