Nonwovens manufacturing

processes
Mehran Khattak
 Definition

 A sheet, web of natural, man-made fibers or

filaments that have been bonded to each
other by any of several means.
 Two staged manufacturing (low cost)
 Web formation
 Web bonding
(same production facility)
 Web formation

WEB FORMATION

WET LAID DRY LAID

CARDING AIR LAID SPUN LAID

fibers layed in parallel, random layed fibers SPUNBOND

crosswise MELTBLOWN
ELECTROSPINNING
 Web bonding

WEB BONDING

MECHANICAL THERMAL CHEMICAL

NEEDLE PUNCH CALENDERING IMPREGNATING

SPUN LACED THROUGH AIR FOAM COATING
BONDING
(STITCH BONDED) SPRAYING
SONIC BONDING
(TUFTING) PRINT BONDING
 Nonwoven market
 Classification % of total
 Hygiene 33.1
 Building/roofing 12.5
 Liquid and gas filtration 6.5
 Civil engineering 5.4
 Automotive 3.9
 Medical/surgical 3.5
 Wipes, personal care 8.1
 Upholstery/table linen/household 6.8
 Garments& Interlinings 2.9
 Shoe leather goods 1.9
 Coating substrates 2.4
 Floor covering 2.3
 Others/unidentified 5.3
 Nonwoven market

 1994-2004 8% growth
 2004-2009 10.5 growth
Worldwide Outlook for Nonwovens Production

25 23,3
Billions dollars, millions tons

20
16,4
15 Billions dollars
10 9,1 Millions tons
6,4
4,5
5 2,2
0
1994 2004 2009
 Nonwoven market

 Western EU 33%
 North America 31%
 Asia Pacific 25% ( Japan, China,
S.Korea)
 Others 11%
 Production processes

WEB FORMATION

WET LAID DRY LAID

CARDING AIR LAID SPUN LAID

fibers layed in parallel, random layed fibers SPUNBOND

crosswise MELTBLOWN
ELECTROSPINNING
 Wet laid web formation

3 stages of production Fiber dispersion

 Dispersion forming
 Dewaterig and web
formation
 Drying and bonding

Dewatering and
web formation
 Wet laid – Applications
Fiber swelling and
dispersion

 dust filters, liquid filters,

overlay paper, stencil paper, tea
bag paper, paper for wrapping
susage and cooked meats
 Industrial nonwovens
for:waterproof sheeting for
roofs, separators, filters,
reinforcement material for
plastics, backing material, shoe
uppers, decoration, interlinings,
insulation
 surgical clothing, bed-linen,
table cloths, household cloths, Web formation
face cloths, nappy, sanitary
articles Water recycling
Air laid and carded web
 Air laid and carded web
Advantages and disadvantages of airlaid over
carded web
 Isotropic and randomly arranged webs
 Voluminious webs
 Low mass uniformity
 Low level of opening fiber material by
lickerin roller
 Possible entangling of fibers in air stream
 Wide variety of processable fibers in both
processes
 Applications of Airlaid and
carded web
• Interlinings
• shoe linings
• high loft" products for the garment and furniture and insulation
• synthetic leather
• waddings;
• geotextiles,
• filter materials;
• needle blankets; carpets ,wall coverings;
• technical felts insulation felts; mattress felts,
Spunbond

Gear pump

Spinneret

Filament

Stretching Air
nozzle
Web Stretching
pipe

Deflector
Suction

Collector
Melt blown
 Meltblown vs Spunbond

Spun bond agianst Meltblown

 Stronger
 Flexible
 Cheaper
 More investment
 Larger pore size
 Applications

 Spunbond
 Backing, packing, cover stock, roof
sheeting, geo textile, reinforcemnt
 Meltblown
 Filtration, insulation, hygeine, medical
textile, floppy disks lining, battrey
separators
 Web bonding

WEB BONDING

MECHANICAL THERMAL CHEMICAL

NEEDLE PUNCH CALENDERING IMPREGNATING

SPUN LACED THROUGH AIR FOAM COATING
BONDING
(STITCH BONDED) SPRAYING
SONIC BONDING
(TUFTING) PRINT BONDING
Needle punched nonwoven
 Uses

 Filters, tennis balls, carpets, floor covering,

 Geo textile
 Automotive
 Spunlace
support screen

Water circulation Support screen Drying

(drum or belt) system

Water jets

Winding
Fibrous web
Dewatering
Water purification Water suction zone system
 Spunlace properties
 very good textile drape (low stiffness) and very soft handle
 no chemical or melt binders; it is possible to prepare 100 % natural
fibers, suitable for sanitary products, suitable to recycling
 strenght is much higher than after mechanical needling (for the some
area weight); similar to woven textiles
 wide range of textile structure (depending especially on the perforated
belt structure) – wide range of textile properties
 uniform surface due to more fine interlacing of fibers (compared with
needling)
 very high textile production: up to 300 m/min for carded and airlaid
webs and up to 500 m/min for wetlaid and spunbond (meltblown);
textile width up to 6000 mm.
Spunlace applications
 Spunlace Applications
1. Hospital use:
surgical gowns and drapes (fig.1),
operational cover sheets, bed
sheets, towels...
Fig. 1
2. Medical use:
wound dressings (fig.2), gauze,
wet tissue, cotton products, pads
(fig.3)
Fig. 2 Fig. 3

3. Sanitary products:
baby wipes (fig.4), facial clean
wipe, face masks, disposable
pants...
Fig. 4
 Spunlace applications:
4. Household products:
cleaning wipes (fig.5), protection
fabric for electronics, home
furnishing fabrics: table cloths and Fig. 5
napkins (fig.6), curtains (fig.7) Fig. 6
Fig. 7
5. Industrial textiles:
industrial wipes (fig.8), filtration
(fig.9), roofing, water insulation
(fig.10), protective apparell Fig. 8
(fig.11), liquid absorbents
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Fig. 11
 Chemical bonding

Adhesive powder
Screen roll

Binder Squeegee
Powder metering

Rotating brush
Web

Mating roll
Web

Powder bonding Chemical bonding

 Thermal bonding

Reflector
Hot roll Hot roll

Infrared
heat source
Hot roll
Cold roll Layer 1

Layer 2

Double and one side

calendering
Infra red bonding
 Patterned calendaring
Embossed
cylinder

web

Hot smooth
calender
Embossed roll calendering
 Applications
 Wipes and towels
 Medical nonwovens
 Roofing products
 Apparel interlinings
 Filter media
 Coating substrates
 Automotive trim
 Carrier fabrics
 Bedding products (high loft)
 Furniture applications (high loft)
 Apparel
 Pillows (high loft)
 THANKS

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