Nonwovens- history

The nonwoven fabrics industry is one of the

fastest growing sectors of the textile business

It is generally immune form import competition

It requires substantial capital investment aned

relatively small workforce

requires sophisticated, electronically controlled

machinery and highly trained fabric engineers
Nonwoven is a generic term
used to describe a fabric that
is produced differently from a
fabric made by weaving or,
more broadly, a fabric that is
different from traditional
woven or knitted fabrics
History
Camel drivers placed tufts of wool in
their sandals to ease the soreness in
their feet which turned into felts

TAPA- first one from biblical times

from inner bark of fig tree by
Hawaiians
Making of tapa cloth
Handmade dresses from
tapa cloth
 1942- the term non woven was born in
US

Commercial production stared with few

thousand meters produced
First commercial textiles of adhesive
bonded fiber webs were produced

1952- Pellon first nonwoven fabric to

be used in clothing industry was
produced
 In 19th Cen.- textile engineer
Garnett developed special carding
device to shred waste material into
fibrous form

The Garnett Machine- still is a major

component in the non-woven
industry
 Later on, manufacturers in Northern England
began binding these fibers

mechanically (using needles) and

chemically (using glue) into batts.

The precursors of today's non-wovens

 Technology remained same into middle of
20th century

1930- bats specially made to insulate

railroad box cars in the U.S

Early 1940s - Large-scale commercial

production facilities for chemically bonded
nonwovens were placed in operation in the
United States and in Europe and Japan
following World War II.
 Mid-1990s - about half of the
worldwide nonwoven fabric
production capacity was located in
North America, a third in Europe, and
an eighth in Japan

About two thirds were made directly

from fibers,
one-third were made directly from
polymers
 The early thrust in nonwoven usage emphasized
replacing traditional woven and knitted fabrics

Technology was not only used to produce fabric

structures that performed better but used when
traditional fabrics could not be used

This resulted in new application and markets

industrial expansion
 Mid-1990s
some portions of the nonwovens industry were
technology driven while others were market
driven

Some were commodity roll-goods producers

while others were more oriented to niche
markets with high value-added products

Many nonwovens producers continued the

quest for new markets and more
opportunities to compete with traditional
textiles, papers, and plastics
 January 1970
The First Issue Volume 1, Number 1 NONWOVENS
INDUSTRY debuts as "Disposable Soft Goods: The
Magazine for the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry.

1974- DuPont introduces "Tyvek"

spunbonded polyethylene to the
envelope market

The strongest envelope available

offering superior protection from
punctures, tears and moisture
FLASH-SPINNING AND BONDING
PROCESS
 The Disposables Association, the
forerunner of INDA, Association of the
Nonwoven Fabrics Industry formed

Kendall's new "Maralay" line of air laid

nonwovens targeted the coverstock,
towellete, backing and reinforcing
markets

"The year 1980 kicked off a new decade

of progress for the nonwovens industry
 The Disposables Association decides
to change its name to the
International Nonwovens and
Disposables Association and will
become known as INDA
 The definitions of the nonwovens
most commonly used nowadays are
by the

Association of the Nonwovens Fabrics

Industry (INDA) and

European Disposables and Nonwovens

Association (EDANA)
 INDA-definition
Nonwovens are a sheet, web,
or bat of natural and/or man-
made fibers or filaments,
excluding paper, that have
not been converted into
yarns, and that are bonded to
each other by any of several
means.
 EDANA - definition
Nonwovens are a manufactured sheet, web or bat of
directionally or randomly oriented fibers, bonded by
friction, and/or cohesion and/or adhesion, excluding
paper or products which are woven, knitted, tufted
stitch bonded incorporating binding yarns or
filaments, or felted by wet milling, whether or not
additionally needled.
The fibers may be of natural or man-made origin. They
may be staple or continuous or be formed in situ.
 The term
nonwoven fabrics
was created in US
to designate textiles
produced by
unconventional methods
 Terminology
Air laying, Air laid process
A nonwoven web forming process that
disperses fibers into a fast moving air
stream and condenses them onto a moving
screen by means of pressure or vacuum

Batt
A collection of fibers assembled into a
sheet suitable for needle punching bonding
by some method. The term is synonymous
with web.
 Binder
An adhesive substance used to bind a web of
fibers together or bond one web to another

Bonding
The process of combining a fibrous web into
a nonwoven fabric by means of resins
(e.g.adhesives or solvent) or physical (e.g.
mechanical entanglement or thermal
adherence)

Bond strength
Amount of force needed to separate layers in
a laminated structure or to break the fiber-to
fiber bonds in a nonwoven.
 Carded nonwoven
A nonwoven produced from a carded web
that has been bonded by one or more
technologies to provide fabric integrity

Disposables
A general classification of end-markets
where the product made from the
nonwoven has a relatively short life

Dof
The term used for removing a finished
fabric from the machine:
 Felt (Nonwoven definition)
A sheet of matted fibers, most often wool or fur, bonded
together by needlepunch and/or chemical processes and
the application of moisture, heat and pressure

Flashspinning
A modified spunlaid technology in which a
polymer/solvent solution is extruded under conditions
that rapid solvent evaporation at the spinneret occurs.
The individual filaments are disrupted into a highly
fibrillar form and are collected on a moving screen to
form a web.
 Laminate
A layered material containing two or
more sheets bonded together with an
adhesive, foam or thermoplastic resin

Reworked fibers
Fibers that are sourced from several
areas and recycled into needlepunched
materials often destined for padding or
insulation. This material is often referred
to as shoddy.