1.

Growth of technical textiles in India

R N Joshi
SGGSIET Nanded
Introduction

• Sunrise sector of the textile industry in India

• Current market size of Rs 57,000 crores
• 11%, to almost 20% during the 12th Five Year Plan
• Clothing, agriculture, medical, infrastructure development, automotive, aerospace, sports,
protective clothing, packaging, etc.
• The global market size of in 2010 was Rs 5.72 trillion
• India projected to Rs. 1.5 lakh crores For 2016-17 with a growth rate of 20% per annum.

Growth
• technical textiles manufacturing activity: Western Europe and USA 40%, China 20%, in India it is
less than 10% of their textiles.
• consumption front: USA, Western Europe and Japan 52% of the total technical textile
consumption in the World. China and India consumes around 13% and 4% of total technical
textiles.
• value of output of technical textiles: Rs 43989 crore (2008-09), 50% from the unorganised sector
• total technical textiles production in the country grew by 12.26% per annum during 2000- 01 to
2008-09.
•
•

Growth Factors for India

• Population factor ( 90M young people, 21M educated people)

• Increasing working women population
• Income, Willingness and Availability of plastic money to spend.
• Consumer changes – Life style changing products
• Boom in the growth of organized retail market or mall culture
• Increasing exposure to international lifestyle – IT Era
• Large Raw material base. India is the second largest cotton
• Boom in real estate growth – Surge in Home Textiles
• Development of infrastructure viz., roads, rails, airport

Advantages of Nonwoven processes

• High productivity and less labour

• Wider application / usage in many
• industries like, medical, industrial, filtration,
• High profit & shorter ROI
• Less power cost
•

Use of technical textiles

• agriculture, construction, defence,

• roads/highways, dams, hospitals,
• automobiles, shipbuilding, aircrafts, aerospace,
• packaging, upholstery/interior furnishings, sport equipments, environmental protection,
hoardings,
• fire retardant fabric for uniforms of firemen, coated fabric as awnings, airbags, carpets,
• tyre cord fabrics in tyres, interlining in shirt collars, webbings in seat belts,
• filter fabric in food industry or paper maker felt in paper mills.
•

Major segments of technical textiles

• Clothtech (used in garments, shoes, bags etc),

• Packtech (used for packaging and protective coverings),
• Sporttech (used in sports equipments, outfits etc)
• Mobiltech (used in automobiles, aircrafts, shipbuilding etc.),
• Buildtech (used in construction of buildings, house structures, dams, tunnels etc),
• Hometech (used by households),
• Indutech (used in industrial processes like filtration, cleaning, seals etc.),
• Meditech (used in hospital dressings and f or hygiene),
• Protech (used for protection of persons and properties),
• Geotech (used for earth and road construction, drainage system
• Agrotech (used in agriculture, landscape gardening, horticulture, forestry, fences, fishing etc)
and
• Oekotech (used for environmental protection).

Problems and measures to promote growth in TT

• Technology & Investment

• share of unorganized sector in production 40%
• scale of operation, conventional technology, low demand, domestic demand fulfilled by SSI,
huge technological gap, world class testing facilities, production limited and scattered
• Raw Materials
• import intensive products, cost prohibitive
• Skilled Labour
• lack of availability of skilled manpower, need for institutional training, specialized course in ITIs,
curriculum of various branches of engineering
• Lack of demand & lack of awareness
• among the consumers about the benefits of using technical textiles

Government policy

• Technology mission on technical textiles

• Launched with two mini missions starting from 2010-11 to 2014-15
• With a financial outlay of Rs. 200 crore
• The objective : to remove the impediments hampering the production of technical textiles in the
country to meet growing demand in the domestic and export market.
• Setting up of four Centres of Excellence (COEs)
• Nonwovens, Composites, Indutech and Sportech
• 2010-11 an amount of Rs. 38.19 crore
•

•
 2. Introduction to Nonwoven
Nonwovens: What are they

• Engineered fabrics
• Manufactured by high-speed and low-cost processes
• As compared to the traditional woven and knitting technology, a larger volume of materials can
be produced at a lower cost by using nonwoven technology.
Applications of nonwovens

Products of nonwovens

• Disposable nappies, Sanitary napkins and tampons

• Sterile wraps, caps, gowns, masks, and curtains used in the medical field
• Household and personal wipes
• Laundry aids (fabric dryer-sheets)
• Apparel interlinings
• Carpeting and upholstery fabrics, padding and backing
• Wall coverings, Agricultural coverings and seed strips
• Automotive headliners and upholstery
• Filters, Envelops, Tags, Labels, Insulation, House wraps
• Roofing products, Civil engineering fabrics/geotextiles
•
•

Definitions of nonwovens

• As per ISO 9092 “manufactured sheet, web or batt of directionally or randomly oriented fibers,
bonded by friction, and/or cohesion and/or adhesion, excluding paper and 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 filaments or be formed in situ.
• Note: To distinguish wet-laid nonwovens from wet-laid papers, a material shall be regarded as a
nonwoven if
• more than 50 % by mass of its fibrous content is made up of fibers (excluding chemically
digested vegetable fibers) with a length to diameter ratio greater than 300; or, if the conditions
in a) do not apply, then
• ASTM define nonwoven as “a textile structure produced by bonding or interlocking of fibers, or
both, accomplished by mechanical, chemical, thermal, or solvent means, and combinations
thereof.
• Associations: EDANA (The European Disposables and Nonwovens Association) and INDA (The
North America’s Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry).
• INDA define “sheet or web structures bonded together by entangling fiber or filaments (and by
perforating films) mechanically, thermally or chemically. They are flat, porous sheets that are
made directly from separate fibers or from molten plastic or plastic film. They are not made by
weaving or knitting and do not require converting the fibers to yarn.”
•

Nonwovens: How are they created?

Basic nonwoven processes

• Fibre preparation process: prepares fibres for web formation process. It includes fibre opening
and mixing and fibre feeding to carding machine or air-lay machine.
• Web formation process: disperses the fibres or filaments to form a sheet or web and also stacks
the webs to form multi-layered webs, sometimes called as batts.
• Web bonding processes: Imparts integrity to the web and the resulting material is often called as
fabrics. Often, the fabrics undergo mechanical or chemical finishing or both in order to achieve
enhanced properties and appearance.

Process augmentations

• Carded nonwovens: refer to a technology in which the staple fibres undergo a sequence of
opening and mixing process, followed by web formation by carding processes, and then
followed by adhesive bonding or thermal bonding.

• Perpendicular-laid nonwovens: the staple fibres undergo a sequence of opening and mixing
process, followed by web formation by carding processes, and then web stacking by
perpendicular-lay process and finally followed by through-air thermal bonding process.
• Air-laid nonwovens: the staple fibres undergo a sequence of opening and mixing process,
followed by web formation by air-lay processes, and then followed by thermal bonding or
adhesive bonding
• Wet-laid nonwovens: the staple fibres undergo a sequence of opening and mixing process,
followed by web formation by wet-lay processes, and then followed by adhesive bonding or
thermal bonding.
• Needle-punch technology: the staple fibres, taken from bales, are opened, carded by using roller
top card or flat top card, cross-lapped to achieve the desired basis weight of the final web (batt),
passed through a needle loom for bonding and then given a finishing treatment
• Spunlace or hydro entanglement : the staple fibres are opened and formed into a web by using
air-lay technology, and finally bonded by hydroentanglement machine.
• To enhance the properties of fabrics, resin bonding, drying, and curing may follow as a finishing
process.
• Spunbond technology and meltblown technology : polymer preparation process, web formation
process, and web bonding process.
• New nonwoven technologies: Evolon technology, Coform technology, SMS technology, etc
 3. Nonwoven Fibre preparation processes
Introduction

• staple-fibre based processes include fibre preparation processes (opening and mixing
processes),

• web formation by carding or by air-lay or by wet-lay processes

• web stacking by parallel-lay, cross-lay, and perpendicular-lay processes.

• Virtually any staple fibre that can be carded or dispersed in air or water can be used in these
processes.

Raw materials

• man-made and natural staple fibres, bicomponent staple fibres (carded NW), wood pulp (air-laid
NW)

• Some of the popular configurations of bicomponent fibres

•
 Sheath Melt temp Core Melt temp

copolyester 110*c polyester 250 *c

polyethylene 130*c polyester 250 *c
polyethylene 130*c polypropylene 175 *c

• produced by having two polymers simultaneously form a fiber

• They are used as binder fibers for thermal bonding,
• sheath-core arrangement is mostly used
• wood pulp production
• The air-lay process utilizes wood pulp
• Wood pulp: thermomechanical process (TMP) or chemical process (Kraft process).
• TMP involves passing wood chips between rotating plates having raised bars at high
temperature and pressure. The heating softens the lignin, which is a natural phenolic resin
holding the cellulose fibres together, making it possible to separate the fibres.
• kraft process dissolves the lignin using suitable chemicals such as caustic soda and sulphur under
heat and pressure.
• TMP yields 90 %, krafting yields 50-60%.
• The length of wood pulp: 1.8-2.7 mm and the fineness of 2.5-4.6 denier.

Bale opener

• functions: fiber opening and fibre mixing

• cleaning of fibers not usually followed by the nonwoven industry
• purchased in a pre-cleaned form
• for medical application, bleached cotton is used.
• manmade fibres do not require intensive cleaning.
• A bale opening machine

• accommodate several bales side by side

• Bales of the same raw material or several different components to make up the blend.

• bales are opened and mixed together

 Types of openers for bale

• The single roll opener for man-made fibres, protection to the fibres

• multi-roll suitable for all difficult-to-pen fibres like bleached cotton.

weighing pan bale opener

Multimixer
• used to mix (homogenize) different varieties of same fiber or different types of fibers

Hopper feeder

• hopper feeders with integrated weight control systems are used to feed fibers uniformly to the
carding machine so as to obtain carded webs with uniform basis weight.
• widely-used weight control systems are:
• Weighing pan system
• Roller weighing system
• Scanfeed system
• Weighing pan system

• When the weigh-pan achieves the pre-set weight, the spiked lattice is stopped and the trap
doors are closed. 
• Further checking of the weight of fibers in the pan is made and if this weight is found to be
higher or lower than the pre-set weight, the drop point is automatically adjusted to allocate
more or less space on the card feed sheet or the speed of the feed rollers in the carding
machine is adjusted accordingly.

Roller weighing system

• A unique twin weigh zone

• control of both short-term and long-term regularity.
• Lightweight rollers used and this brings out more precision in weight measurement.

Scanfeed system

• Fiber distribution in feed trunk is regulated by air flow.

• A series of spring-loaded flaps across the width of the trunk provide pressure regulation
• scan the thickness of web

• control values are determined

• Servomotors automatically change the position of the web thickness adjustment flap on the
corresponding profile box.

• provide short term control of both transverse and longitudinal feed uniformity.
 Nonwoven web preparation processes
Staple fibre web formation processes- roller top card

• carding process
• The functions
• Individualization of fiber tufts to almost single fiber
• Mixing of fibers to average out variations in fiber characteristics
• Forming a homogenous web of uniform weight per unit area
• revolving flat card- short staple fibre
• roller top card is used- long staple fibre
• pair of "worker (or roller)" and a "stripper (or clearer)
• The disentangling of fibres is done by carding action and the transfer of fibres is done by
stripping action.
• The carding action is found between cylinder to worker and cylinder to doffer, where as the
stripping action is found in taker-in to cylinder, worker to stripper, stripper to cylinder.

Wire point inclination

• Carding action between two surfaces- the wire points of the two surfaces in opposite inclination
• Stripping action between two surfaces- the wire points of the two surfaces must have the same
inclination.
• Intensity of carding
• It is defined by the total number of collections made by all workers during the entire period of
time when a fiber is on the card.
• Measure of carding power of a card
• IC - intensity of carding, m- number of workers, p- fraction of material goes to the worker, f-
fraction of material moves to doffer
• higher  p  leads to better carding
• IC increased by increasing worker speed, closer worker-cylinder distance

• Developments in feeding action

• feed arrangements: dish feed or roller feed

• dish feed results harsh treatment to fibers,
• roller feed results in mild treatment to fibers
• Advancements in the doffing region

• The double doffer system tends to increase fiber transfer from cylinder to doffers
• increase production
• top doffer takes away more material than the bottom doffer
• cause to differ tension in the respective webs
• affect the structure and properties of the final nonwoven fabric.
• Four doffing systems for different orientation of fibres
• produces webs with anisotropic orientation of fibers
• A randomizer roller in B- changes the direction of flow of fibers moving at high velocity resulting
in almost isotropic web structure.
• A pair of condenser rollers (C), moving slower than the doffer, causes sudden deceleration of
fibers that results in fibers to stand up vertically, creating a 3D “condensed” web structure with
almost isotropic orientation of fibers in plane.

• web formation region

• High production cards run doffer at 25-40 rpm

• doffer comb can not be used for stripping,
• draw off rollers whose surface speed is slightly higher than that of doffer can be used to remove
web through stripping action.
• More advanced doffing system utilizes a draw off roller, perforated apron and suction system to
control web transfer to the apron.

Web stacking processes

•

• Cross-lay process (cross-laid)

• Perpendicular-lay process (perpendicular-laid)
• Parallel-lay process (parallel-laid)
• the carded webs supplied by sequentially arranged parallel-cards doubled on a common
conveyor belt to form parallel-laid batt
• The fibers oriented in the carding machine direction
• width of the parallel-laid batt = carded web.
• It produces batt with layered structure.
•

Cross-lay process

Jigger lattice horizontal laying

Perpendicular-lay process
•

• z-directional orientation of fibres in the batt

• thermally bonded, excellent compression-recovery properties, that make them suitable for
automobile seat squab and sound insulation applications.

• The perpendicular-laid batt can be obtained by reciprocating lapper (Struto technology) or

rotary lapper (Wavemaker technology). The struto technology Fig A, a reciprocating lapping
device is used to continuously consolidate the carded web into a vertically folded batt that is
bonded by through-air bonding. It has low rate of production. The resulting structure of the batt
is B

•
Air-lay process

• high degree of anisotropy of fibre direction

• fibres are dispersed in air and then deposited from a suspended state onto a perforated screen
to form a web
• consists of three units: feeding, opening and mixing, and web formation
• high-velocity airstream directed over the wire teeth surface
• fibres are mixed with air and transported
•
Rando system
• four units, (i) Rando prefeeder, (ii) Rando opener and blender, (iii) Rando feeder, and (iv) Rando
webber
• The fibres are pre-opened at an early stage of the process prior to the opening and blending
section. The opening and blending section opens out the fibres and then mixes them by using
workers. The opened fibres are then fed through the feeding unit to the web formation zone
where they are further opened and individualized by the actions of the licker-in. The feeding
section is similar to a hopper feeder with an inclined lattice, evener condenser and stripper
roller. The opened fibres are then removed from the licker-in to the transport duct by means of
a high velocity air stream and centrifugal force generated due to the rotational speed of the
licker-in. Finally, the fibres are deposited onto the cylindrical condenser to form an air-laid web.

Dan web system

• utilize drums to form webs

• two contra-rotating forming (perforated) drums situated transversely above the forming wire
and connected to fixed pipes
• rotating brush roll inside the drums and transverse to the forming wire
• fibres are then deposited onto the wire by means of a vacuum located underneath the forming
head
• maximum fibre length (up to 15 mm)
• uniform distribution of fibres across the web
•

Air cards

• The incomplete individualization of the fibres, inability to process longer fibres by licker-in of
rando system resulted in development of air cards.
• K-12 air card introduced by Fehrer combined carding and air-laying. 
• a batt of fiber (300-500 g/m²) is fed by a feed roller-nose
• individualize the fibers, stripped off tangentially by a high speed laminar flow air stream.
• suction produces a nearly isotropic web.
•
Airplay processes
• Benefits
• delivers webs with high isotropy, high loft and high porosity.
• Utilize short fibres, not possible by using carding technology.
• limitations
• fibre configuration is relatively poor.
• The basis weight uniformity of the produced webs is poor.
• The webs with high anisotropy are hardly
• Applications
• high-loft products for the clothing and furniture, wadding, medical and hygiene fabrics,
geotextiles and roofing felts, filters, insulation and barrier materials, wall and floor coverings,
moulded products, wipes, preformed automotive components, and distribution layers, etc.
•
 Wet-lay Process

• Wet-lay process for making nonwovens

Fabric defects

• Logs: bundles of fibres with aligned cut ends that are never dispersed due to a fibre supply
problem or can be the result of remarkably low under agitation of the initial dispersion.

• Ropes: assemblages of fibres with unaligned ends. They are formed when fibres are
encountered a vortex that facilitates in entangling the fibres to form ropes.

• Dumbbells: paired clumps of fibres connected by one or more long fibres. A long fibre snags in
the system piping so that its free end whips in the flow and accumulates normal fibres on each
end and these fibre bundles become so large that the fluid drag plucks the dumbbells from the
snagged fibre.

Critical material characteristics and process factors

• fibre-water dispersion quality : fibre length, fibre aspect ratio, and fibre bending rigidity.
• The higher FL, FAR, FB result in more fabric defects
• Imp para: ratio of fibre-to-water weight or volume, dispersion time, and impeller speed.
• The higher is the relative volume occupied by the fibres as compared to that occupied by the
water results in more crowding of fibres at the time of dispersion that ultimately results in poor
quality of webs.
•

Merits and demerits

• High through-put rate, Isotropic & anisotropic structures can be created. Any fibre can be
processed.
• The demerits :
• High capital , High energy intensive process
• High fiber quality requirements.
• Applications

• surgical clothing and drapes, bed linen, table linen, cloths, and napkins, towels, kitchen wipes.
glass fibre roofing substrate, glass fibre mat for flooring, glass fibre mat for printed circuit
boards, wall covering, insulation materials, battery separators,

5. Web bonding processes

Mechanical Bonding Processes

Needle punching process: the fibres are mechanically entangled to produce a nonwoven fabric
by repeated penetration of barbed needles through a preformed dry fibrous web.
• Needle punching process
• Feeding of web by a pair of feed rollers.
• passes in-between a pair of perforated bed plates.
• Needles arranged in a needle board in width-wise rows.
• an eccentric crank reciprocates needle board up & down.
• In the down stroke mode, the needles descend through the perforations of the top bed plate,
through the web, and through the perforations of the bottom bed plate.
• During the upstroke, the barbed needles withdraw upwards and the bed plate strips the web off
the needles.
• the fibres are mechanically interlocked providing the mechanical strength.
• Fabric delivered by a pair of delivery rollers.

Needle

• parts: crank, shank, taper, blade, barb, and point.

• The shank locates in the hole in the needle board and the crank is clamped between upper
surface of the needle board and the needle beam, thus holding it firmly and vertically aligned in
the loom.
• the cross-section of a needle is triangular and carries a total of nine barbs, three per apex.

Thermal Bonding Processes

• webs needs sufficient resistance to mechanical deformation.

• introduced by Reed in 1942
• a web consisting of thermoplastic and non-thermoplastic fibers was made and then heated to
the melting or softening temperature of the constituent thermoplastic fibres followed by cooling
or solidify the bonding area.
• calendar bonding, through-air bonding, infrared bonding, and ultrasonic bonding.
• environmental-friendly, as no latex binder is required.
• consumes less energy compared to foam bonding or hydro entanglement bonding.

Principle of thermal bonding

• thermal bonding follows in sequence through three critical steps:

• heating the web to partially melt the crystalline region,
• repetition of the newly released chain segments across the fibre-fibre interface, and
• subsequent cooling of the web to re-solidify it and to trap the chain segments that diffused
across the fibre-fibre interface.
•

Raw materials

• thermoplastic fibres alone or blends containing fibres that are not intended to soften or flow on
heating.
• The non-binder fibre components referred to as the base /carrier fibres.
• The binder fibre : 5-50 % on weight of the fibre
• Base fibres: natural or synthetic or mineral or metallic origin.
• Binder fibres: polyester (PET), polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), and polyethylene (PE) and
bicomponent (sheath-core) like PE/PET, PE/PP, and CoPET/PET.
Calender bonding process

• the fibrous web passed through a heated calender nip, pressed against each other
• One or both rolls are heated internally above T melt of the binder fibres
• sufficient hear transfer to induce softening
• fibres are heated and compressed, binder fibres to become soft and tacky and induces polymer
flow in and around the base fibres, bonding sites are formed, Cooling leads to solidification of
the polymer and bonding.
•

Types of calender roller

Heating arrangement

• roll surfaces are heated from inside by direct electrical heat or oil.
• Heated oil leads to more uniform temperature distribution along the nip.
• The calender roll provide very uniform temperature and nip pressure along the nip length.
•

Air bonding machine

•

Chemical Bonding Processes

• chemical binders (adhesive materials) hold the fibers together in a nonwoven fabric.
• Ex. water-borne latexes. viscosity is close to that of water they can easily penetrate into
nonwoven structure by emulsion.
• immersion, drying, water evaporation
• The binder then forms an adhesive film across or between fibre intersections and fibre bonding
takes place.
• Binders: vinyl polymers and copolymers, acrylic ester polymers and copolymers, rubber and
synthetic rubber, and natural binders
•

Methods of binder application

•
• Methods: saturation, foam, spray, and print bonding
•
Saturation chemical bonding involves complete immersion of the nonwoven web in a bath
containing binder.
• excess binder removed by a pair of nip rolls. 
• The amount of binder taken up by the nonwoven depends on the basis weight of the nonwoven,
length of time spent in the bath, wettability of the fibres and nip pressure.
• provide higher binder to fibre levels uniformly
• Due to short wetting time, suitable for lightweight and highly permeable nonwovens.

6. Polymer extrusion based technologies for nonwoven fabric

manufacturing
1.0 Spunbond technology

• Polymer-extrusion based technologies : spunbond technology and meltblown technology

1.1 Spunbond technology: thermoplastic fibre forming polymer extruded to form fine filaments
fibres (dia 15–35 micrometer), filaments collected on a conveyor belt in the form of a web, web
bonded to make spunbond nonwoven fabric.

Raw materials: polypropylene (PP) and polyester (PET) , polyethylene of high density (HDPE),
polyamides (PA), mainly PA 6 and PA 6.6

Polypropylene

– mostly used, low price

– advantageous properties: low density, chemical resistance, hydrophobicity, better

strength.

– Parameters: melt flow index (MFI) of about 20–40 g/10 min and polydispersity ratio
(Mw/Mn) of around 3.5–7, molecular weight 180000

– Polyester

⁻ IV 0.64, low COOH-groups, high crystallinity and low water content (0.004%)

⁻ Crystallinity influences pre-drying and extrudability, filament drawing

orientation,

⁻ Pre-drying avoids hydrolytic degradation when extruded

⁻ low water content avoids air pockets, filament breakage.

⁻ Bicomponents: spunbond fabrics

Process sequence
•

Four processes: spinning, drawing, web formation, and web bonding.

– Spinning: manufacture of synthetic fibre materials by melt-spinning process.

– Drawing: filaments are drawn in a tensionally locked way.

– web formation: forms a nonwoven web.

– Web bonding: thermal calender bonding.

– Sequence of processes: polymer preparation ---> polymer feeding, melting,

transportation and filtration ---> Extrusion à Quenching ---> Drawing ---> Laydown --->
Bonding, Winding.

– Preparation of polymer: sufficient drying of pellets, addition of stabilizers/additives for

melt stability to the polymers, granules are fed to an extruder hopper by gravity-
feeding.

• Extruder screw: melts due to the heat and friction of the viscous flow and the mechanical
actionbetween the screw and barrel.

Zones of screw: feed, transition, and metering zones.

– feed zone: preheats the polymer pellets in a deep screw channel

– transition zone: has a decreasing depth channel in order to compress and homogenize
the melting plastic.

– metering zone: which serves to generate maximum pressure for pumping the molten
polymer.

• Screen filter,

• metering pump: for uniform melt delivery to the die

• die assembly:

– the polymer feed distribution section and the spinneret

 – spinneret : single block of metal having several thousand drilled orifices or holes,
circular or rectangular in shape

• Filament spinning, drawing, and deposition:

– main collective function is to solidify, draw, and entangle the extruded filaments from
the spinneret and deposit them onto an air-permeable conveyor belt or collector.

• Filament drawing using one or more set of draw rollers.

• Filament deposition: achieved with aerodynamic device referred to as a fanning or entangler

unit.

• Web bonding

• Mechanical bonding:

– Needling, Tensile strength of needled spun bonded fabric= 9 x chemical bonded fab

– thermal bonding:

⁻ 1st method: Fibre sticking together when they come out of spinnerette, Current
of air in upper zone heated to almost the T melt, Cooling is with air suction from
outside

⁻ 2nd : encase the filament in a different thermoplastic polymer that has lower
Tmelt than the copolymer

⁻ Ex. Polyester with polyethylene

⁻ calendaring between two heated cylinder with high pressure after web
formation

⁻ 3rd : blending in filaments with low Tmelt which are laid at the same time as basic
material and act as a bonding filaments within web

⁻ Chemical bonding

• Dispersed resins, latex bonding agents

• Chemical consists of injecting the bonding agent in dispersion directly into the air flow used to
extend the fibres as they come out of nozzle for cooling

• Chemical bonded fab used in clothing

Key process factors

• polymer throughput rate: more crystallinity and orientation of the filaments spun at lower
throughput rate,

• T melt (low)-results in increase in melt viscosity, difficulty in drawing, T melt high- decrease in
the melt viscosity, drawing easier. T too high- polymer degradation
 • T quench low-results in increase of viscosity that leads to slower draw-down, higher filament
diameter, increase in crystallinity and orientation.

• quench air pressure: High, increases spinline draw ratio, reduces filament diameter.

• lay-down velocity: higher, an increase in crystallinity and orientation

• Applications: automobiles, civil engineering, hygiene, medical, packaging, and agriculture

• Physical properties of NWSB fabric made from filaments

properties polyethylene polyester polypropylene

Melting point *c 132 250 170

GSM (g/m2) 34-92 44-203 85-118
Thickness um) 102-229 254-762 241-330
Max tensile extension 27-36% 47-107% 33-38%
Tear strength (N) 3.5-20 8-57.9 26.7-53.4
Air permeability 5-102 610-4130 345-564
(1/s/m2)
Degree of transparency high low Low
Crease recovery low high moderate
•

• Variables in web structure which influence the properties of finished textile fabrics

– Variables dependent on the filament: thickness of filament, resistance to drawing,

module, crimp, fibre cross section, stretching behavior

– Variables dependant on bonding agent: type of agent, concentration of agent, self

bonding method, uniformity of distribution

– Variables dependent on deposition of filament: uniformity of web mass, separation of

filaments in the web, orientation of the filament

• Texturising
•

• Texturing is a process whereby stretch, bulk, high absorbency, improved handle and thermal
properties are combined with the rugged performance of continuous filament yarn through the
permanent introduction of crimps, loops, coils and crinkles into the smooth filaments

• Properties of spun-bonded fabrics

Meltblown technology

• Thermoplastic polymer extruded, die several hundred small orifices, streams of hot air rapidly
attenuate the extruded polymer streams to form extremely fine diameter fibres. attenuated
fibres blown by high-velocity air onto a collector conveyor, form a fine fibered self-bonded
meltblown nonwoven fabric

• Polypropylene, polyamide, polyester, polyethylene

• The melt-blowing process

•

• As the molten polymer emerges from the die through a row of orifices, the tip is attenuated by
jets of high temperature; high velocity air forming fibers which are drawn down to very fine
diameters. The fibers are then quenched and collected on a screen or moving belt to form a
continuous web of nonwoven fabric.

• The fiber web formed is either laid onto a suction drum and taken to further processing after a
half wrap on the drum, or is, in the vertical process, laid onto a conveyor belt provided with
suction, and led shortly afterwards to further processing, which consists essentially of
calendaring or spraying or drying, followed by beaming.

• Melt-blown micro-fibers generally have diameters in the range of 2 to 4 µm, popular for medical
use and in filters. This is primarily due to its ability to produce microfibers.

• Spinnerets for melt-blowing (core: polymer; sheath: hot compressed air).

• preparation of the polymers for extrusion

• Extruder longer L/D (30+), more external heating surface available, higher output rate and
better melt homogeneity

• melt filtration, a screen changer

• metering pump: needed to maintain a constant output rate

• die system

• cooling devices

• forming webs: the fibers distributed (spread) on a moving belt or rotating drum, suction
underneath the forming web removes drawing air and holds the fiber to the web.

• The distance to forming web (die to collector distance) affects the web properties. The belt
collector provides good fiber support and retention as well as good web release.

• Critical factors which affects nonwoven web properties

• Polymer resin utilized (polymer type, molecular weight, melt viscosity, throughput)

• Conditions in the extruder (temperature, shear, polymer degradation)

• Geometry and conditions at die tip (hole diameter, air gap, die tip position)
• Air/Filter distribution, temperature and flow rate

• Separation at laydown (turbulence, vacuum)

• Distance from die tip to the collecting drum, Collection speed

• Ambient air conditions (température, humidity, contamination)

• Web quality and formation

• Bonding method, Finishing treatment

Characteristics and properties of the webs

• Random fiber orientation, Low to moderate web strength

• Generally highly opaque (having a high cover factor)

• Derives strength from mechanical entanglement

• Most melt-blown webs are layered in structure;

• Fiber diameter ranges from 0.5 to 30 mm

• Basis weight ranges from 8 to 350 g/m2.

• Microfibers provide a high surface area for good insulation and filter characteristics.

• Fibers have a smooth surface texture and are circular in cross section.

• Fibers vary in diameter along a single fiber.

Meltblowing applications

• Filtration media the surgical face mask filter media, liquid filtration and gaseous filtration, clean
room filters and others.

• Melt-blown medical/surgical

• Sanitary products feminine, sanitary napkin, Spunbond-MB diaper top sheet,

• Oil absorbents use of absorbents to pick up oil from the surface of water

• Apparel : thermal insulation, disposable industrial apparel and substrate for synthetic leather.

• Electronic specialties: One is as the liner fabric in computer floppy disks and battery separators
and as insulation in capacitors.

• Comparison of SB & MB
 Spunbond versus Meltblown

– meltblown technology requires polymers with considerably lower melt viscosity,

– initial investment for spunbond is three to four times higher than that for meltblown
technology.

– Meltblown consumes more energy

– meltblown nonwoven is costlier

• SB fabrics made from polyesters

• Crytallinity & orientation of SPF filaments are same

• Fibre thickness 19-26 um

• Bonding agents are used

• Fabric produced from uncrimped fibres: drier & stiffer feel, closeness of fabric is greeter

• Crimped fibre SBF: softness & better draping quality

• Conventional dyeing, finishing, printing, embossing, calendaring

• Fire retardant fabric produced by application of agent

• Coated SBF: smooth surface, acrylic, vinyl can be used as binding agent

• Polyester SBF: used at 150*c

• SB fabrics made from polyesters

• Resistance to organic solvent (alcholol) excellent

• Moisture absorbency low (0.5% at 98%RH), dimensionally stable, no shrink & stretch, washable,
rot proof, resistant to bacteria, heat resistant good, tensile strength good

• Interlines in dresses, shirts, pyjamas, hat, reinforcement linings in shoe industry, insulation
material for cable & motors, filters, construction, sand filters, carpet backing

• SBF made from PP

• Backing material for tufted carpeting, furniture, bed covers,

• reinforcement in furniture in the form of a backing material,

• mattress corners, packing material,

• construction engineering, underlay for hardcore in road construction,

• used to reduce erosion damage of natural and artificial river banks and lake slides