Explore the world of non-woven fabrics: the charm and application of non-woven fabrics

In today's ever-changing field of materials science, non-woven fabrics have gradually become the youngest and most promising emerging field in the textile industry with their unique charm and wide application fields. Non-woven fabrics, also known as non-woven fabrics or non-woven fabrics, are a new type of fiber mesh structure material that is not made of textile fibers as raw materials, but is made of textile short fibers or chemical fibers as the main raw materials, and is formed after a series of process treatments.

Non-woven fabrics refer to a non-woven fabric that is made by using polymer slices, short fibers or filaments in the production process, through airflow or mechanical web formation, to form a fiber mesh structure, and then through post-finishing processes such as spunlace, needle punching, and hot rolling reinforcement. Compared with traditional textile fabrics, the production process of non-woven fabrics is completely different, but it has the appearance and certain properties of cloth, hence the name. Non-woven fabrics are moisture-proof, breathable, flexible, lightweight, non-combustible, easy to decompose, non-toxic and non-irritating, colorful, low-priced, and recyclable. These characteristics make non-woven fabrics widely used in many fields.

There are many production processes for non-woven fabrics, mainly including spunlace, heat-sealing, pulp air-laid, wet method, spunbond, melt-blown, needle-punched and stitch-knitted. Among them, spunlace non-woven fabrics are reinforced into fabrics by spraying high-pressure fine water streams onto the fiber web, so that the fibers are entangled with each other; heat-sealed non-woven fabrics are reinforced into fabrics by adding fibrous or powdery hot-melt bonding reinforcement materials to the fiber web, and then heating, melting and cooling to reinforce the fabric; spunbond non-woven fabrics are formed by extruding and stretching the polymer to form continuous filaments, laying the filaments into a web, and then bonding and reinforcing them. These different production processes give non-woven fabrics different characteristics and uses.

According to different production processes, non-woven fabrics can be divided into many types, each with its own unique characteristics and application areas. For example, spunlace nonwovens are widely used in medical curtains, surgical gowns, wet wipes and other fields due to their high strength, low linting and high hygroscopicity; while spunbond nonwovens are widely used in geotextiles, medical and health materials and other fields due to their excellent tensile strength and many process variations.

The application field of nonwovens is very wide, covering almost every aspect of people's lives. In the field of medical and health care, nonwovens are used to make beds and surgical supplies, sanitary napkins, diapers, wipes, etc.; in the field of decorative materials, nonwovens are used to make needle-punched carpets, wall coverings, tablecloths, car interior decoration, etc.; in the field of clothing, nonwovens are used to make clothing linings, thermal insulation flakes, etc. In addition, nonwovens also play an important role in agricultural covering materials, filter materials, insulation materials, cement packaging bags and other fields.

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of people's requirements for quality of life and the enhancement of environmental awareness, the nonwoven industry has developed rapidly. The global nonwoven market has shown a steady growth trend, especially in the fields of medical and health care, civil engineering, clothing, and automotive interiors. According to relevant data, the global non-woven fabric production and sales have maintained a steady growth trend.

In China, the non-woven fabric industry is also showing a booming trend. As domestic demand drives companies to expand production capacity and environmental protection policies become stricter, the non-woven fabric industry is actively deploying intelligent manufacturing upgrades to improve production efficiency. At the same time, with the application of new fiber materials and the emergence of production processes, the breadth and depth of non-woven fabric applications are still expanding.

In the future, the non-woven fabric industry will continue to develop in the direction of high-end and intelligentization. With the continuous advancement of technology and the continuous expansion of applications, non-woven fabrics will play an important role in more fields and bring more convenience and comfort to people's lives.