A summary description of the structural characteristics of nonwoven fabrics—excerpted from the advanced textile textbook "Nonwoven Fabric Science."


Release date:

2022/05/19

  The processing of nonwoven fabrics primarily involves two steps: web formation and reinforcement. After the web is formed, it is further reinforced to become a fabric. However, due to the differences in web-forming and reinforcing methods, the structure of nonwoven fabrics can vary significantly, resulting in a wide range of performance characteristics. Generally speaking, though, nonwoven fabrics are fabric-like materials composed of fiber webs. Within these fiber webs, fibers can exist in various configurations: some fibers lie essentially parallel to each other; others are arranged in a disordered, two-dimensional pattern; and still others are randomly distributed in three dimensions. The ways in which fibers are interconnected also differ—for instance, fibers can become entangled with one another through mechanical forces; they can be bonded together using adhesives; or they can be fused together via thermal bonding, among other methods. Nonwoven fabrics differ significantly from textiles—in both appearance and structure.

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