Non-woven fabrics are one of the youngest and most promising emerging areas in the textile industry. China's non-woven fabric industry started late, but it is developing very rapidly. In the early stage of development, non-woven fabrics were mainly used in the garment industry as accessories. With the rapid development of social economy and science and technology, new products and technologies of non-woven fabrics are emerging in an endless stream, changing with each passing day, and the application range is becoming more and more extensive.

The exact name of non-woven fabric should be nonwoven, or non-woven. China's national standard GB/T5709-1997 "Textiles Nonwovens Terminology" defines nonwovens as: oriented or randomly arranged fibers, through friction, holding, or bonding, or a combination of these methods and combined with each other to make sheets, webs or flocculent pads, excluding paper, woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, tufted fabrics and wet shrinking felt products. Because it is a fabric that does not need to be spun and weaved, it is only made by orienting or randomly arranging textile staple fibers or filaments to form a web structure, and then reinforced by mechanical, hot adhesive or chemical methods.

Classification of non-woven fabrics

Nonwovens break through the traditional textile principle, and have the characteristics of short technological flow, fast production speed, high output, low cost, wide use, and many sources of raw materials, and are a new generation of environmentally friendly materials, with the characteristics of water repellent, breathable, flexible, non-combustible, non-toxic and non-irritating, and rich colors.

The fibers used in the production of non-woven fabrics are mainly polypropylene (PP) and polyester (PET). In addition, there are nylon (PA), viscose, acrylic, polyethylene (HDPE), chlorine (PVC).

According to the application requirements: non-woven fabrics are divided into two categories: disposable application type and durable type.

According to the production process, it is divided into:

1. Spunlace non-woven fabric: The spunlace process is to spray high-pressure fine water flow onto one or more layers of fiber web, so that the fibers are entangled with each other, so that the fiber web can be strengthened and has a certain strength.

2. Heat-bonded non-woven fabric: Thermally bonded non-woven fabric refers to the addition of fibrous or powdery hot-melt adhesive reinforcement materials to the fiber web, and the fiber web is then heated and melted and cooled to strengthen the fabric.

3. Pulp airlaid non-woven fabric: airlaid non-woven fabric can also be called dust-free paper and dry papermaking non-woven fabric. It is the use of airflow webbing technology to open the wood pulp fiberboard into a single fiber state, and then use the airflow method to make the fibers agglutinate on the net curtain, and then the fiber web is reinforced into a cloth.

4. Wet non-woven fabric: Wet non-woven fabric is to open the fiber raw materials placed in the water medium into single fibers, and at the same time mix different fiber raw materials to make fiber suspension slurry, which is transported to the web forming mechanism, and the fiber is reinforced.

5. Spunbond non-woven fabric: Spunbond non-woven fabric is laid into a web after the polymer has been extruded and stretched to form a continuous filament, and the web is then turned into a non-woven fabric by self-bonding, thermal bonding, chemical bonding or mechanical reinforcement methods.

6. Meltblown non-woven fabric: the process of meltblown non-woven fabric: polymer feeding--- melt extrusion--- fiber formation--- fiber cooling--- forming a web --- reinforcing the cloth.

7. Acupuncture non-woven fabric: Acupuncture non-woven fabric is a kind of dry non-woven fabric, and acupuncture non-woven fabric is to use the puncture effect of the needle to strengthen the fluffy fiber web into cloth.

8. Sewing non-woven fabric: Sewing non-woven fabric is a kind of dry non-woven fabric, and the sewing method is to use the warp knitting coil structure to reinforce the fiber web, yarn layer, non-textile materials (such as plastic sheets, plastic thin metal foils, etc.) or their combinations to make non-woven fabrics.

9. Hydrophilic non-woven fabric: mainly used in the production of medical and health materials to achieve a better feel and not scratch the skin. Like sanitary napkins and sanitary gaskets, it is the use of hydrophilic non-woven fabrics of hydrophilic function.

Application of non-woven fabrics

1. Geosynthetics

Geosynthetics is a high-tech, high value-added industrial textile material with a wide range of uses. Non-woven geotextiles mainly include: spunbond geotextiles, staple fiber needle-punched geotextiles, hot-melt bonded geotextiles, geonets and grids, geomembranes, composite geotextiles. Geotextiles have the functions of reinforcement, isolation, filtration, drainage and seepage prevention in geotechnical construction.

2. Non-woven filter material

Filter material has become an indispensable and important product in modern society. As a new type of filter material, non-woven filter media is gradually replacing traditional textile filter media with its unique three-dimensional network structure, uniform pore distribution, good filtration performance, low cost and many varieties, and has become the leading product of filter media, with a rapid development speed.

3. Non-woven fabrics for medical and health use

Medical nonwovens are a product with development potential, which gives full play to the advantages of fiber as a health care material, and is the product of an emerging industry discipline formed by the integration and intersection of various disciplines and technologies. Including surgical gowns, protective clothing, disinfectant cloths, masks, diapers, civil rags, wipes, wet wipes, magic towels, soft towel rolls, beauty supplies, sanitary napkins, sanitary pads, and disposable sanitary cloths.

4. Agricultural nonwovens

Agricultural nonwovens have a long service life, good effect and low investment, and the promotion of the use of agricultural nonwovens is conducive to promoting agricultural modernization. Agricultural uses are mainly mats, insulation, heat preservation, wind barriers, fruit protection, pest control, seedling raising, sowing, mulching, etc.

5. Non-woven fabrics for clothing

The non-woven adhesive lining used for clothing has the characteristics of light weight, softness, low cost, wide range of thickness variation, strong adaptability, non-directional arrangement of fibers, and large elasticity, and is easy to be compatible with various fabrics. Including lining, adhesive lining, wadding, shaping cotton, various synthetic leather base fabrics, etc.