Application Areas of Nonwoven Fabrics

 

  Nonwovens Applications:
Nonwoven industry manufactures and converts versatile and engineered fibrous assemblies with numerous existing applications and continuously innovating products for new applications. The classification on the basis of employed technology can be challenging as numerous combinations of raw materials, web formation, web bonding, and post processing methods lead to nonwoven products for a wide range of application areas. This degree of freedom is the key to offer nonwovens with unique properties to suit a myriad of application areas. 

 

Fig : Non woven medical textiles 




 Fig : Non woven Automotive textiles




Fig : Non woven Geotextiles





 Fig : Non woven for personal care

The application areas of nonwoven fabrics can be segmented into, but not limited to, hygiene, wipes, apparel, medical, health care, personal care, automotive, electronics, filtration, agriculture, horticulture, furnishings, construction, and packaging. It is important to mention that a single product in an application area can be manufactured by employing different technologies.

Different Applications of Non Woven Fabric:
The examples of use for key application areas are tabulated below:

Applications	Examples of Use	Technologies Employed
Absorbent hygiene products (AHP)	Baby diapers, feminine hygiene products, and adult incontinence products	Air-laid, carded nonwovens, spunmelt (SMS, spunbond)
Agriculture and horticulture	Crop covers, plant protection Seed blankets, weed control fabrics, greenhouse shading, root control bags, biodegradable plant pots, capillary matting, landscape fabric	Needle punched, spunbond
Automotive	Headliner, dashboard insulation, carpets and flooring, seats, interior trim, cabin air filters, airbags, wheel housing, dashboard insulation, hood insulation, filtration, molded bonnet liners, heat shields, parcel shelf, boot liners, boot floor covering, boot carpets	Needle punched, spunlace, thermally bonded, spunbond
Building	Insulation (thermal and noise), house wrap, roofing, covers for acoustic ceilings, air infiltration barrier, vapor barrier, flooring substrates, facings for plaster board, pipe wrap, concrete molding layers, foundations and ground stabilization, vertical drainage	Dry-laid, needle punched, spunlace, thermobonded, spunmelt
Geotextiles	Road and rail building, dam, canal and pond lining, hydraulic works, sewer lines, soil stabilization and reinforcement, soil separation, drainage landfill, filtration, sedimentation and erosion control, weed control, root barriers, sport surfaces, asphalt overlay, impregnation base, drainage channel liners	Dry-laid, needle punched, spun-laid
Filtration	Engine air, oil, fuel, cabin air, HVAC—industrial heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning, industrial consumer products, clean rooms, food and beverage, pharmaceutical/medical, water, blood, hydraulic, antimicrobial, biopharmaceutical, dust, odor	Air-laid, electrospun, meltblown, needle punched, spunbond, spunlace, thermobonded, wet-laid
Household	Abrasives, bed linen, blinds/curtains, carpet/carpet backings, covering and separation material, detergent pouches/fabric softener sheets, flooring, furniture/ upholstery, mops, table linen, tea and coffee bags, vacuum cleaning bags, wall covering, wipes	Needle punched, spunbond, wet-laid
Medical	Disposable caps, gowns, masks, scrub suits and shoe covers, drapes, wraps and packs, sponges, dressings and wipes, bed linen, contamination control gowns, examination gowns, lab coats, isolation gowns, transdermal drug delivery, shrouds, underpads, procedure packs, heat packs, ostomy bag liners, fixation tapes, incubator mattress, sterilization wraps, wound care, cold/heat packs, drug delivery	Dry-laid, spunlace, meltblown, spunbond
Personal care wipes	Baby wipes, facial wipes, cleansing wipes, hand and body wipes, moist towelettes, personal hygiene wipes, feminine hygiene wipes, antibacterial wipes, medicated wipes	Air-laid, spunlace, wet-laid

Nonwovens for apparel and fashion applications:
Woven and knitted fabrics are widely employed in apparel and fashion applications. Nonwoven fabrics find some application in disposable sector and are mostly employed as components of durable applications. The key areas of applications include interlinings, protective clothing, shoe linings, and synthetic leather. Going into the history of disposable dresses, Scott Paper Company introduced paper dresses in 1966 and sold more than half a million in less than a year. The dress was actually part of an advertising campaign and included yarn reinforcement. Following the trend, other companies also launched paper products, including evening dress, wedding gown, water proof rain coats, bikinis, and paper suits; some of the examples with commercial success are mentioned here. 

 

Miratec fabrics by Polymer Group International are textured hydroentangled fabrics and offer applications in durable apparel. DuPont introduced the spunbonded olefin, TyvekR, which is a lightweight protective apparel and has achieved a lot of commercial success. TyvekR-based jackets are also offered but not in the mainstream. EvolonR by Freudenberg is another notable example. EvolonR is made from splittable bicomponent fibers, which are split during hydroentanglement resulting in microfilament fabric and the fabric is claimed to be processed like a traditional fabric. Another interesting example is Spray-onc fabric by Fabrican, which uses liquid suspension sprayed by the use of either a spray gun or an aerosol can to create an instant nonwoven fabric.

Though nonwovens have some degree of success in commercialization of limited-use apparel but, in general, struggle to meet the properties required for the durable applications. Fabric drape, handle, elastic recovery, and abrasion resistance are important for applications of nonwovens in main stream apparel. Nonwoven technology has advanced and fabrics with desirable properties for apparel applications are being developed. For example, hydroentangled fabrics provide better drape characteristics than other available nonwoven fabrics as the entanglement and twisting mechanisms during hydroentangling are superficially similar to the twist in yarns. Furthermore, the use of postprocessing methods, especially coloration approaches, functional finishes, and joining techniques, are the key to develop nonwovens for durable apparel applications.

Applications for nonwovens in technical textiles:
Applications for nonwovens in technical textiles is not a new trend. Today, nonwovens are being widely used in many industrial sectors and they play a vital role in their application in technical textiles worldwide.

Advantages of nonwovens for technical application: Nonwovens’ resistance to tears, soil, chemical, puncture, UV light exposure, mildew, rot, freeze/thaw conditions, excellent strength, breathability and barrier properties, attractive fiber and structural appearance of various surface tension at relatively low cost makes them an ideal candidate for technical applications.

Nonwoven are widely used in the below sectors of technical textiles:

• Agrotech: Agriculture, aquaculture, horticulture and forestry.
• Buildtech: Building and construction.
• Clothtech: Technical components of footwear and clothing.
• Geotech: Geotextiles and civil engineering.
• Hometech: Technical components of furniture, household textiles and floor coverings.
• Indutech: filtration, conveying, cleaning and other industrial uses.
• Medtech: hygiene and medical.
• Mobiltech: automobiles, shipping, railways and aerospace.
• Oekotech: environmental protection.
• Packtech: packaging.
• Protech: personal and property protectionSporttech: sports and leisure.