Nonwoven fabric
sheet of fibers
Nonwoven fabric or non-woven fabric is a fabric-like material made from staple fibre (short) and long fibres (continuous long), bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. The term is used in the textile manufacturing industry to denote fabrics, such as felt, which are neither woven nor knitted. Some non-woven materials lack sufficient strength unless densified or reinforced by a backing. In recent years, non-wovens have become an alternative to polyurethane foam.
Applications
Because nonwoven fabrics do not require the intermediate step of converting fibres to yarn, they have more flexibility in materials usage. Nonwoven fabrics may be single-use, have a limited life, or be very durable. Nonwoven fabrics are sometimes designed to provide specific functions such as absorbency, liquid repellence, resilience, stretch, softness, strength, flame retardancy, washability, cushioning, thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, filtration, use as a bacterial barrier and sterility. These properties are often combined to create fabrics suited for specific jobs and can mimic the appearance, texture and strength of a woven fabric.
Non-woven materials are used in numerous applications, including:
Medical
isolation gowns
surgical gowns
surgical drapes and covers
surgical masks
surgical scrub suits
caps
medical packaging: porosity allows gas sterilization
gloves
shoe covers
bath wipes
wound dressings
drug delivery
plasters
Filters
gasoline, oil and air – including HEPA filtration
water, coffee, tea bags
pharmaceutical industry
mineral processing
liquid cartridge and bag filters
vacuum bags
allergen membranes or laminates with non woven layers
Geotextiles
Nonwoven geotextile containers (sand bags) are used for
soil stabilizers and roadway underlayment
foundation stabilizers
erosion control
canal construction
drainage systems
geomembrane protection
frost protection
pond and canal water barriers
sand infiltration barrier for drainage tile
landfill liners
They are more robust in handling as compared to their woven counterparts, and therefore were often preferred in large-scale erosion protection projects such as those at Amrumbank West; Narrow Neck, Queensland; Kliffende house on Sylt island, and the Eider Barrage. In the last case, only 10 bags out of 48,000 were damaged despite a high installation rate of 700 bags per day.
“Nonwoven fabric” enters the record as sheet of fibers. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nonwoven, fabric and sheet can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nonwoven fabric” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.