Hydroentangled nonwoven fabrics

Mao N and Russell S J (2006), A framework for determining the bonding intensity in hydroentangled nonwoven fabrics , Comp Sci Tecfi, 66(1), 80-91. 

Nonwoven geotextiles. Nonwoven fabrics are defined as a sheet, web, or batt of directionally or randomly oriented fibres/filaments, bonded either by friction, and/or cohesion, and/or adhesion. In general, nonwoven fabric formation can be considered as a two-step process web formation (aligning the fibres with certain orientation characteristics) and bonding these fibres by mechanical, thermal, or chemical means. This two-step process has formed the classification of nonwoven structures, i.e. carded, airlaid, spunlaid, meltblown, needlepunched, hydroentangled, adhesive bonded, thermal bonded, stitch bonded, etc. Some of the important processes that are used for the manufacture of nonwoven geotextiles are discussed below. 

A nonwoven fabric is a textile structure made from fibers, without a yam being first made knitted and woven fabrics, require yams. A nonwoven fabric normally comprises a network of fibers or continuous filament yams strengthened by mechanical, chemical, or thermally interlocking processes. Examples are bonding with hinders such as latex polymers, needling, hydroentanglement, and stitchbonding. 

With consideration of the requirements of avoidance of fibre shedding in the filtration process, nonwoven fabrics made from continuous fibres such as melt blown, spun-bond, and hydroentangled nonwovens and electrospun/centrifugal spinning nanofibre nonwovens, as well as their composite combinations comprising both microfibres and nanofibres, are widely used in microfiltration as a water filtration media. They... 

Within the plane of a nonwoven material, the fibers may be either completely isotropic or ia a preferred orientation or alignment, usually with respect to a machine or processiag direction. In the case of thicker, dry-laid nonwovens, fiber orientation may be developed ia the third dimension, ie, that dimension which is perpendicular to the plane of the fabric, by a process known as needle-punching (7). This process serves to biad the fibers ia the nonwoven by mechanical interlocking. Hydroentangling is an alternative to needle-punching (8). 

Nonwoven Manufacturing. Cotton staple is readily processed to form carded, air laid, or carded/crossed-lapped webs that can be bonded by various techniques to form useful nonwoven materials, eg, needlepunched, spimlaced (hydroentangled), and stitch-bonded nonwovens, and resin-bonded and thermal-bonded carded fabrics (68). Many times a combination of these processes is used to produce hybrid structures and other products. Cotton s share of the nonwovens market in 2002 is 7.8% globally and 2.8% in North America (69). In 2000-2001, 32-36 million kg (70-80 million lb) of cotton was used in North America to... 

HydrOGntanglement. This is a generic term for a nonwoven process that can be used for web consolidation, fabric surface-texturing purposes, or both. The mechanism is one of fiber rearrangement within a preformed web by means of fluid forces. When used for bonding, hydroentanglement repositions individual fibers... 

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