Nonwoven melt-blown fibers

Fiber products account for about 15% of polypropene consumption. The products range from continuous filaments for carpeting and rope to melt-blown fibers for nonwoven goods. Specific applications include outdoor carpets, yarns for upholstery and automobile seats, and replacements for canvas in luggage and shoes, disposable goods (diapers, surgical gowns), ropes, and cords. 

Nonwoven melt-blown These fibers are composed of discontinuous filaments and are smaller than those of spun-bonded fabrics. Fibers produced are very fine with a typical diameter of 3 pm. Most commercial products are made of polyester or high melt-flow polypropylene plastic. 

One of the important aspects of the development of P-plastomers was the expectation that these materials were amenable to plastics processing such as fiber and film formation and yet would yield soft elastic fabrication. This combination was hitherto unknown [24]. The formation of nonwoven fabrics including spun-bond and melt-blown nonwoven fabrics as well as their laminated forms has been documented. Similarly, cast film operation to form elastic monolithic films or composite structures which are not only amenable to these processes, but also to a variety of postfabrication processes have been described. 

G. S. Bhat, V. Narayanan and L. C. Wadsworth, Dimensionally Stable Polyester Films, Fibers, Yarns and Melt Blown Nonwovens, U.S. Patent 5,753,736 (issued May 19, 1998). 

Fiber processing development Unusual plastic fibers such as polyolefin fibers are produced by a spurted or melt-blown spinning technique. A variety of directly formed nonwovens with excellent filtration characteristics is produced. Original development was by... 

Melting blown (MB) fibers are usually around 10 pm or less in diameter which gives them greater cover but generally weaker fabrics. Some of the main uses of PP in MB nonwovens are in filtration media, face masks, and battery separators. 

PBS is a typical thermoplastic and can be processed via various methods, such as extrusion, injection molding, film blowing, fiber spinning, and thermoforming. It has been reported that PBS can be processed into melt-blown, multifilament, monofilament, nonwoven, flat and split yarn, injection-molded products, film, paper laminate, sheet, and tape for applications in the textile and plastic industries. 

Nonwoven fabrics account for more PP usage than any other single fiber application. There are three types of nonwoven fabrics thermobonded, from staple fibers spunbonded and melt-blown. The spunbonded and melt-blown processes are discussed below. The fabrics from each process differ from each other in properties and appearance, and often combinations of two types are used together. Spunbonded fabrics are strong, whereas melt-blown fabrics are soft and have high bulk. 

The melt blowing process responds to process variables more readily than most of the other nonwoven processes to produce a wide variety of end products. The actual process parameters that determine final web properties involve the selection of polymer or resin, conditions in the extruder or melt tank, geometry and condition at the die tip and fiber distribution and separation at laydown. Modem melt-blown lines are designed with highly automated machine and process control equipment, which allow for quick selection of particular parameters and easy machine adjustments. 

Ke)words melt blowing, web, microfibers, microfilters, hot melt equipment, thermoplastic polymers, PP, extruder, filaments, air quenching, fiber entanglement, substrates, composite structures, nonwoven, sorbents, filtration, hot-melt adhesives, melt-blown textiles, microfibers, melt tank, die. 

The main categories of PP fibers, fibrous and related materials are the following monofilaments, multifilaments, staple fibers, nonwoven textiles (spunbonds, melt blowns), tapes, split films and others [1, 2, 3, 5]. 

Keywords use, application, chemical fiber, polypropylene fiber, monofilament, multifilament, staple fiber, tapes, spunbond, melt blown, split film, textile yarn, knitted fabrics, clothing, nonwoven fabric, home textiles, upholstery, geotextiles, agrotextiles, composites, medical textiles, automotive textiles, bulk continuous filaments (BCF), Eco-textiles, integrated fabric. 

JP Patent 11,117,164, Biodegradable nonwoven laminates of melt-blown nonwoven fabrics of aliphatic polyester fibers and spnnbonded nonwoven fabrics of urethane bond-containing butylene succinate copolymer fibers , Kawano, Akitaka Kin, Kasue, 1999. 

For special applications, polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) is another fiber alternative in the polyester family, especially in melt blown nonwovens for filters. Properties of the typical three polyesters are shown in Table 2.26. 

There are two parts in this chapter. In part 1 (section 8.3), the above-mentioned models, i.e. the ANN model and statistical model are used to predict the fiber diameter of melt blown nonwoven fabrics from the processing parameters. The results are expected to give an indication of the relative roles of these models in predicting the fiber diameter of melt blown nonwoven fabrics. In part 2 (section 8.4), to meet the demand of establishing small-scaled ANN models, an input variable selection method was developed to help model the structure-property relations of nonwoven fabrics for filtration application. The structural parameters were selected by utilizing this method. The ANN models of structure-property relations of nonwovens were established. This section will establish a reasonably good ANN model that can generalize well and consider more structural parameters as the model inputs. 

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