Bonding nonwovens with steam jets

Saxon Textile Research Institute has developed a non-continuous laboratory system for the bonding of nonwovens fabrics with jets of steam. The system comprises of an infeed unit for the nonwoven fabric material, a traversing unit, path and number of passes, steam jets with holes of different diameters, and a steam generation unit. The process used in nonwoven bonding with steam jets is a combination of mechanical and thermal bonding. The bonding tests carried out with a selection of different nonwoven materials showed that the strength of the fabrics enhances with the increase in fiber content. The process provides several advantages over spunlace technology including lower electricity consumption and a reduction in drying requirements, leading to considerable savings in overall production costs.