Mechanical properties of needle-punched/thermally treated non-woven fabrics produced from recycled materials

The textile industry is indispensable to our lives, and the ongoing development of related products also results in an increasing amount of textile waste, especially selvages that account for the majority of textile waste. This study proposes making nonwoven composites with recycled high-strength polyester (HPET) fibers and polypropylene (PP) fibers using needle punching and thermal treatment. One-way ANOVA and multiple regression analysis are employed to analyze the correlation between mechanical properties of nonwoven composites and influencing parameters of fiber blending ratios, needle punching depths, and temperature of thermal treatment. In particular, the HPET/PP nonwoven composites have optimal mechanical properties when the fiber blending ratio is 60/40 (wt%) and the needle punching depth is 19 mm. Moreover, the statistical analyses indicate that the factors that affect the properties are ranked as the intrinsic properties of materials, followed by manufacturing parameters.