Mechanical and physical properties of puncture-resistance insole made of Kevlar® recycled selvages

The polyester (PET) fibers and Kevlar® staple fibers, which are recycled from discarded selvages of PET and Kevlar® woven fabrics, are made into nonwoven fabrics using a needle-bonded process. The PET/Kevlar® nonwoven matrices are used as the surface layers, while a glass fiber woven fabric is used as the interlayer. The sandwich-structured composites are saturated with waterborne PU resin and then hot pressed, forming puncture resistant PU-reinforced PET/Kevlar® sandwiches. The sandwiches are evaluated in terms of the tensile property test, the bursting property test, the constant-rate puncture test, the dynamic puncture test, and the drop-weight impact test. The test results indicate that increasing the pick-up rate of PU resin can significantly improve all mechanical properties, suggesting that PU-reinforced PET/Kevlar® sandwiches have protective functions and make good candidate for insoles.