In recent years, the application proportion of viscose staple fiber and polyester staple fiber in the non-woven fabric industry has increased. However, due to performance constraints, their products are mostly used in the spunlace non-woven fabric industry. , and a small part is used in the needle-punched non-woven industry, and the proportion of other non-woven fabrics is very small.
Viscose staple fiber for non-woven fabrics—high white viscose staple fiber
In 2019, China’s viscose staple fiber industry has an existing production capacity of 4.985 million tons and an apparent consumption of 3.692 million tons, of which about 11% is used in the field of non-woven fabrics. In the non-woven field, the whiteness index of viscose fiber is required to be higher. The industry usually refers to the viscose fiber used in the field of industrial textiles as “high white viscose fiber”. Currently, there are 5 companies in the country that produce high-white viscose staple fiber. In 2019, the total output of high-white viscose staple fiber was 420,000 tons.
At present, most domestic mainstream manufacturers of high-white viscose staple fiber conduct whiteness testing according to the ordinary viscose staple fiber testing standard (GB/T 14463-2008). The whiteness has reached about 90%.
Polyester staple fiber for non-woven fabrics—spunlace polyester staple fiber
In 2019, China’s polyester staple fiber (melt direct spinning) industry had an annual production capacity of 7.901 million tons, with an actual output of 6.2526 million tons. Domestic consumption was around 5.62 million tons, of which 11.15% was applied to nonwovens cloth field. The application of polyester staple fiber in the non-woven industry is mainly spunlace non-woven fabrics, while there are also a few areas used in the needle-punched non-woven industry.
In terms of specifications, spunlace polyester staple fiber is mainly 1.56dtex*38mm, and needle-punched non-woven staple fiber is mostly 2.22dtex*51/65mm. From the perspective of origin, the current production of spunlace polyester staple fiber is concentrated in Jiangsu. Among them, the supply of Yizheng Chemical Fiber, Suzhou Jiangnan, and Jiangyin Huaxi Chemical Fiber is basically the same. In addition, there are a small amount of spunlace type in Zhejiang, Anhui, and Fujian. The total production capacity of short fiber production is around 900,000 tons, and about 30% is used for export.
Non-woven fabric technology types
There are many types of non-woven fabrics. According to the manufacturing process, they can be mainly divided into spunbond non-woven fabrics, spunlace non-woven fabrics, needle-punched non-woven fabrics, melt-blown non-woven fabrics, and other Heat-sealing non-woven fabrics (including hot-air, hot-rolled and ultrasonic bonding), pulp air-laid non-woven fabrics, wet-laid non-woven fabrics, stitch-bonded non-woven fabrics, and hydrophilic non-woven fabrics. At present, the production process of China’s nonwovens industry is mainly based on spunbond.
Types of non-woven fabrics required for masks
Due to emergencies The impact of the incident has increased equipment demand for masks. Medical surgical masks and N95 masks generally adopt a multi-layer structure, referred to as SMS structure: there are spunbond layers (S) on both sides of the inside and outside; a melt-blown layer (M) in the middle. Generally divided into single layer or multi-layer. Flat masks are generally made of PP spunbond + meltblown + PP spunbond, and three-dimensional cup-shaped masks are generally made of PET polyester needle-punched cotton + meltblown + needle-punched cotton or PP spunbond.
It can be seen that the non-woven fabrics required for masks are mainly spunbond and melt-blown. Among them, the fiber diameter used in spunbond non-woven fabrics is relatively thick, about 20 microns. The process of melt-blown non-woven fabrics is to feed the polymer – melt extrusion – fiber formation – fiber cooling – web formation – reinforcement into cloth. The diameter of melt-blown fiber can reach 1-5 microns, and is generally made of polypropylene material with high melt-fat fiber. These ultra-fine fibers with unique capillary structure increase the number and surface area of fibers per unit area, thus making melt-blown cloth It has good filtering, shielding, heat insulation and oil absorption properties, so melt-blown cloth can be called the “heart” of medical surgical masks and N95 masks. However, the domestic output of melt-blown non-woven fabrics is relatively low.
Can the mask be made of spunlace non-woven fabric?
It is useful, But it is relatively rare. Now some mask companies have chosen to use spunlace cloth as the inner layer because it can absorb moisture and perspire without producing water vapor, and is soft and comfortable. And on February 10, a subsidiary of Huamao Co., Ltd. stated that the pure cotton spunlace non-woven fabric produced can be used as the inner layer (skin layer) of N95 masks. China Textile Research Institute’s product WesselTM (English name NWCELLTM) has been applied to medical masks and other fields.
Raw materials of spunlace non-woven fabrics
Spunlace non-woven fabrics The cloth surface is relatively delicate, and the production process is cleaner than needle punching. Its largest application is in sanitary materials (including medical materials, wet and dry wipes, beauty and other products), followed by synthetic leather base cloth, and finally other industrial clothing and filter materials. And because spunlace is mostly used in disposable wipe-type sanitary materials, considering environmental protection, it is necessary to improve the degradability. Therefore, the main raw materials of spunlace non-woven fabrics are mostly bio-based fibers. However, currently domestic spunlace non-woven fabrics The main raw materials of cloth are polyester and viscose, and it is expected to focus on bio-based fibers such as viscose and cotton in the future or gradually. At present, spunlace non-woven fabric manufacturers across the country are mainly concentrated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. See the figure below for details.
In summary, whether it is high-white viscose Staple fiber is still spunlace polyester staple fiber, and only a very small amount is used in mask production.However, relying on the degradable and flushable characteristics of spunlace non-woven fabrics, it will gradually become more widely used in sanitary materials and other aspects.
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