Flax, hemp, wool & others: natural fibers on the 'nonwoven path'

摘要

Starting in 1991, worldwide production of man-made fibers outpaced natural fibers due to constantly increasing demand (table 1). Natural fibers, i. e. plant or animal fibers, can be processed with most web forming and bonding methods to produce nonwovens. In terms of web formation, they are used for wetlaid nonwovens, mechanically formed nonwovens with carder or carder and crosslapper, and in airlaid nonwovens. On the bonding side, needle punching, entangling, sewing, stitchbonding as well as chemical and thermal bonding are common methods. In terms of production processes, large ranges of fiber length and diameter, colours and embedded foreign particles or dust during processing are issues to be considered.