E-mail Purpose
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Nonwoven Tools LLC is dedicated to providing training for production floor employees in the nonwoven industry. This e-mail is being sent to you to provide you every other week with training materials you can use. Please refer others in your organization to us. Forward this e-mail to them and remind them to click on the "Join Our Mailing List" link. Thanks
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Methods of Coating
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 The emphasis for this issue of the newsletter is chemical bonded nonwovens. Several methods have been used to apply binder chemicals to the fibers. The three primary methods for nonwovens are spray bonding ( which has largely been replaced with binder fibers), foam bonding, and gravure coating. This week the emphasis is on gravure coating. The next issue will address foam coating.
There are other types of coating used for apply chemicals to a finished nonwoven fabric. One of the best depictions of various types of bonding and coating can be found at this web site. Black Clawson has a web page that presents the basics for three types of gravure coating. |
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Weekly Definition = Anilox Rolls
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 When a dry, carded, nonwoven web is bonded (or glued) together with chemicals, the right amount of chemical has to be applied. If too little chemical binder is applied for a given weight of fiber there is a lack of bonding among the fibers and the finished fabric is weak or delaminates. If too much binder is applied, it can cause runs in the fabric and/or cause the fabric to be stiff or plastic.
Quite frequently chemical binders are applied using anilox rolls. (Some people use the term anilox, gravure, and engraved interchangeably.) These are metering rolls that have grooves or cells engraved in their surface. These grooves or cells carry the liquid binder to the dry fabric and apply a consistent amount. The amount is consistent because a doctor blade wipes the excess from the roll.
This week's definition
Here is some information and pictures. Start half way down the linked page.
Read the section on Roll/Gravure coating on this link.
Anilox roller definition from PrintWiki
An article titled Anilox basics from Zecher Anilox definition from Wikipedia Some general information about anilox rollers Though Harper relates mostly to printing, they have some good info. Good stuff from Pomarco, a maker of anilox rolls Coat - weight calculator Good picture of roll being engraved Screen and volume charts |
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Fiber Year 2011
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Fiber Year 2011: Textile industry experiences largest growth in 25 years
May 17, 2011 - The world textile industry in 2010 has experienced the most potent growth in twenty-five years. Manufacturing volumes of natural and manmade fibers rocketed upwards by 8.6%, or 6.4 million tonnes, at 80.8 million tonnes. This corresponds to an average per capita consumption of 11.8 kg.
Thus, an average annual fiber growth of 3.4% in this decade compares to a yearly population rise of 1.2% in that time frame. To read the rest of the article, click here.
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Opps
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Scott Webb was kind enough to mention to me that in the last issue I overlooked Card Clothing and Services when I mentioned companies that do card clothing. Please check them out here. They are a distributor for Garnett Wire LTD.
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Fibroline
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 While searching the internet this week I stumbled across the web site for Fibroline. Years ago I was involved in work with Eastman to develop the powder bonding process for bonding nowoven fabric. Fibroline has refined this process with the introduction of the use of an alternating electric field to disperse the powder uniformly throughout the nonwoven web. Their web site is very extensive and does a good job explaining the process and uses for material made with this method. You can check them out here. |
I've been doing some work lately related to chemical bonding. The first plant I worked at when I started in nonwovens was making diaper coverstock with rayon chemically bonded with latex. A few years later we built a 218" wide saturate bonded line using ananilox roll to apply latex to polyester to make many many truckloads of Bounce.