Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Chapter IV.
Wet laid, Air laid, and Random laid

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Wet laid - Principle

This topic is disskused in subject Thermal and chemical technology of
nonwovens because wetlaid fabricks are usually chemical bonded.
Wet laid nonwovens are made by a modified papermaking process. That is,
the fibers to be used are suspended in water, which is subsequently taken
out.
In terms of wet laid technology compared with dry laid technology is
possible to process short and smooth fibers (for example glass microfibers).

The typical features of airlaid and wetlaid fabrics are:

Random orientation of fibers on the fabric surface
Wider range of area density compared with dry laid technology

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Wetlaid used material

The wet laid fibers must be miscible in water so their main feature are:
low surface tension (which is possible to adjust by surfactants
small lenght or low ratio between the fiber length and diameter it is
possible to process short fibers (2-50 mm)
low crimpiness it is possible to proces smooth fibers
A major objective of wetlaid nonwovens is to produce structures with textile
properties (flexibility, strenght etc...) at speeds similar to papermaking process.
Textile fibers tend to be longer, stronger and relatively inert when compared to
papermaking fibers, which are short, fine and are able to pack together into a
dense structure. The structure, which contains textile fibers, is more open and
extensible but preserves the basic strenght and stability of the fabric. Thus wet
laid textile is stronger, softer, bulkier, more drapeable, less smooth and more
porous than paper.

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Wet laid principle of technology

There are three characteristic stages in the manufacture of nonwoven
bonded fabrics by the wet-laid method .
Swelling and dispersion of the fiber in water; transport of the suspension
on a continuous traveling screen
Continuous web formation on the screen as a result of filtration
Drying and bonding of the web
Fiber swelling and
dispersion
Suspension transport
Web formation
Water recycling

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Wet laid examples of end uses of wet laids

Special papers:
synthetic fiber paper, dust filters, liquid filters, overlay paper, stencil paper,
tea bag paper, paper for wrapping susage and cooked meats
Industrial nonwovens for:
waterproof sheeting for roofs, shingling, separators, filters, reinforcement
material for plastics, backing material, shoe uppers, decoration, interlinings,
insulation
Nonwovens similar to textiles:
surgical clothing, bed-linen, table cloths, servittes, towes, household cloths,
face cloths, nappy, sanitary articles

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Air laid - principle

The fiber material is at first
opened by rotating cylinder
named lickerin. Then single
fibers are dispersed into the
air stream and condensed on
the perforated cylinder or
belt.
Air laid fabric compared with carding technology has these features:
The fibers are oriented randomly on the fabric surface isotropic structure.
Voluminious webs can be produced
The range of the area weight is wider (15 250 g/m2) but the mass uniformity
of light air laid (up to 30 g/m2) is bad.
Wide variety of processable fibers

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Air laid production problems

Low level of opening fiber material by lickerin roller
Thus is suitable to use pre-opened fibers or combine air laid with card
machine Random card machine
Various structures of web in width of layer due to irregular air flow close to
walls of duct
This problem requires high quality design of duct.
Possible entangling of fibers in air stream
This problem can be reduced by increasing the ratio air/fibers which
nevertheless means decrease in performance and increase of energy
consumption due to high volume of flowing air. The relation between air
flow and performance of device shows the importance of fiber lenght and
fiber diameter. QA is air flow, K is device constant, P is performance of
device (kg/hour), L is lenght of fiber staple (m) and D is fiber fineness
(dtex).
P.L2
Thus is suitable to use short fibers for this
QA K .
technology.
D

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Example of air laid machine

Production up to 3 000 kg/hour

Scheme of airlaid line dust controll

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Random cards combination of air laid and carding

technology
A major objective of this combination is isotropic textile
fabric (random orientation of fibers) with good mass
uniformity of light fabrics and with high production speed.
The first part card machine opens perfectly fibrous
material so single fibers are as a output.
The second part air laid system uses the centrifugal force
to strip the fibers off a roller and. put them down on an air
controlled scrim belt.

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Main variations of random cards I.

Airlaid function of random card:
1) Random roller between main
cylinder and doffer, which rotate in
the opposite direction of the main
cylinder.

Main
cylinder
Random
roller

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Main variations of random cards II.

2) Centrifugal
force of mean
cylinder strips the
fibers off

Random card Fehrer K12

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Example of
random card line
Fehrer

Working
widths
(m)
Production
speeds
(m/min)
Weight range
(g/m2)
Capacity
(kg/h/m)

V 21/R - K 12
K 12 "HIGH-LOFT"

V 12/R

1.2 - 5.4

1.2 - 5.4

up to 30 *

1 - 10 *

40 - 3000 *
in special
configuration
up to 6000

500 - 6000*

up to 450 *

up to 1500 *

Mechanical technology of nonwovens

Department of nonwovens

Air laid and random cards: used fibers

synthetic fibres, viscose, cotton and blends thereof;
natural fibres such as flax, hemp, sisal etc.; reclaimed
textile waste and shoddy,
1.7 - 2000dtex
max. 120 mm staple length

Air laid and random cards: end products

interlinings, shoe linings, high loft" products for the garment and furniture
industries; base material for coating substrates and synthetic leather;
waddings;geotextiles, filter materials; needle blankets; carpets and wall
coverings; technical felts insulation felts; mattress felts, waddings for the
upholstery and automotive industry; undercarpets