Spunlaced Non-Woven Fabric Technology And Its Recent Development In China

The earliest concept of spunlacing (also known as hydroentanglement): using water jets to entangle fibres to form non-woven fabrics, was conceived as early as 1950s. Like other nonwoven fabrics, spunlaced non-woven fabrics are not made of yams, but directly from fibers or filaments which are laid by web forming machines (e.g. cards) to form a loose unbonded web and are subsequently bonded by various processes (needling machines, melt fibers, chemical bonding agents or water needling technology) into a textile sheet. Since its initiation in 1953, the technology received increasing attention and has undergone rapid development during the 1980s. Today, China is one of the nations who has invested in spunlaced nonwoven fabric production, with 10 production lines each costs around 5 millions US dollars. The first China national conference on spunlace non-woven fabric production was held in Zhuhai, China in October 1996. This article reviews the historical development of spunlaced non-woven fabric production, gives an account on the technology and its recent development in China and discusses the problems faced.