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The process of manufacturing an activated carbon nonwoven made by cotton fiber was investigated. The study was focused on cotton nonwoven formation, carbonization, activation, and characterization of the activated carbon nonwoven. Pyrolysis of the cotton carbonization was analyzed using TGA. There was a considerable decrease in weight loss in the region between 250°C to 400°C and the proper carbonized temperature was 400°C. The SEM examination indicated that the surface area of cotton fiber was increased significantly because the inside hollow of cotton fiber was widely opened and some small agglomerated particles were gasified after activation. Absorbability of the activated carbon nonwoven was evaluated using an instrument of inverse gas chromatography. Dispersive surface energy, specific free energy, and total surface energy all indicated this trend: Carbonized Cotton > Activated Cotton > Raw Cotton. The activated carbon nonwoven exhibited the potential for use as high adsorbent and absorbent materials. They are light weight and bulky, advantageous in protective clothing applications and other consumer and industrial applications.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of fibre properties on filtration behavior. Air pollution is a major threat to human beings due to industrialization and urbanization. Among various particles in the atmospheric air, PM 2.5 causes various respiratory problems to human beings and also causes premature engine wear. The primary importance for the filters is higher filtration efficiency with lower pressure drop.

In this research, nonwoven filters were developed with different diameters of polyester fibres such as 0.8d, 1.2d and 6d fibres and different proportions of fibres were used. The Kuwabara cell model was used to derive certain parameters and its effects were analysed. The effect of basis length, solid volume fraction and porosity on filtration behavior was discussed in detail.

The filtration efficiency is higher for particle size from 1–3 µm, when different layers of polyester fibres are used with coarser fibres as the top layer and finer as the bottom layer. The filtration performance is better for layered nonwoven than unimodal nonwoven. The higher proportion of micro-denier fibres results in higher filtration efficiency with higher pressure drop.

The proposed research is more suitable for the particle size of more than 1 µm because of the fibre diameters and its achievable porosity. The filtration efficiency can be increased further by increasing the mass per unit area, which also increases the pressure and is not recommended.

The effect of triple-layers with different diameters of fibres on filtration was analysed. Due to the variation in diameters of fibres in different layers, the filtration performance varies.

This paper aims to propose the artificial neural network (ANN) and regression models for the estimation of the thread consumption at multilayered seam assembly stitched with lock stitch 301.

In the present study, the generalized regression and neural network models are developed by considering the fabric types: woven, nonwoven and multilayer combination thereof, with basic sewing parameters: sewing thread linear density, stitch density, needle count and fabric assembly thickness. The network with feed-forward backpropagation is considered to build the ANN, and the training function trainlm of MATLAB software is used to adjust weight and basic values according to the optimization of Levenberg Marquardt. The performance of networks measured in terms of the mean squared error and the layer output is set according to the sigmoid transfer function.

The proposed ANN and regression model are able to predict the thread consumption with more accuracy for multilayered seam assembly. The predictability of thread consumption from available geometrical models, regression models and industrial empirical techniques are compared with proposed linear regression, quadratic regression and neural network models. The proposed quadratic regression model showed a good correlation with practical thread consumption value and more accuracy in prediction with an overall 4.3% error, as compared to other techniques for given multilayer substrates. Further, the developed ANN network showed good accuracy in the prediction of thread consumption.

The estimation of thread consumed while stitching is the prerequisite of the garment industry for inventory management especially with the introduction of the costly high-performance sewing thread. In practice, different types of fabrics are stitched at multilayer combinations at different locations of the stitched product. The ANN and regression models are developed for multilayered seam assembly of woven and nonwoven fabric blend composition for better prediction of thread consumption.

The use of nonwoven fabrics in garment has been, up to now, purely functional and hidden from view. In fact, their uses have been limited to garment interlining in the apparel industry. Felted structures from wool have been limited to the craft market for the production of art and craft objects of decoration. This paper aims to compare the mechanical and thermo-physical comfort properties of a woven wool, a felted wool fabric, a felted wool/polyester and two non-woven synthetic fabrics for apparel use.

Fabric samples were sourced locally. Five fabric samples were selected: one woolen woven, one felted woven, one polyester/wool non-woven and two non-woven synthetic fabrics. The wool fabric was felted by mechanical action using the Wascator FOM 71P machine. All fabric samples were conditioned before they were tested for their mechanical and thermal comfort properties as per standard test methods.

The comparative study of the mechanical and thermal properties of the five fabric samples have been successfully investigated as textile materials for commercial garments. In terms of fabric stiffness, drape and handle, the two non-woven synthetic fabrics were, in general, poorer than the woven wool and the felted woven wool fabrics. The synthetic non-woven fabrics also performed poorly in terms of serviceability. But it was found that the nonwoven synthetic fabrics were best suited when thermal insulation is required and were found to be better than the woven felted wool fabric of comparative weight per unit area.

The value of this study is that it demonstrates the scope of felted woolen structures and other synthetic nonwovens fabrics as usable materials, in part or in full, in the development of apparel for winter wear especially in cold environments and where aesthetic appeal is secondary.

Surgical gowns should be designed and produced using special techniques to provide barrier properties against potential risks during surgery and healthcare procedures. Ultrasonic welding is one of these methods used to produce surgical gowns with determined barrier properties. The purpose of this paper is to analyse bond strength and permeability properties of ultrasonically welded nonwoven fabrics and compare them with traditional sewing techniques.

In this study, ultrasonic welding of nonwovens was performed to demonstrate its use as an assembly method. Performance requirements in the design of surgical gowns were determined. Fabric strengths and bond strengths of ultrasonic-welded and traditionally sewn fabrics were analysed. The performance properties, i.e., bond strength, air and water resistance of the fabrics and the joints obtained by ultrasonic and classical sewing methods were studied.

As a result, it was found that ultrasonic welding technique is a suitable method for joining layers in surgical gown production bringing the advantages of high water resistance together with acceptable bond strength.

The current study focuses on the use of ultrasonic welding of nonwovens used for disposable protective surgical gowns. Ultrasound welding technique was presented as an alternative to classic assembly methods and ultrasonic welding technology was applied to different fabric combinations simulating different layers in different joining sections of a surgical gown.

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of plasma treatment on the performance and color strength of pigment printed polypropylene nonwovens fabrics.

Melt spun nonwoven fabrics have been treated with plasma discharge using oxygen as a reactive gas to activate their surfaces for better interfacial interactions. The untreated and plasma treated fabrics are printed using pigment print pastes to investigate the print properties of nonwoven fabrics that are correlated to surface characteristics. The printed fabrics are characterized through FTIR, color fastness to washing and rubbing, flexural rigidity and moisture management observations.

The fabrics treated with oxygen plasma exhibited higher wettability, higher overall moisture management capability, enhanced color strength and superior color fastness to washing. However, bending length and flexural rigidity have been increased.

This study offers promising findings regarding the surface activation of polypropylene nonwovens for enhanced performance, comfort and color fastness characteristics.

This paper, which deals with the forecasting of nonwovens end-uses, is divided in two parts. The first part presents optimized methods for measuring the structures of nonwovens. The raw data are extracted directly from 3D images of the accurate topographic surfaces of the materials and also from other instruments. Next, data analysis techniques are applied to select relevant structural parameters and forecast the expected end-uses of nonwovens. Relevant physical features are selected by integrating measured data and the knowledge of experts. The effectiveness of these methods has been shown through a number of nonwoven products designed for filtration.

Nowadays, the Green Environment Protection is popular, and the synthetic fiber nonwoven is recyclable and reusable to fabricate functional products with high additional values. It is because that the synthetic fibers used in the nonwoven industry are almost thermoplastic polymer. In this study, we adopted stainless steel filament as functional metal fiber, polypropylene nonwoven waste as filled material and reinforced it with polyester filament. Our process and products were innovative and creative. In order to produce multifunctional fiber products, we combined two or more different kinds of fibers, instead of one single fiber, to spin the ply yarn and weave them into fabrics in the hope that the final products would meet our requirements. The process in this research was innovative and high technical. The ply yarn and fabrics we made possessed high performance and diversity, and they were recyclable and practical. The functional ply yarn and its fabric responded to the electrical functional demands. The products can be applied on the anti-electrostatic fabric or processed into artificial composites.

In this research, the functional ply yarn was produced with an innovative rotor-wrappingtwister. The yarn consisted of polyester filaments, stainless steel filament and polypropylene nonwoven selvages. The speed of the rotor-wrapping-twister and the wrapping counts were the parameters in the manufacturing process. Then the ply yarn was woven into plain fabrics with a rapier loom. Finally, we investigated the tensile properties and maximum breaking strength utilization factors of the fabrics. The maximum breaking strength and elongation of the PS group (core materials were polyester filaments and polypropylene nonwoven selvages, and wrapping material was a stainless steel filament) were better at higher rotor speed (8000 rpm). The influence of the wrapping counts on the tensile properties was different while we used different wrapping materials. After the measurement of electromagnetic shielding effectiveness, we found the fabrics that fabricated with the ply yarn could take as the electromagnetic shielding materials. The weight percentage of the metallic fiber was only 3.52 ∼ 4.58 wt % and the value of the shielding effectiveness was 10 ∼ 25 dB.

The aim of this research is to develop greige (raw/non-bleached) cotton-containing nonwoven fabrics that likely would be competitive in quality, cost and performance to existing products that presently and predominantly use man-made fibers and some bleached cotton for wipes and other similar end-use nonwoven products. Since the whiteness and absorbency of these end-use products generally are the most desired and perhaps even critical attributes, the research was mainly focused on attaining these attributes by exploring various choices and optimum use of a variety of cost-effective cotton fibers and the blends thereof with other fibers. Nonwoven fabrics were produced, via a modern hydroentanglement system, with possible choices of using several types of cotton fibers, including the greige cotton lint and certain of its co-products such as gin motes and comber noils, and their various blends with polyester and nylon staple fibers. Bleached cotton was also used to produce an equivalent fabric for comparison. The research has shown that although the desired and perhaps critical properties of whiteness and absorbency of the selected fibers vary considerably among the various fabrics produced, the blends of greige cotton lint with man-made fibers can provide the fabric whiteness and absorbency comparable to those of say, a, bleached cotton fabric. The research results suggest that the greige cotton lint and/or its co-products in blend with polyester fiber may be sensible approaches to the development of functionally acceptable nonwoven wiping products that are also environment friendly.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model to predict the mechanical behaviour of needle punched heavy geotextiles in uniaxial tensile test.

The model was constructed using theory of layered composite materials and finite element method. The properties of a reference fabric were used as initial data in theoretical calculations and a commercially available finite element program was chosen to carry out stress analysis. A comparison is made between theoretical calculations and experimental data to evaluate the deformation mechanism of geotextile fabrics in uniaxial tensile test.

The results indicate that compatible data were predicted in terms of stress values and stress distribution of fabrics. The inconstant lateral contraction of nonwoven fabrics in tensile test is also successfully simulated by the model. However, in the case of elongations, the model could not predict the strains of heavy geotextiles accurately.

The study aims at predicting the mechanical behaviour of needle punched heavy geotextiles by using the structural and mechanical properties of a “reference fabric” instead of constituent fiber properties.