THERMOBONDED NONWOVEN FABRICS MADE FROM COTTON SYNTHETIC-FIBER BLENDS- PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES

An investigation is described in which nonwoven fabrics were produced from 70/30 cotton/synthetic-fiber blends. They were thermobonded with a calender at different bonding temperatures but at constant nip press ure and production speed. All fabrics were made of the same bleached c otton fiber blended with 20 synthetic binder fibers. The mean fabric m ass/unit area was approximately 60 g/m2. The fabrics were evaluated fo r nine physical properties. The data were analyzed by using nested ana lyses of variance, univariate-mean-comparison tests, a multiresponse o ptimization procedure, a canonical-discriminant analysis, a regression analysis, least-squares mean-comparison tests, and analyses of covari ance. All physical properties showed significant differences between f abrics and between bonding temperatures for each fabric composition. T he optimal bonding temperature for each fabric composition was depende nt upon the binder-fiber type. Significantly different relationships b etween fabric thicknesses and bonding temperatures occurred among fabr ic compositions. Differences among the fabric compositions were measur able in fabrics made from blended cotton/bicomponent fibers and cotton / biconstituent fibers. Relationships between machine and cross direct ions differed for breaking strength, elongation, and stiffness. These relationships also differed among fabric categories for breaking stren gth and stiffness. The best fabric for each physical property was rela ted to the binder-fiber type. The more appropriate synthetic fibers fo r blending with cotton to produce the nonwoven fabrics with over-all o ptimum properties were: polypropylene fiber II, polypropylene fiber II I, and bicomponent fiber III, made of 50/50 polyester-fiber core/polyp ropylene-fiber sheath.