Non-woven fabric is a fabric like material made of short fibers or filaments bonded to each other by chemical, mechanical, thermal or solvent treatment. They are not made by weaving or knitting, and do not require the conversion of fibers into yarn.

The history of non-woven fabrics can be traced back to a long time ago, and one of the oldest non-woven fabrics is felt. Felt is made of 100% wool fiber or a mixture containing wool fiber, and is made by wetting, compressing, and rubbing the fibers into each other.

Nonwovens in the modern sense of industrial production began in 1878, when the British William Bywater company successfully developed the world's first needle machine. 3 The needling machine can strengthen the fiber mesh into non-woven fabric through needling, which is suitable for a variety of natural and synthetic fibers.

However, what really promoted the development of the non-woven industry was the technological innovation from the field of paper and plastics after the Second World War. 4 For example:

Wet method: The wet method evolved from the papermaking process, which can disperse short fibers or wood pulp through water flow on the net to form a uniform wet net, and then by pressing and drying curing into non-woven fabric. Wet method can produce high strength, high water absorption, high air permeability and high flatness of non-woven fabrics, widely used in medical, health, filtration and other fields.

Meltblow method: Meltblow method evolved from the plastic process, it can melt the polymer raw material into a liquid at high temperature, and then spray it into a micro-fiber through the high-speed air flow, and form a non-woven fabric on the collection device. Melt-blowing can produce non-woven fabrics with good filtration performance, heat insulation performance and oil absorption performance, which are mainly used in masks, protective clothing, sound insulation materials and other fields.

Spunbond method: The spunbond method evolved from the chemical fiber process, which can melt the polymer raw material into a liquid at high temperatures, and then extrude it through a nozzle to grow silk and form a non-woven fabric after cooling and curing. Spunbond method can produce non-woven fabrics with high strength, high softness, high wear resistance and high uniformity, which are mainly used in clothing, home, agriculture and other fields.

In addition to the above several main production methods, there are some other production methods, such as spunling method, hot rolling method, hot air method, etc., which can manufacture non-wovens with different characteristics and functions according to different raw materials and needs.

In short, non-woven fabrics, as a new type of material, have experienced rapid development and innovation in the past century and more, forming a diversified and specialized industry. Non-woven fabrics have a wide range of applications and huge market potential in various fields.