The Compressional Behaviour of Spunbonded Nonwoven Fabrics

Spunbonded nonwoven fabrics are extensively used in a number of technical applications because of their physical, tensile, and hydraulic characteristics. In many cases, fabric is subjected to normal compressive loads, and the physical, tensile, and hydraulic properties change with these loads depending on the compressional behaviour of the fabric. It is important to characterise the compressional behaviour of fabrics before their effective use in these applications. Two parameters, α and β, describing compression and recovery curves of different types of spunbonded fabrics have been evaluated. A comparative study on the compressional behaviour of different types of spunbonded-fabric structure is reported. The compressibility of spunbonded heat-sealed fabrics has been found to be much lower and their compressional resilience much higher than the compressibility and compressional resilience of needle-punched spunbonded fabrics. The compressibility of surface-calendered needle-punched spunbonded fabrics is lower than that of untreated needle-punched fabrics while their compressional resilience is higher than that of needle-punched spunbonded fabrics. However, the values of both compressibility and compressional resilience of surface-calendered needle-punched spunbonded fabrics are much closer to those of needle-punched spunbonded fabrics than those of heat-sealed spunbonded fabrics. The effect of fibre linear density on compressional behaviour for different types of spunbonded nonwoven structures has also been reported.