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 pressure and production speed. All fabrics were made of the same bleached cotton fiber blended with 20 synthetic binder fibers. The mean fabric mass/unit area was approximately 60 g/m². The fabrics were evaluated for nine physical properties. The data were analyzed by using nested analyses of variance, univariate-mean-comparison tests, a multiresponse optimization procedure, a canonical-discriminant analysis, a regression analysis, least-squares mean-comparison tests, and analyses of covariance. All physical properties showed significant differences between fabrics and between bonding temperatures for each fabric composition. The optimal bonding temperature for each fabric composition was dependent upon the binder-fiber type. Significantly different relationships between fabric thicknesses and bonding temperatures occurred among fabric compositions. Differences among the fabric compositions were measurable in fabrics made from blended cotton/bicomponent fibers and cotton/biconstituent fibers. Relationships between machine and cross directions differed for breaking strength, elongation, and stiffness. These relationships also differed among fabric categories for breaking strength and stiffness. The best fabric for each physical property was related to the binder-fiber type. The more appropriate synthetic fibers for blending with cotton to produce the nonwoven fabrics with over-all optimum properties were: polypropylene fiber II, polypropylene fiber III, and bicomponent fiber III, made of 50/50 polyester-fiber core/polypropylene-fiber sheath.