Abrasion resistance of thermally bonded 3D nonwoven fabrics

Employing the established standard Martindale abrasion method, the abrasion resistance of the three-dimensional nonwoven filter samples produced using the recently developed air laid web formation process and through-air thermal bonding process and the commercially available polypropylene (PP)/polyester (PET) (sheath/core) bi-component staple fibre as raw material, has been evaluated. Results obtained indicated that there are two failure forms for the thermally bonded nonwoven samples during the abrasion testing, the peeling of the fibre PP sheath and the pilling forming and breaking off. The process parameters, including the bonding temperature, dwell time and hot air velocity and fabric weight clearly affect the abrasion resistance of the thermally bonded nonwoven filter samples. These effects could be correlated with the thermal oxidative degradation of the fibre PP sheath during the thermal bonding process and the compactness of the resulting samples.