Nonwoven Educational Research

How the Collection Is Organized

The fibers unit covers the raw materials one by one — polyester, olefin, rayon, nylon, carbon, cotton and bicomponent fibers — together with an overview of fiber consumption in nonwovens, because fiber choice largely determines what a finished nonwoven can do. The formation unit explains dry-laid and wet-laid web forming and the two extrusion processes, melt blown and spunbond, that spin webs directly from polymer. The finishing and bonding unit covers chemical bonding, needle punching, spunlace (hydroentanglement) and thermal bonding. The geotextiles unit then applies all of it to one field: how nonwovens are used in geotextiles, geomembranes, durability questions and the standard testing methods used to specify them.

The articles grew out of Textile Science 526, Nonwovens Science and Technology II at the University of Tennessee, a course on the inter-relations between the mechanics of production and the mechanical properties of nonwoven fabrics, taught by Kermit Duckett. That origin explains the collection's character: the papers are technical, quantitative and heavily referenced, written for readers who want the engineering detail behind fabrics that most consumers meet only as wipes, medical disposables, filters and road-building textiles.