AIRTHROUGH
Nonwoven fabric produced from carding (web forming) and airthrough bonded. Due to the nature of its process they are mostly used to produce:
- Baby diaper (as single, plain or embossed fabrics)
- Fem care products (sanitary napking, panty liner, breas-feeding liner)
The principle physical properties of this kind of material are its excellent softness, its capillarity which allow liquid’s easly flow and its high thickness at lower basis weight.
According to our customer needs we are able to supply plain or embossed patterns as well as white or color fabrics to be used as topsheet, backsheet, side tape or waistband.
As seen before, nonwoven process is divided into web forming and web bonding.
Formation for this kind of fabrics is done by airlaid or carding. Airlaid is a formation process in which fibers are dispersed by blown air and then collected in conveyor thanks to vacuum system; carding is give direction to the fiber by combing them in a parallel way. For bonding, hot air melt the fibers and leaves them attached to each other; this gives de process its Airthrough name. it is important to know that hot air is pulled by vacuum system from the inner part of the machine; this allow an effective heat distribution through the fibers.
Airthrough fabrics are known for being bulky, soft and breathable.
Figure taken from: THERMAL BONDING OF NONWOVEN FABRICS. Updated: April, 2004 – M. G. Kamath, Atul Dahiya, Raghavendra R. Hegde (Xiao Gao & Hsu-Yeh Huang)
- Plain
- Geometric design
- Special design
- Perforated
Airthrough raw materials are fibers that melt at low temperatures; these can be bicomponent or single-component. Bicomponent fibers are the ones with better performance since their outside is designed to act as a binder while their core is in charge to add structure and resistance. The fabric tend to be bulky and with high softness.
We can see an example of a bicomponent fiber in the following figure; on it, the outer layer (binder) is made from PE because it has lower melting point than PET.
Figura de: Nanliu Enterprise.
Other types of bicomponent fibers are the following:
| Item | UNIT | LIMITS | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| WEIGHT | gsm | 15-80 | |
| WIDTH | mm | 55 - 3000 | Width is defined with each customer to calculate loading capacity |
| ROLL DIAMETER | mm | <1100 | Below 1000mm the loading capacity is lower |
| CORE INNER DIAMETER | inch | 3 | |
| COLOR | NA | White, green and blue | White, green and blue |
| FINISHING (EMBOSSED, FLAT,..) | different softness levels and different embossed patterns | different softness levels and different embossed patterns | |
| PACKING | Cardboard boxes or PE film, according to the needs | Cardboard boxes or PE film, according to the needs | |
| AVAILABLE PRODUCTION CAPACTY | TON/MONTH | 1200 -1300 | MOQ: 1x40hq container. |
