Nonwovens Glossary - INDA

Spunlace bonding, Spunlaced bonding
The method of bonding a web by interlocking and entangling the fibers about each other with
high velocity streams of water (synonymous with Hydroentangling). The web or fabric may
have other bonding methods in addition to spunlacing. Spunlacing, not to be confused with
spunlaid, is generally produced from a web made up of staple fibers from a dry formed,
carded system, but small quantities of spunlace bonding are done on production lines that use
a wet laid forming process. A recent technical development is the production of a spunlaced
nonwoven from a spunlaid, continuous filament web.
Spunlace nonwoven, Spunlaced nonwoven
A fabric produced by the spunlace technology. Spunlace is synonymous with
hydroentangling.
Spunlaid
A method of forming a web in which a polymeric melt or solution is extruded through
spinnerets to form filaments which are laid down on a moving screen. Melt spun forming
processes include spunbond, flash spinning and melt blown. The most common polymers
used are polypropylene, polyester and polyethylene.
Staple fiber
Refers to natural or synthetic cut fibers. The word “staple” is used by the textile industry to
differentiate cut fibers from continuous filament fibers, such as that used in the spunlaid
process. Synthetic staple fibers used in the needlepunched process are generally about 3.8-4.8
cm in length. The fiber lengths of natural fibers, which include wool, cotton, choir, jute and
several others, vary considerably.
Start-up
The time when a new production line is finally put into commercial production after the
production line is commissioned. This term is synonymous with “on-stream.”
54 Nonwovens Glossary