Drylaid covers every route that starts from dry staple fiber, most of all carding with or without cross-lapping, plus air laying of staple fibers. Drylaid webs feed needlepunch, hydroentangling, thermal and chemical bonding lines and make up a large share of all nonwoven tonnage. Industry statistics often report pulp-based airlaid as a separate category.
Drylaid side of the plant is all cards and lappers, spunmelt is on the other side of the wall.
Also heard as
- dry laid
- drylaid web
- dry-formed
Related terms
Carding
Combing staple fibers between wire-covered rolls to open them and form an even, mostly parallel web.
Cross-lapper
Machine that lays a light card web back and forth across a slower conveyor to build a wider, heavier batt.
Airlaid
Web formed by suspending short fibers, mostly fluff pulp with some binder fiber, in air and depositing them on a wire.
Wetlaid
Describes webs formed from fibers dispersed in water and drained on a screen, on equipment adapted from papermaking.
Spunlaid
Describes webs made by extruding polymer into filaments and laying them down directly in one continuous line.