Highloft batts have far more thickness than weight, often several centimeters at a few hundred grams per square meter. They are usually crimped polyester staple, carded and cross-lapped, then bonded with lo-melt fiber in a through-air oven or with sprayed resin so the loft survives. Uses include quilt and garment insulation, upholstery, filter media and mattress layers.
Highloft line is running 200 gram wadding at 40 millimeters, so watch the oven or it'll collapse.
Measure highloft thickness only at the pressure the spec names; a ruler on an unloaded batt overstates loft.
Also heard as
- high-loft
- fiberfill batt
Related terms
Loft
Thickness and springiness of a nonwoven, especially its ability to recover thickness after being compressed.
Lo-melt
Shop name for low-melt polyester binder fiber, usually a copolyester sheath on a standard PET core.
Wadding
European and textile-trade term for a loose, bulky batt used for padding, insulation or filling.
Through-air bonding
Thermal bonding that pulls hot air through the web so binder fibers fuse without the web being crushed.