A needle loom drives thousands of barbed needles up and down through the batt several hundred to a few thousand times a minute while the batt advances, so the barbs carry tufts of fiber vertically and lock the structure together. Batt weight, needle type, punch density and penetration depth set density, strength and air permeability. Needlepunched fabrics range from light filter felts to heavy geotextiles, carpet and car trim.
That geotextile gets needlepunched from both top and bottom to hit the puncture spec.
A broken needle leaves a faint lane of under-needled fabric, so boards are checked for missing needles at every changeover.
Also heard as
- needle punching
- needling
- needle felt
- needled
Related terms
Needle loom
Machine that drives boards of barbed needles through a moving batt to bond it mechanically.
Barb
Small notch cut into the working blade of a felting needle that catches fibers and carries them through the batt.
Punch density
Number of needle penetrations per square centimeter of fabric, the basic dose of needling.
Batt
Thick layer of fibers built up from several webs, usually by cross-lapping, ready for needling or thermal bonding.
Cross-lapper
Machine that lays a light card web back and forth across a slower conveyor to build a wider, heavier batt.