A nonwoven goes straight from fiber or polymer to fabric: fibers are laid into a web, then bonded by needles, water jets, heat or binders. A wetlaid sheet counts as a nonwoven rather than paper once enough of it is long or synthetic fiber, while fabrics built from yarn, such as wovens and knits, sit outside the word. Insiders name a nonwoven by both its forming and bonding routes, such as carded through-air bonded or spunlaid point bonded.
On paper it's a nonwoven, the customer calls it fabric and the converter calls it roll goods.
Name both the forming and the bonding route when specifying a nonwoven; carded alone or spunlace alone leaves too much open.
Also heard as
- nonwoven fabric
- engineered fabric
- NW
Related terms
Web
Thin layer of fibers or filaments made in the first stage of nonwoven production, before or after bonding.
Drylaid
Describes webs formed from dry staple fibers, chiefly by carding and by air laying.
Spunlaid
Describes webs made by extruding polymer into filaments and laying them down directly in one continuous line.
Wetlaid
Describes webs formed from fibers dispersed in water and drained on a screen, on equipment adapted from papermaking.
Roll goods
Nonwoven fabric sold in rolls to converters, as opposed to finished products made from it.