S ince the 40's nonwovens are part of the fabric market, but it has only been recently that the volume in the garment and apparel business has become somewhat sig- nificant. Primarily, cost and the strength of nonwovens, were at the same time a barrier to its develop- ment into the business of fashion. Secondarily the technology of both fiber and machinery limited its growth. With recent developments, companies like Freudenberg and PGI (Polymer Group Inc) have changed the game establishing products like Evolon ® and Miratec ® respectively. Nonwoven interlinings The generic term 'nonwoven interlinings' defines materials based on nonwovens that are incorporated into articles of clothing during pro- duction to satisfy various functions. The processing methods used can be divided into sewn and bonded inter- linings (fusible interlinings). Sewn interlinings are incorporated between the shell and the lining material dur- ing the sewing process. Bonded inter- linings are fused to the shell, lining or another inlay material by a bonding process (heat sealing process). The ratio of sewn to bonded interlinings is currently approximately 20:80. History of nonwoven interlinings The use of nonwovens as interlin- ings goes back to the year 1940's. While the first sewable nonwoven interlinings were available in sheet form in 1947, in 1948 production began of yard goods, the form com- monly used today. These were fibrous nonwovens bonded by means of an aqueous binder. Nonwoven interlin- ings are therefore one of the oldest successful applications of nonwovens. Even by 1960, they were dominant on the nonwovens market in Germany, with a share of over 60%. In the mid to late 1950s, the winning streak of fusible nonwoven interlin- ings began, which today, as we have seen, have a share of around 80% ofthe total market. The first fusible products were nonwovens bonded with binders until at the start of the 1960's, the first binder-free nonwo- ven interlinings were developed. They were bonded with thermoplastic fibers by full-width calendering and had a stiff, rather brittle hand. Spunlaid nonwovens, which appeared in the mid-1960's, gained importance in the interlinings sector as 'adhesive nonwovens'. They were made from spun melted filaments and served as a processing aid for bonding textile fabrics. At the start of the 1970 s, the first binder-free nonwoven interlin- ings came onto the market that was bonded by the thermal bonding prin- ciple. Unlike the previous flat calen- dered products, they had a soft hand. In 1973, the development of the spot calender bonded nonwoven enabled interlinings to break through to other end-use sectors. With this technolo- gy, it was possible to expand the pos- sible variations in the construction ofnonwovens, giving nonwoven inter- linings a previously impossible soft, plump, textile hand. Spunlaced non- wovens developed around the same time had similar aims. These are con- ventionally laid card webs that are bonded without binders by means ofwater jets. The first wet-laid nonwo- vens for use in the interlinings sector also go back to 1973. Here, the fibres are deposited from an aqueous sus- pension onto a screen fabric in a sim- ilar way to paper manufacture and then bonded like a dry-laid nonwoven using binders. In 1988 came the breakthrough to warp-knitted inter- linings produced by knitting a pillar stitch construction into a nonwoven. Here, a heat bonded nonwoven is normally fed into a warp knitting machine and stabilized in the longitu- dinal direction. Practically the whole range of possible and required non- woven interlinings is now produced using the two main technologies for this purpose, full-width bonding using binders and binder-free spot bonding. Functions of nonwoven interlin- ings Every nonwoven interlining has a range of functions to fulfill, related to its end- use, that should satisfy both the processor (garment manufactur- er) and the purchaser of the garment Technical Textile & Nonwoven Excellence October-December 2011 41 NONWOVENS Nilesh I Yadav Textile Excellence [email protected]NONWOVENS FOR APPAREL
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