MANUFACTURING OF NEEDLE PUNCHED NONWOVEN

Gopalakrishnan D

Needle punch non-woven fabric production line is one kind of methods for producing non-
woven fabrics. In the process of producing, instead of using the traditional weaving process
of the fabrics, the needle punch bond method uses triangle needles averagely punching in the
cotton web to make the fibers directly tangle each other together; controlling the density,
intensity, and function of the fabrics by needle density, needle depth, needle number, and
other physical elements. No water, air, heat and chemicals are needed at all. It is a kind of
pure physical and mechanical bonding method, saving energy and non-pollution. Finished
products maintain 100% yield form ram materials. It is the best green products for
environmental protection. And finally it still can be 100% recycled by physical disposal, and
can be reused.

Needle Punching – Definition:

A physical method of mechanically interlocking fibres webs by using barbed needles to
reposition some of the fibres from a horizontal to a vertical orientation. Thousands of needles
interlock fibers in a web

Basic Principle:
A needlepunched nonwoven is a fabric made from webs or batts of fibers in which some of
the fibers have been driven upward or downward by barbed needles. This needling action
interlocks fibers and holds the structure together by friction forces. Binding point is a set of
fibers with various orientation, which are bonded by friction forces.
Working principle of Needle punching technology
In needle punching the bonding of the fiber web is the result of intertwining of the fibers and
of the inter fiber friction caused by the compression of the web. The phases of needle
punching process are shown in figure.

 The web is passed over a feed table, throw the drawing in rollers and via feed
rollers the web is fed to needling area. Here, the web is repeatedly punctured
or perforated by a battery of needles and reoriented. This operation is carried
out several times minute. In modern machines it is carried out around 2000
strokes per minute. When the needling is done from above, as shown, the web
is pressed against the lower boss, also known as the needle to throat plate; flat
bed. The upper plate is called stripping plate or holding down plate.
 The needle beam supporting the needle board is situated above the needle
plate and is powered by a main drive over a cam shaft. Holes are bored into
the needle board to take the needles. The three sided shanks of the needles
have barbs which grip the fibers as the web is perforated, and pull them
 through the web. As the needle return, the fibers remain in their new position
virtually unchanged since the barbs only face in one direction. The deliver
rollers transport the needle web from the needle zone. The material feed can
be either intermittent or continues.
 To achieve the desired compression and bonding, it is common practice to
have several needling zones in a row, one after the other, with different needle
settings and direction of stitching.

The major components of the basic felting needle are as follows:

 The crank: The crank is the 90 degree bend on the top of the needle. It seats the
needle when inserted into the needle board.
 The shank: The shank is the thickest part of the needle. The shank is that part of the
needle that fits directly in the needle board itself.
 The intermediate blade: The intermediate blade is put on fine gauge needles to make
them more flexible and somewhat easier to put inside the needle board. This is
typically put on 32 gauge needles and finer.
 The blade: The blade is the working part of the needle. The blade is what passes into
the web and is where the all important barbs are placed.
  The barbs: The barbs are the most important part of the needle. It is the barb that
carries and interlocks the fibers The shape and sized of the barbs can dramatically
affect the needled product
 The point: The point is the very tip of the needle. It is important that the point is of
correct proportion and design to ensure minimal needle breakage and maximize
surface appearance.

Distance between nearest barbs: 0.1 - 2 mm,

Distance between successive barbs: 1.4 – 7 mm;
Types of needles:
Felting needles
The felting needles are mechanically compact fibrous material. These needle looms may have
one to four needle boards and needles from the top, bottom or top and bottom. The primary
function of this type of loom is to do interlocking of fibers resulting in a flat, one dimension
fabric.

Fig: Felting needles

The types of products made with this process and needle loom are diverse and multifaceted.
They exist in variety of industrial products, geotextiles, automotives, interlinings, home
furnishings, etc…
Structuring needles
To prepare surface structure with a velour or rib effect. Structuring looms are called fork
needles. Instead of carrying fibers into bedplate hole, the fork needles carry fiber tufts into
lamella bars that extend from the entry to the exit of the needle loom. These fork needles
carry large tufts of fibers into parallel lamella bars. These bars carry the tuft of fiber from the
entry to the exit side of the loom.

Fig: Structuring (fork) needles

Depending on the orientation of the fork needle, a rib or velour surface is introduced. The
most popular products made with structuring looms include home and commercial carpets
and floor mats, automotive rib and velour products, wall covering and marine products.

Fig: Fibre locking by Structural needle

The random velour looms are used to produce velour surfaces. The needles push fibers into a
moving brush bed plate. The fibers are carried in this brush from the entry to the exit of the
loom with zero draft. This allows for the completely non-linear look, perfect for molded
products.
Different Design needles:
Vario barb needle:
Barbs are smaller towards the point. The needle is deflected to a lesser extent and it reduced
risk of breaking. It is suitable for natural fibers and waste
Conical needle:
The working part of the conical needle smoothly passes into the reduced part. Thus the
fibrous material is penetrated with less resistance. It is suitable for waste materials and for
2
heavy products with area density higher than 1000 g/m

Fig: Conical needle

Special shape of needle board angled needle penetration:
Penetration is achieved by means of an asymetrically curved needling zone and straight
needle movement. As advantage is possibility of more random orientation of punched fibers
and longer needle path through the web, which creates better fiber reorientation. Thus textile
strength is better.
 Fig: Needle penetration

Selection of needle

The selection of needle is very important for getting good quality nonwoven fabrics.
It is decided by many factors, discussed earlier, along with the fineness of the fibres required
to be processed.
Fibre linear density (denier) Needle gauge (SWG)
0.5-1.5 42
1.5-6.0 38-40
6-10 38
10-18 36-34
18-30 36-32
>30 30-coarser

Table 3.1 lists the gauge of the needles for different finenesses of fibres.

The higher is the gauge of the needle, the finer is the needle and vice-versa.

Arrangement of needle boards

The modern machine manufacturers offer various arrangements of needle boards in needle looms.
 Figure: displays the different arrangements of needle boards.

Typical applications of these arrangements are filtration media, synthetic leather, floor
coverings, underlay, automotive headliners, and blankets, etc.

Important values for the formation of pores and channels are:

Fibre diameter: derived value of fibre density and fineness
Amount of fibres per area: derivable value of web mass, fibre length and fineness
Needle diameter: determines the space required by the barbs for the fibre transport. It
depends on the fibre fineness,i.e. coarser fibres mean coarser needles(smaller gauge number)
and vice versa
Penetration depth: penetration depth of the needle point out of the felt underside and the
number of barbs penetrating the felt cross section
Stitching density: important value for the number of penetrations (hollow spaces) in the
needle felt and their size.

Process Description

(A) Opening & Mixing : To process different type of fibers from bale stage, blended in the

correct proportions by means of openers. The fibers are opened and dispersed for the

preparation of carding process.

(B) Feeding : The fibers are blown from the opening machine which supply a

predetermined Quantity to Cards by electric auto scale controlled system.

 (C) Carding : The fibers fed into the carding machine are snared by the wire of rotating

cylinder and fibers are aligned in an essential parallel direction. A web or net is formed on

card and removed form the card by doffer to the cross lapper.

(D) Crosslapping: Fiber webs layered to increase the fabric’s cross directional strength,

thickness. weight , width and improve uniformity.

(E) Web Feeding : Layered web can be adjusted to meet the standards of any specifications

and delivered to needle punching by means of Web Feeder . The Web Feeder is to avoid the

layered web to be deforming and tractility.

(F) Preneedle Punching: The layered web are fed through a series of needle punching

machines, the Preneedle Punching is to interlace the various layers each other with lower

needle density. It is a preliminary 3D interleaving to entangle the fibers.

(G) First Double Side Finish Needle Punching: The layered web are delivered by means of

conveyor and rollers to first double side finish needle punching loom. The operation will

make the web becomes the middle high density nonwoven fabric.

(H) Second Double Side Finish Needle Punching: The applications of geotextile and

filtration need high tensile and high entanglement nonwoven fabric. Special fibers have

developed that permit them to be converted into soft, fine finish fabric to be high density

structure.

(I) Calender : After the fabric has been sufficiently interlaced by two times double side

needle punching, the fabric can be fed through calenders to further compress.

(J) Slitting, Winding and Edge cutting : Nonwoven roll goods are converted in a variety

ways, such as slitting to the widths required for end product converting , edge cutting for end

product packing, and rewinding to prepare rolls of appropriate for product converting.
Characteristics of Needle Punched Nonwovens Fabric:
Generally important characteristics of needle felts are the degree of felt compression, the
strength-elongation ratio and the permeability characteristics.
Longer fibre lengths result in higher strength, higher felt density and less air permeability.
Finer fibres lead to smaller felt thickness and to lower air permeability. The needling of finer
fibres requires inevitably also the use of finer needles to achieve sufficient strength
characteristics
Higher crimp results in a higher tear resistance and elongation and a better dimensional
stability of the needle felts.
The characteristics and the structure of needle felts also depend on the web structure and the
area mass. Machine oriented web results in a high strength in the longitudinal direction and
predominantly cross oriented webs result in a high strength in cross direction.
The web area mass has a great influence on air permeability.
The area ratio of the fibre plugs in the needle felt is in the range of 2–12%. The fibre length
of the plug is 6–20 % and the fibres are more densely packed in the fibre plug than in the
needle felt.
Application of needle punched material
Geotextiles: Road and railway construction, dams, roofing felts, drain felts, shore protection,
reinforcing felts..
Automotive fabrics: Head liners, carpets, door trim, parcel shelves, moulded components,
insulation felts
Hometex: Carpets, wall coverings, decor felts, wipes, blankets...
Synthetic leather: Shoe, automotive and upholstery industry, luggage, bags, sport goods
Clothing and furniture: Shoulder pads, waddings, mattresses
Filters for gases and liquids,
Other technical felts: polishing felts, abrasive felts, mineral fiber felts for insulation
Working blade cross sections:

Fig: Working blade cross-sections

Triangular – This shape is standard for the most of applications.
Tri STAR or Cross STAR – The more efficient fiber holding and efficient needling proces
with the same needle density (suitable for manmade fibers). The Cross STAR is suitable for
high density materials (geotextiles).

Fig: Different shapes Fig: Arrangement of needles in the fabric

Tear drop shape – It is mainly used to obtain special properties like adhesion for subsequent
fixing, roughened appearance.
Appearance and degree of compression of a needle felt are mainly influenced by:
Needle arrangement in the needle board
Needle parameters (gauge, form of barb, number of barbs)
Needling parameters (penetration depth and density, draft)
Direction of needling (from top, from bottom or from both sides)
Description:
Applications:
Being filter fabric, polyester needle punched felt is used to make filter bags, they are widely
used for air filtration in cement industry, chemical industry, Aluminum industry , carbon
powder industry ,etc.
Features of polyester needle punched felt :
Polyester needle punched felt features good anti-acid,good anti-alkali ,good hydrolysis
stability and excellent anti-anrasion .
Advantages:
1.Material : 100% virgin polyester staple fiber
2.Scrim:with polyester filament yarn
3.Weight:500g/m2 ±10% ,standard weight ;
weight range from 300g/m2 to 1000g/m2 .
4.Applied in continuous temperature 130℃ , works well .
5.Good air permeability and also can be adjusted by customers' specific request
6.Material cost is competitively lower than high temperature filter fiber.

Working principle of polyester needle felt :

Specifications of polyester needle felt -model 500g/m2:

1. Material : 100% virgin polyester staple fiber
2. Scrim: with polyester filament yarn
3 .Weight:500g/m2 ±10%
4. Temperature (℃): Continue: 130, Instant: 150
5. Air permeability (l/m2/s): 150～300
6. Tensile elongation(%): Warp: 20, Weft: 30
7.Tensile strength (N/5×20cm): Warp: 1200, Weft: 1400
Production Capacity
A needle punch nonwoven fabric plant equipped with machinery and equipment in this
proposal, operating 16 hour (2 shifts) a day, 25 days a month, should be able to produce the
needle punched fabric as below.
Working With:3.6 Meters
End Product. With: 3.6 Meters
End Product Range of Weight: 150 GSM~800 GSM
Production Line Speed: 1.5~7.5 Meters/minute
Raw material spec:2d~15d
Maximum Capacity:
P.P 15d-250kg/hour
Polyester 6d-200Kg/hour
Rayon 3d-100Kg/hour
Manpower Required
Job Classification Person/Shlft
General manager 1
Staff 2
Skilled Machining Operator 4
Maintenance & Inspection 2
Total: 9

Machinery & Equipment

Item Set
Bale Opening Machine 2
Fiber Opening Machine 2
Fiber Hopper 1
Carding Machine 1
Crosslapping Machine 1
Preneedle Punching Loom 1
First Double Side Needle Punching Loom 1
Calender 1
Slitting & Winding Machine 1
Edge Cutting Machine 1
Utilities

Electric Power Machine capacity 300KW , 3 Phases AC

380/220V , 60/50 HZ

Air 5 Kg/cm2 x 200 IB/min

Plant Site Planning

The needle punching non-woven production free industry , no need Water , steam and oil.

The plant should be located in a district or an area where the production of various textile

with a significant scope of future expansion.