Dispersibility of hydroentangled wetlaid nonwovens

Abstract

Dispersibility in wet wipes made of wetlaid hydroentangled nonwovens is a crucial property and is influenced by factors such as pressure sum during production and the used materials. Different raw materials for nonwovens were produced for testing using a laboratory scale inclined wire paper machine and a hydroentanglement device. In the typical blend of a nonwoven consisting of long regenerated cellulosic fibres and wood pulp the flat viscose fibre seems to be the best according to dispersibility. In the blend the amount of viscose fibres has only a small impact on the dispersive properties, whereas there is also the possibility that the measurement setup is not suitable to test different amounts of long fibres. Next to viscose fibres the tested nonwovens consist of wood pulp which is also able to decrease the dispersive properties when dissolving pulp is used instead of the normally applied bleached kraft pulp. The usage of hydrophobic polyester fibres as the long structure fibres also decreases dispersibility in comparison to regenerated viscose fibres. Here the ability of viscose fibre to swell is a possible reason why these types of fibre in nonwovens easier form dispersible nonwovens.