Non-woven fabric
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing non-woven fabrics for applications like cleaning wipes, diapers, and food packaging materials face challenges in achieving both excellent water absorption and handling performance, with previous methods resulting in excessive softness and inadequate usability.
Innovation Solution
A non-woven fabric composed of thermoplastic biodegradable resin fibers with crimps, specific flexural rigidity, and partial bonding, which enhances bulkiness and water absorption while maintaining handleability, using a range of biodegradable resins such as polylactic acid and polyhydroxyalkanoic acid, and incorporating recessed parts in the fibers for improved liquid absorption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If bulkiness is increased to improve water absorption performance, then water absorption is improved, but the sheet becomes excessively soft and handling performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the material parameter from conventional polypropylene to thermoplastic biodegradable resin, which fundamentally alters the sheet's mechanical properties. This material substitution enables the sheet to maintain appropriate softness while preserving handling performance, resolving the contradiction between water absorption and handling ease
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses composite fiber structures with different material properties - hydrophilic fibers for water absorption and thermoplastic biodegradable resin for structural integrity. This composite approach allows simultaneous achievement of high water absorption performance and adequate handling performance
2Volume of stationary object
If polypropylene is used as raw material with V-shaped spinneret to create crimped yarns, then bulkiness is achieved, but the sheet becomes extremely soft and handling performance is significantly deteriorated
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the resin material parameter from polypropylene to thermoplastic biodegradable resin, which fundamentally alters the sheet's mechanical properties. This material substitution enables the sheet to maintain appropriate softness while preserving handling performance, resolving the contradiction between bulkiness and handling ease
3Volume of stationary object
If polypropylene is used as the material, then bulkiness can be achieved through crimping, but water absorption is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the material parameter from hydrophobic polypropylene to thermoplastic biodegradable resin with improved hydrophilicity. This material substitution fundamentally enhances water absorption capability while maintaining the bulkiness achieved through crimped fiber structure
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs composite fiber structures combining hydrophilic fibers for water absorption with thermoplastic biodegradable resin for structural support. This composite approach simultaneously achieves high water absorption and maintained bulkiness
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The resulting fabric exhibits superior water absorption and handling performance, suitable for various applications including cleaning wipes, diapers, and food packaging materials, with enhanced bulkiness and liquid absorption capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
fibers constituting the non-woven fabric have crimps... excellent water absorption performance
Implementation Method 2
each have at least one recessed part inside a crimp in a single-fiber cross section... water absorption parameter
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a non-woven fabric which is suitable for cleaning wipers, diapers, food packaging materials, etc., and has excellent water absorption and handling performance. The non-woven fabric according to the present invention contains a thermoplastic biodegradable resin, and is characterized in that fibers constituting the non-woven fabric have crimps, the flexural rigidity index in the mechanical direction (MD) of the non-woven fabric is 7.77-37.4 as defined by the following equation: flexural rigidity index in the mechanical direction (MD)=flexural rigidity (gf·cm) in the mechanical direction (MD)/{basis weight(g/m2)}2.5×106, and the bulk density of the non-woven fabric is 0.098 g/cm3 to 0.251 g/cm3.