How to Choose Home Textile Nonwoven Fabric?

The higher GSM (grams per square metre), the better? Not necessarily — it always depends on the purpose of your fabric. Let’s have a closer look at the weight of nonwoven fabrics for Home & Garden and of nonwovens used as packaging materials or for industrial processing.

In most European countries, fabric weight is measured in grams per square metre (g/m2). Simply put, it indicates the density of the fabric — how dense individual fibres are within the fabric. In English-speaking countries, fabric weight is often expressed in ounces per yard squared  (oz/yd2).

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The finest fabrics (almost spider-web thin) weigh 12 g/m2, and the thickest ones up to 150 g/m2.

Nonwoven fabrics of 30 g/m2 and more are used for industrial processing. “Most often, we process spunbonds weighing 30, 45, 50, 70 or 100 g/m2. Should our client require a different GSM, we get it for them,” explains Milan Polouček, the Managing Director of Milmar.

Lighter nonwovens (weighing fewer g/m²) are less costly compared to thicker fabrics. The price per kilo is the same for both; however, you get more fabric per kilo when purchasing light nonwovens.

GSM of Nonwovens for Home and Garden

Nonwovens made with the unique spunbond method are often used to cover garden plants. White fabrics of 17 or 19 g/m2 weight  are utilised in the growing season to protect plants from aphids and other pests or from late frosts.

Thicker nonwovens of 30 g/m2 weight provide plant frost protection. They’re usually beige, while thinner nonwoven covers are white.

Another type of nonwovens is landscape fabric for strawberry fields, usually of 45, 50 or 70 g/m2 in weight.

GSM of Nonwoven Packaging

Many companies use nonwovens or nonwoven bags for packaging. “The most suitable fabric for packaging weighs 30, 40 or 50 g/m2, it is pliable and fits products of various sizes and shapes. That said, the weight of the product needs to be considered. If it is too heavy, it is better to use a fabric with a higher GSM,” adds Milan Polouček.

Nonwovens are also used as padding between individual products in bulk packaging; nonwoven liners are made from 30 g/m2 fabric. Nevertheless, we recommend choosing higher GSM liners for heavy products.

GSM of Nonwoven Fabrics Used in Manufacturing

Nonwovens are used in various industries, including upholstery mainly for sofas and armchairs production. Nonwovens make a perfect foam seat cover — a more heavyweight piece of fabric is necessary (usually of 100 g/m2 weight).

Nonwovens are also popular in the health industry for various types of protective equipment. For example, fabric weight for face masks ranges between 25–30 g/m2.

Factors Affecting Weight of Nonwovens

Fabric weight (or density) affects properties of nonwovens, such as their tensile strength, breaking point, tear resistance, and air and water permeability. Here’s how it works.

Tensile Strength

This indicates the strength of the fabric. Tensile strength test in a lab looks like this: a strip of fabric is clamped in a tearing machine to measure the force that must be exerted before the fabric strip breaks.

Breaking Point

A strip of nonwoven fabric is loaded with a weight to measure how much the fabric stretches before it breaks. The higher the value, the more elastic the fabric.

Tear Resistance

Nonwoven fabric is torn in the middle (length-wise) and gets tested to determine how much force must be applied to widen the tear. The higher the value, the higher the tear resistance.

Here’s how individual values change with a different GSM.

Weight Tensile Strength Breaking Point Tear Resistance Method EDANA 20.2-89 EDANA 20.2-89 EDANA 70.4-99 Unit g/m2 N/5 cm % N Direction MD CD MD CD MD CD 16 26 24 53 58 17 18 17 26 24 53 58 17 18 19 35 24 55 58 20 20 23 40 28 55 58 25 28 30 45 40 75 80 35 35 35 53 50 80 87 43 45 40 65 60 90 95 50 55 45 75 70 92 97 56 61 50 90 85 95 100 65 70 60 110 105 100 110 75 80 70 120 115 105 110 85 90 80 135 130 100 110 93 98 90 155 150 95 100 103 105 100 165 155 85 95 108 113 110 175 160 80 90 115 120 120 190 180 80 90 125 130 130 195 190 75 90 130 135 140 200 195 70 85 135 140 150 205 200 50 70 140 145

Download our datasheet for spunbond nonwoven fabrics

Choosing Your Perfect Nonwoven. What Else to Consider?

In addition to the appropriate weight, consider other properties of nonwovens, such as:

• UV protection,
• antistatic treatment,
• anti-scratch protection,
• hydrophilic treatment (for better absorbing properties).

At Milmar, we are happy to help you choose the best nonwoven. We recommend the suitable weight of the fabric and even customise our products for you.

Simply put, nonwovens have opened doors of opportunity for everyday convenience that would have been the stuff of dreams or wild imagination not too long ago. Just like Henry Ford made it possible for everyday folks to own a car and the Wright brothers to glide from one part of the country to another over miles away in a matter of hours, nonwovens have revolutionized several industries, now being in hundreds of products which would otherwise be too expensive or not feasible to manufacture at a profit.

One of the outstanding qualities of nonwovens is that they can be extremely durable, if that’s what’s needed, or single-use, limited-life fabrics. Beyond this, nonwovens possess limitlessly versatile qualities like super absorbency, resilience, liquid repellency, stretchability, strength, softness, flame retardancy, cushning, washability, bacterial barriers, filtering and sterility.

Able to combine these qualities in innumerable ways, nonwoven manufacturers create products with the unique, specific characteristics requested or needed by a client, usually at a very reasonable price. In spite of all these advantages, many people may not know about nonwovens and, if they do, they probably don’t know what a big, indispensable part of their lives nonwovens are.

Well, here is just a tiny fraction of the essential products nonwovens have made possible.

INDISPENSABLY IMPORTANT PRODUCTS THAT USE NONWOVENS

NONWOVEN PRODUCTS THAT STAND OUT THE MOST

Bed linen

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These disposable products are practical and affordable because of their tendencies to stay soft to the touch, not damage table surfaces, be 100% biodegradable & environmentally-friendly, come in beautiful designs, be appropriately hygienic, and reasonably priced.

Carpet/carpet backings

Nonwoven fabric is ideally suited for carpet construction enhancement by being able to extend the life of a carpet, by protecting the integrity of said product, and by reducing the chances for mold development or bacterial buildup, with proper use and deployment.  These also make installation easier, help protect wooden surfaces and can also help make repairs more feasible.

Diapers

Unfortunately, disposable diapers have only been around for a short time, comparatively speaking.  Before their advent, there wasn’t really an alternative to cloth diapers.  Cloth diapers didn’t absorb much, were unnecessarily smelly and had to be laundered.

Although the earliest forms of disposable diapers weren’t so great, the new designs have literally changed for the better the whole “how to keep babies fresh, comfortable, dry and clean for as long as possible” paradigm.  New disposable diapers come with color changing indicators that indicate if the child is wet, special sizing features, and re-attachable TM-type Velcro closures. 

Floor Duster Cloths

A dry floor cloth can provide superlative performance and convenience.  The nonwoven sheets used are made in required thicknesses that allow it to conform to just about any surface in order to more efficiently trap dirt, dust and hair.

Heat/Electricity Conductive Fabric

Nonwovens may help alleviate the energy crisis by helping to deliver cost-effective solutions related to heating.  Electrically conductive fabrics, with special under-padding integration, can help heat a surface, whether constructed of ceramic tiles, wood, ceiling tiles or wall coverings. In these scenarios heated fabrics could take the place of other heating systems by producing heat through radiation.

Home Furnishing Fabrics

Interestingly, new developments in nonwoven fabrics will create home furnishing products that are good at repelling dirt, getting rid of dust mites, and providing antimicrobial characteristics.

Laundry Dryer Sheets

Most people have used dryer sheets at least once in their lifetime. These durable fabrics, usually anti-static and of very thin construction, can put up with very high temperatures in the dryer.  They can also be made so that they gradually and over time release special softeners and scents while the clothes are being dried. 

Medical products & supplies

The most dramatic use of nonwovens in the medical theatre of operations are the only-once-used surgical gowns worn by surgeons and their staff during often-complicated, possibly lasting for hours operations.  The advantage of these products is their well-documented ability to protest healthcare personnel from patients’ bodily fluids and blood; they are also dependably sterile.

Many people in healthcare facilities end up acquiring Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs), or nosocomial infections, every year; these sometimes culminate in death.  One way to end up acquiring one of these is through incisions—sometimes referred to as Surgical Site Infections or SSIs.  There is no question that nonwoven gowns and drapes greatly reduce chances of acquiring the many types of infections initiated (or made worse) during a hospital stay. They also help reduce spread of disease in general. 

Nonwoven Products for the Healthcare/Medical Industries

“Smart” Nonwoven Products

Since we already have smart phones, TVs and even a “Smart” car, why should it come as a surprise that nonwovens will soon also join such ranks. The products that may one day be available include burglar-proof blinds, blast-resistant curtains, and alarm-system-embedded carpets. This isn’t mere Sci-Fi make-believe stuff—like stem cell technology, nonwoven fabric technology is a virtual clean slate or blank check of engineering possibilities.

Taking a closer look at the blast-resistant curtains, for example, reveals that some nonwoven fibers have the unique ability to expand under tension, thus allowing the fabric to absorb some of the pressure set off by the shockwaves, at the same time acting as a catching mechanism for flying debris (including glass, metal, and other life-threatening things).

Tea Bags & Coffee

Where would the world be without the technology that that nonwovens have extended to coffee and tea bag users.  These special fabrics don’t add any flavor or odor to the precious cargo they hold, are good at filtering liquid while holding the solid securely behind, and are comparatively strong (even when wet).

Wall Paper

Wall paper has gone up in the world thanks to nonwovens.  Nonwoven fabrics used in wallpaper have no seam separation issues (like other materials used for the exact same purpose) and are easier to remove than other types of wallpaper. Furthermore, nonwovens are ideally suited for properties in great disrepair and in need of extra TLC since these types of wallcovering materials offer high stability, strength, versatility and, to boot, cost-effectiveness. 

CONCLUSION

Amazingly, nonwovens are used in multitudes of household applications that range from filtering and cleaning to providing aesthetic enhancements to a home.  When used in kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms and dining rooms, high-quality and performance nonwovens make possible practical, comfortable, safe, hygienic and, most important of all, attractive solutions for modern home life.

Nonwovens used in home furnishing, as well as in places of work, have been evolving for some time now, in many ways raising the bar on what fabrics are supposed to make possible, if the capacity exists within them to shine, enhance and astound. What more can they help humanity achieve? Truly, the sky is the limit—then again, maybe that’s an understatement!

Are you interested in learning more about Home Textile Nonwoven Fabric? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!