Development of Innovative Cotton-Surfaced Nonwoven Laminates

Cotton-based nonwovens have been developed at Textiles and Nonwovens Development Center (TANDEC), The University of Tennessee, with the cotton fibers on the surface or in the core layer laminated with meltblown (MB) and/or spunbonded (SB) webs. Both Cotton-Surfaced Nonwovens (CSN) and Cotton-Core Nonwovens (CCN) have excellent soft hand, breathability, absorbency, and tensile properties making them ideal for many medical applications such as isolation gowns, hospital drapes and gowns, shoe covers, head covers, underwear, pillowcases, diaper components (acquisition, core, back sheet), feminine hygiene pads, baby wipes, etc. In this paper, the processes to produce these cotton-surfaced nonwovens will be presented, including as-bonded, heat-stretched CSN fabrics, and foam-finished CSN nonwovens.