Optimisation of mechanical and functional properties of needle-punched nonwoven filter through fibre denier specific carding parameters

An attempt has been made to highlight the significance of the carding parameters (feeder speed, cylinder speed anddoffer speed) required for fibre of different deniers for regulating the structure and ultimately the properties of the nonwovenfabric. A three-factor three-level Box-Behnken factorial design has been employed to analyse and optimise the cardingparameters. The work focuses on the comprehensive exploration of the functional properties in the light of nonwoven fabricstructures. Regression models of nonlinear process are developed to establish the relationship between specific properties ofnonwoven fabric and structural indices. The optimised carding parameters specific to fibre denier result in improvedfiltration performance of the nonwoven fabric having lower values of fabric thickness, mean flow pore size and pressuredrop, besides acquiring higher filtration efficiency.