Feasibility Assessments of the Use of Recycled Fibers in Nonwoven Fabrics

Abstract

Environmental protection has become an increasing concern, which makes recycling and reclaiming highly important. In addition to governmental campaigns and promotion, enterprises should examine each perspective thoroughly in order to prevent excessive resource consumption. In this study, recycled materials, including recycled far-infrared polyester (FPET) fiber, three-dimensional crimped hollow flame-retarding (TPET) fiber, and low-melting-point polyester (LPET) fiber, are used to form nonwoven fabrics. The influence of different amounts of FPET fiber, 0–80 wt %, on the properties of nonwoven fabrics was examined. The sheath of LPET fibers can be melted as a result of hot pressing, which provides cohesion between fibers that mechanically improves the nonwoven fabrics. The tensile strength, tearing strength, air permeability, and far infrared (FIR) emissivity of the nonwoven fabrics were examined, thereby determining the optimal parameters. The test results show that the thermally treated nonwoven fabrics have better mechanical properties and FIR emissivity, compared to those of non-thermally treated nonwoven fabrics. Moreover, more FPET fibers cause the mechanical properties along the cross machine direction (CD) to decrease by 9% and that along the machine direction (MD) to decrease by 5%. In particular, all the thermally treated samples exhibit a FIR emissivity of 0.8, which is health-promoting.