Glossary

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Absorbency:   How much liquid a fabric will hold.

Abrasion resistance:   How durable the surface of the fabric is.

Antistat: An additive that reduces the accumulation or assists the dissipation of electrical charges that arise during the processing of fibers, fabrics and films, and during the use of products.

Bacteriostat: Chemical additive that limits or prevents the growth of bacteria.

Basis Weight: The weight of a unit of fabric. Examples are ounces per square yard or grams per square meter.

Bicomponent Fibers: Fibers made of two different polymers extruded one about the other (core within sheath) or side by side.

Binder: An adhesive, applied with a solvent or by melting a softenable plastic, to bond fibers together in a web or one web to another.

Biodegradable: The ability of a substance to be broken by bacteria.

Bonding: The process of combining fibers in webs into sheets by means of self adherence, solvent based adhesives, thermally softened plastics or by mechanical entanglement.

Breaking length: The length of a strip of fabric or film whose weight is equal to the force needed to break it. It is calculated by dividing the force needed to break by the basis weight.

Bursting strength: The force needed to rupture a material.

Calendering:  A mechanical finishing process used to laminate and to produce special surface features such as high luster, glazing and embossed patterns.

Card: A machine designed to separate fibers from impurities, align and deliver them to be laid down as a web or to be further separated and fed to an airlaid process. The fibers in the web are aligned with each other predominately in the machine direction. The machine consists of a series of rolls or a drum that are covered with many projecting wires or metal teeth.

Cellulosic fibers: Made from plants that produce fibrous products based on polymers of the cellulose molecule.  Cotton plants produce separate cellulose fibers. Wood pulp is made by mechanically and chemically separating wood fibers. Wood pulp is made by mechanically and chemically separating wood fibers. Rayon is made by dissolving pulp in solution and extruding the solution through spinneretttes into a chemical bath that regenerates the fibers. Some other cellulosic fibers are flax, jute and ramie.

Chemical finishing: Processes that apply additives to change the aesthetic and functional properties of a material. Examples are the application of antioxidants, flame retardants, wetting agents, and stain and water repellents.

Cleanroom: An operating area in which airborne particulates are controlled and which is kept free of moisture, static, particulates and ionic contaminants.

Continuous filament:  A fiber in unending length.

Converter: An organization that: manufactures finished products from fabrics supplied in rolls; or provides intermediate processing steps such as slitting, dyeing and printing.

Crepe: A quality in a fabric imparted by wrinkling or embossing to give crimped surface and greater fabric bulk.

Cross direction: The width dimension, within the plane of the fabric that is perpendicular to the direction in which the fabric is being produced by the machine.

DRC: Double Recreped Cellulose Wipers a non-woven wiper, made of wood pulp and binders, that is very durable, and extremely cloth-like. DRC has a soft hand feel and is very versatile. DRC is highly absorbent and works well with water, grease, oil and paint.

Drape: The ability of a fabric to fold on itself and to conform to the shape of the article it covers.

Embossing: A process whereby a pattern is pressed into a film or fabric, usually by passing the material between rolls with a little clearance, and where one or both rolls has a raised design. At least one of the rolls is usually heated.

Fiber: The individual strands of material which form a nonwoven fabric.

Filter fabric: A cloth used to separate particles from their suspension in air or liquids.

Hand: Qualities of a fabric perceived by touch, e.g., softness, firmness, stretch, resilience and drape.

Heat resistance: The ability to resist degradation at high temperatures.

Highloft: General term for low density, thick or bulky fabrics, as compared to flat, paper-like fabrics.

Hydroentangling: Process for forming a fabric by mechanically wrapping and knotting fibers in a web about each other through the use of high velocity jets of water. (See Spunlace fabric).

Hydrophilic: Having an affinity for being wetted by water or for absorbing water.

Hydrophobic:  Lacking the affinity for being wetted by water or for absorbing water.

Imbibitions: Liquid holding capacity of a fabric.

Laminate: A layered material containing two or more sheets bonded together with an adhesive, foam or thermoplastic resin.

Lint:  Particles and short fibers that fall off a fabric product during the stresses of use.

Loft: The properties of bulk and resilience of a fabric or batt.

Machine direction: The long direction within the plane of the fabric, that is in the direction in which the fabric is being produced by the machine.

Melt blown: A nonwoven web forming process that extrudes molten resin and draws the resin with hot, high velocity air to form fine filaments onto a collecting screen.

Needlepunching: Mechanically binding a web to form a fabric by penetrating the web with an array of barbed needles that carry tufts of the web’s own fibers in a vertical direction through the web.

Nonwoven fabric: A fabric made directly from fibers or filaments or from a web of fibers, without the yarn preparation needed for weaving or knitting.

Pilling:  The tendency of fibers to come loose from a fabric surface and form balled or matted particles of fiber.

Plies:  Layers of web, fabric or components of laminate.

Repellency: The ability to resist wetting and staining by materials and soils.

Scrim: A very open fabric, such as netting, used as a support or a backing, in a laminate or impregnated in a composite.

Spunbond fabric: A fabric formed from filaments that have been extruded, drawn, laid on a continuous belt and bonded.

Spunlace fabric: A fabric formed by entangling the fibers about each other in a repeating pattern, usually with high velocity streams of water (see Hydroentangling).

Spunlaid: Melt spun processes including spunbonding and meltblowing.

Stitchbonding: A technique in which fibers in a web are bonded together by stitches sewn or knitted through the web to form a fabric.

Substrate: Fabric to which coatings or other fabrics are applied.

Surfactant: A chemical additive that changes the surface attraction between two liquids, or between a liquid and a solid, by changing the surface energy of one or both components.

Tear strength: Resistance of a material to being torn.

Tensile strength: The strength of a material when subjected to either pulling or to compressive stress.

Water repellency: The ability to resist wetting by water.

Wet laying: Forming a web by filtering an aqueous suspension of fibers onto a screen belt or onto a perforated drum.

Wicking:  Transport of liquid within an absorbent fabric, vertically into the fabric web and horizontally within the plane of the fabric.

Wood pulp: Cellulosic fibers.