How to Make a Flushable Nonwove

Whether they’re used as baby wipes, personal hygiene or bathroom cleaning products, nonwovens are gaining popularity in the consumer market. These fabrics are unique, high-tech, engineered fabrics that are made of fibers. As these fabrics continue to be developed with increasingly advanced properties and uses, the industry needs to ensure that they are flushable.

The flushable nonwove industry has evolved significantly over the years. From traditional carded nonwovens to wetlaid and spunlace technologies, manufacturers have come up with new designs and innovations to make these wipes more hygienic, soft and sustainable than paper products. However, with so many options available, it can be difficult to know what to look for when choosing a flushable nonwove supplier and a production method.

To qualify as a flushable product, nonwovens must pass through toilets, sewage ejector pumps and drainage pipes. This requires them to be able to disintegrate into small pieces and dissolve or distribute quickly in water, so that they can be transferred from the toilet bowl to the sewer system and remain compatible with sewage and wastewater treatment systems. One of the most important factors for assessing this is the ability to avoid clogging. In addition to ensuring that the flushable wipes are capable of passing through these systems, a thorough testing procedure must be employed. This test simulates two days of toilet use and tests the product against various conditions to determine how well it performs. This test includes multiple flushes, water only, simulated fecal matter and the combination of the product with both water and fecal matter.

In order to achieve the best flushability and adherence, nonwovens must be made from biodegradable materials such as wood pulp or cellulosic fibers such as viscose, lyocell, or cotton. In addition, the fibers must have a short length to promote easy disintegration and dispersal in sewage systems.

This is especially true for wetlaid and spunlace nonwovens, which are made from a mixture of different fiber blends. The wetlaid process is a popular choice for manufacturing these products due to its speed, production flexibility and capability of incorporating short fibers. To create these types of wet-laid/spunlace nonwovens, the fibers must be bonded with the help of hydroentanglement or binder fibers. The wetlaid/hydroentanglement process can be used for making a variety of products including wet-laid wipes, spunlace cloth, cleaning cloth and cosmetic cotton.

Nonwovens can also be produced using wetlaid/hydroentanglement technology without chemical binders, which makes them more environmentally friendly than other types of nonwovens. This method allows for the production of wet-laid or spunlace nonwovens with a higher wet tensile strength, softness, skin-friendly and biodegradable characteristics. This technology is being used by Albaad, a leading wet wipes manufacturer to produce its flushable products.

In collaboration with Trutzschler Nonwovens, Voith has developed an innovative wetlaid/hydroentanglement (WLS) line that is able to produce wet-laid or spunlace nonwovens from 100% cellulosic raw material without the need for chemical bonders. The result is a highly flushable wetlaid or spunlace nonwoven with excellent wet tensile strength, softness and biodegradability.