Compression Properties of Polyester Needlepunched Fabric

Abstract

In the present paper, a study of the effects of fabricweight, fiber cross-sectional shapes (round, hollowand trilobal) and presence of reinforcing materialon the compression properties (initial thickness,percentage compression, percentage thickness lossand percentage compression resilience) of polyesterneedle punched industrial nonwoven fabrics ispresented. It was found that for fabrics with noreinforcing material, the initial thickness,compression, and thickness loss were higher thanfabrics with reinforcing material, irrespectiveoffiber cross-section. Compression resilience datashowed the reverse trend. Initial thickness fortrilobal cross-sectional fabric sample was highestfollowed by round and hollow cross-sectionedpolyester needle punched fabrics. The polyesterfabric made from hollow cross-sectioned fibersshowed the least percentage compression at everylevel of fabric weights. The trilobal cross-sectionedpolyester fabric sample showed higher thicknessloss followed by round and hollow cross-sectionedpolyester fabric samples respectively. The hollowcross-sectioned polyester fabric samples showedmaximum compression resilience followed byround and trilobal cross-sectioned polyestersamples irrespective of fabric weights. The initialthickness increases, but percentage compression,thickness loss and compression resilience decreaseswith the increase in fabric weight irrespective offiber cross-sectional shapes.