Hydroentangled HQ Cotton Developments: Cosmetic Pads and Greige Cotton Bed Sheets

The hydroentagled development work (at a plant-scale) was carried out in year 2004 in collaboration with Hollingsworth on Wheels, Greenville, SC, and Fleissener, Germany. This work was published as two papers in Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics in 2006 and 2007. Early this year physical test work was carried out at the University of TN, Knoxville, TN. This presentation is a summary of the above.

 Nonwoven webs containing five different blends of bleached cotton with Lyocell rayon, bicomponent core/sheath polyester/polypropylene, or cotton comber noil were prepared by light needlepunching followed by hydroentanglement (about 150 meters each).  Light needlepunching was done to facilitate the transportation of the rolls to Fleissner, Germany, for hydroentanglement. Lightly needlepunched webs were used as controls. We acquired fiber bundle size measurements to learn about this pre-needling, the hydroentangling process and the influence of fiber blend composition on fiber entanglement. One of the bed sheet developments utilized a combination of bonding technologies (hydroentanglement and thermal bonding) that used low energy. The physical properties of the developed bed sheets are very good; they suggest a limited-life, better than disposable, and close to those of a100% cotton woven Martha Stewart bed sheet used as a “control”. Hydroentangling mechanically cleaned greige cotton showed excellent results at low cost (avoiding the bleaching cost of about 50-60 cents per pound of cotton).  High Quality (HQ) cosmetic pads developed with 20% Tencel have excellent “Edge Seal” – (they do not delaminate), and are soft and lofty at low basis weight.