Nonwovens for skin or wound care
Most products for baby and body cleansing are intended for single use and are then disposed of. Such products are for instance cosmetic pads and sheet masks. Pads also serve in medical environments as wound dressings. As adhesive tapes they belong to less visible applications of nonwoven materials.
Cotton pads
Thick, voluminous cotton pads are used both in medical environments and in the cosmetics sector. They are multi-layered, the web is formed by a series of flat top or roller cards placed in-line. As the name indicates, the majority of products is made from cotton fibers.
Usually high-pressure water jets solidify the layers. The outer layers must be tear resistant and lint-free when used. Some products are made from thermobonded nonwovens from a blend of viscose and bicomponent fibers.
Manufacture of multi-layered webs
Trützschler Nonwovens offers different concepts for producing multi-layer nonwovens in a single step:
- For sall production capacities, three or four Truetzschler flat top cards form a top-quality web which is hydroentangled by a MiniJet in the next step.
- Three nonwoven cards are connected in series in a high capacity line. The outer layers consist of long cotton fibers - two natural fiber card NCR efficiently form homogenous webs. The middle layer is formed by inexpensive short fibers – here a NCA airlay card comes into play. An AquaJet both bonds the layer’s single fibers and attaches the layers to each other
Sheet masks
Beauty or sheet masks are a skin-care product. Soaked with a nourishing lotion, they are placed directly on the face or other parts of the body. The nonwoven, made of viscose, lyocell, cotton or pulp, ensures a long and intensive exposure time. Applying the lotion without a mask dries out the lotion much faster.
Nonwovens for sheet masks meet high requirements in terms of strength, softness, adhesion to the skin and fluid retention.
Manufacturing nonwovens for sheet masks
Nonwovens for sheet masks are hydroentangled. Web formation could be dony by:
- an inline configuration with multiple cards, e.g. the standard card NC for viscose or a NCR random card for cotton fibers,
- a combination of the NC standard roller card and the CLH crosslapper
- the innovative CP technology with former and NCT card to form a carded and a wet-laid layer with cellulose-based fibers as main components
Wound dressings
In the phe past, small wounds were covered with a cotton swab and plaster made of woven fabric. Nowadays wound plasters and medical adhesive tapes are mostly made of cotton nonwovens. These are lint-free, breathable and quickly absorb liquids from the wound.
These nonwovens are produced by carding and spunlacing processes. The layer with direct skin contact mostly is perforated.