What is spunlace Fabric?

The oldest technique for consolidating a web is mechanical bonding, which entangles the fibers to give strength to the web. Under mechanical bonding, the two most widely used methods are needlepunching and spunlacing(hydroentanglement) .

Hydroentanglement uses high-speed jets of water to strike a web so that the fibers knot about one another. As a result, nonwoven fabrics made by this method have specific properties, as soft handle and drapability. Japan is the major producer of hydroentangled nonwovens in the world. In 1995,the output of spunlaced fabrics containing cotton was 3,700 metric tons and a significant growth in production can still be seen The biggest producers of spunlaced fabrics in the U.S. are DuPont, Chicopee and Kendall corporations.

This technology was officially introduced by DuPont in 1973 (Sontara) and is a result of considerable work done by DuPont and Chicopee (DuPont obtained five patents on spunlaced nonwovens within the 1963-1970 period. Since the 1990's, the technology has been made more efficient and affordable for more manufacturers. Though a vast majority of hydroentangled fabrics have incorporated dry-laid webs (carded or air-laid webs as precursors), this has changed very recently with an increase in wet-laid precursor webs. This is because of Dexter making use of Unicharm's technology to make spunlaced fabrics using wet-laid fabrics as precursors.