TT 504.601 NONWOVENS PhD FPS - NCSU Edmir Silva (2010). M.Sc., The Spunbond Process. 1/10 THE SPUNBOND PROCESS Edmir Silva, a Dupont developed and commercialized the melt spinning technique for man-made fiber production in 1958. In the 1960s, Dupont (U.S.A.) and Freudenberg (Germany) adopted this technique into spunbond technology. The spunbond technology, among other nonwoven technologies, has shown outstanding records in terms of the annual growth rate. The spunbond manufacturing is very similar to the fiber producing process. The primary difference between these two systems is in the filament drawing mechanism. Rather than mechanical take-up rolls used in the fiber producing process, the air drawing device is used in the spunbonding process. In this paper processes, parameters, fibers and applications are discussed. Keywords: Nonwovens; Spubond process; Melt spinning process; Contact information: a: College of Textiles, NCSU, email: easilva@ncsu.edu INTRODUCTION Spunbonding is one of the most widely used methods of producing nonwovens. It is based on the melt spinning technique and has many similarities to it. (Bo 2007) Continuous filament nonwovens are fabrics produced by the direct lay processes, wherein webs are made directly from fibers as they are being spun from molten plastics. As these processes eliminate intermediate steps, they provide opportunities for increasing production and reduction of cost, although the flexibility in product ranges might be limited. The two important processes are spunbonding and melt blowing.(Bhat and Malkan 2002) The concept of the spunbond process was developed simultaneously in Europe and the United States in the late 1950s, but it was later—in the mid-1960s to early 1970s—that the strength and potential of the spunbond technology was recognized for commercial applications. A large number of patents on the spunbond process design were filed during this period, and a few of them were used for commercial production processes.(Malkan 1995) According to the ReicoFil website, accessed on April 26, 2010 (www.reicofil.com/en/vliesanlagen/p0035_prozess.asp ), the REICOFIL® spunbonding process is successfully employed to produce polypropylene, polyethylene, polyester and polyamide nonwovens. The REICOFIL® spunbonding process has continually been developed since 1986. It is based on the wish to make the process as simple to control as possible and to be energy efficient in comparison to similar processes.