Chemistry and Materials Research www.iiste.org ISSN 2224- 3224 (Print) ISSN 2225- 0956 (Online) Vol.7 No.7, 2015 11 Fabrication, Characterization and Deformation Behavior of a New Acrylate Copolymer-based Nonwoven Structure David N Githinji*, John T Githaiga, David R Tuigong, Diana S Madara Bernard Kipsang and Silas Khasindu Department of manufacturing, Industrial & Textile Engineering, Moi University P.O. Box 3900-30100, Eldoret, Kenya Abstract A method of fabricating nonwoven structure from dry-laid cotton fibers and atomized acrylate copolymer is presented. The method based on a consolidation pressure of about 2kPa and room temperature curing, is used to produce structures with fiber mass to binder volume ratio (FBR) of 0.7, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 3. Structurally stable structures are produced and characterized in terms of their bursting strength, areal density, water absorption, and monotonic deformation behavior. At constant FBR, the bursting strength and areal density of the structures increases with the fiber mass. The structures’ water absorption capacity reduces with the increase in the volume of binder applied. At FBR of 1 and area density of 295 grams per square meter, the structure’s load-strain curve is characterized by a linear and non-linear behavior corresponding to elastic and inelastic strain, respectively. At peak loads, the structure’s deformation is relatively uniform but becomes localized as the failure point is approached. A good correspondence is established between the strain assessment based on uniaxial tensile test and on image correlation using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method. The average vector magnitude derived from PIV measurement, correlate well with the engineering strain and can thus be used for strain estimation. Keywords: Nonwoven, Dry-laid, Deformation, Particle Image Velocimetry, acrylate copolymer Introduction Nonwoven structures consist of web of directional or random orientated fibers bonded together. The web made up of natural, synthetic or man-made fibers can either be wet-laid or dry-laid (Batra & Pourdeyhimi, 2012). Wet-laying entails suspending fibers in water, draining and drying resulting in randomly oriented web of fibers while dry-laying involves mechanically orientating fibers into a web through combing processes. To obtain structurally stable structure, the web is bound through techniques such as felting, adhesive bonding, thermal bonding, needle punching, hydroentangling or spinlaying (Russell, 2007). Natural fibers such as cotton are used in medical and hygiene nonwoven products because of their high absorption capacity, comfort, softness, chemical resistance and biodegradability. To produce lightweight structures, adhesive bonding is often used to bind the fibers. For stiff and compacted products, adhesive (binder) is mainly applied through saturation method but for open and bulky products, spraying method is used which ensures controlled application of binder, uniform binder application and a soft handle (Russell, 2007;