India is poised for tremendous growth in the manufacturing and retail sectors having already made its mark in the IT and service sectors. Governments of India's aim and policies are all geared up towards having a double digit inclusive growth. The exponential growth in the information technology industry in India has no doubt enhanced the middle class population in India, but the growth has been confined to only certain segments of the society.

India's majority of the population, approximately 60% still live in rural areas. It is important to raise the standard of living of the rural population to have all inclusive growth. Although India has made good progress in agriculture since independence due to green revolution, the growth in this sector is not to the acceptable and required level to uplift the masses that depend on agriculture. The growth in agriculture sector is less than 3% per annum, which has to be offset by the growth in the industrial sector to have double digit growth.

The recent year-to-year growth in the manufacturing sector has been 15% and more importantly, there has been growth in the non-durable goods and sector. Most of the non-durable goods are nonwoven products and it is extremely important that this sector grows quickly in India. According to recent statistics from the USA based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, due to the explosion in the number of disposable income group in India the nonwoven industry in India is expected to register a growth of over 12.4% With the increase in disposable incomes, the need for life enhancing products, automobiles etc. increases. These products are perfect fit for nonwovens.

The automobile industry is expected to growth over 20% and with this, the use of nonwovens. In addition, the growing economy in India will definitely support the growth of non-apparel textiles such as nonwovens. Nonwoven products are predominantly used in non-apparel end-use applications and hence they will be supportive of the conventional textile sector in India. The growth in the nonwovens sector will not hinder the growth of apparel and conventional textile sectors. There is room for the growth of both traditional and nontraditional sectors in India. It is important that both the sectors contribute towards reaching the goal of the India textile industry to reach US $ 150 billion by 2010. Important end-use applications and the nonwoven technologies that are used to develop these products are outlined in this article. The original version of the article appeared in the June 2007 issue of the Nonwovens Industry magazine.

Technical textiles industry is currently worth 115 billion dollars. World's technical textiles market is to reach 125 billion dollars by 2010 with a cumulative annual growth of 3 to 4 %. Estimates by David Rigby Associates (DRA) show that total world's consumption of technical textiles will reach around 24 million tons in 2010 from its current consumption of 14 million tons. More importantly, according to DRA, Asia will be the largest consumer of technical textiles surpassing both America and Europe by 2010. Within Asia, by 2012 India will be a leading producer and consumer of technical textiles.

Estimates by the Textile Commissioner of India show that the current value of Indian technical textile industry is 5.76 billion dollars which will reach 9.96 billion dollars with a CAGR of 14.67 % by 2010. According to Messe Frankfurt, the general technical textiles industry can be broadly classified into twelve sectors such as Aristech, Protect, Geotech, etc. Major industrial applications include geotextiles, medical textiles, agricultural textiles, sport textiles and protective textiles. Among these industrial applications some of the prominent sectors where nonwoven fabrics find applications include geotextiles, automotive textiles, filtration, medical textiles, defense and sport textiles. This article will endeavor to highlight some of the applications of nonwovens in technical and industrial sectors hitherto not spotlighted.

Automotive Applications: Automotive Industry is one of the major sectors where nonwovens find technical applications. In every automobile, at least 25 kilograms of nonwovens or approximately 20 square meters of fabric find applications in thirty to forty different components. Common applications include trunkliners, headliners, carpet backings, dashboards, acoustic insulation and absorbent materials. Needlepunched fabrics are predominantly used for major applications in automobiles. Thermalbonded and spunlaid nonwovens are also used on their own or in different combinations. There is a greater resurgence for natural fiber based nonwovens for automotive applications due to the need for recylclability and light weight high fuel efficient vehicles to cut down greenhouse gas emissions. The automotive industry is buying into the idea of reducing the weight of automobiles as a small solution to improve the fuel efficiency and help with the global warming issue this can be achieved using nonwoven composites. With the new European directive, by 2012 over 95 % of automobiles should be recyclable. This means nonwovens in automobiles should be compostable. Therefore, natural fibers such as flax, cotton, kenaf and their blends have to be explored to develop products that can go into automobiles.

The development of cost effective natural fiber based materials that can meet the performance requirements of the automobile industry is the task ahead for the automobile and nonwoven industries. There are also several research activities that are taking place in research labs around the world to develop natural fiber based materials for the auto industry. A trans-atlantic alliance involving University of Tennessee-Knoxville, USDA-SRRC and the University of Bremen, Germany has been working towards developing cotton composites for automotive applications.

Raw cotton with different binder fibers and combinations with kenaf and flax were tried to develop environmentally benign and moldable composites in binder fibers such as PLA and BioPET. Results from the study indicate that intimately blended cotton fibers with binder fibers gave better composite. This result shows that cotton can form a good substitute for synthetic fibers. One plausible reason for the auto industry to not have taken cotton composites seriously could be the cost of cotton compared to other synthetic fibers. More recently, there have been some interesting developments in this aspect as well. Researchers at the Nonwoven and Advanced Materials Laboratory at Texas Tech University have been trying to find value-added applications for the discounted low micronaire cottons that are 33mm and above in length.

Cottons that are 3.4 or less in micronaire are heavily discounted which brings huge loss to the cotton industry. But this low micronaire cotton is suitable for processing through a needlepunching machine that can be use to develop low and heavy weight composite preforms. Since these cottons are discounted they can be cost effective, in turn providing a win-win situation to the cotton, nonwoven and automotive industries. Developing cotton composites from low micronaire cottons can be a best possible solution for developing 100 % recyclable materials for auto industry. Research involving coarse wool for automobile applications is also ongoing at Texas Tech University.

Medical Applications: Some of the general applications of nonwovens in medical sector include surgical gowns, facemasks, surgical and medical accessories and medical furnishings. Normally, spunbonded nonwoven fabrics are used for medical and surgical gowns. Recently, functionalized nonwovens are finding more applications in medical field. Ahlstrom's Breathable Viral Barrier Fabric (BVB) is claimed to have protection against HIV, MRSA and SARS. This fabric has passed ASTM F1671 test proving that it can be used for protection against biological agents. Larry Wadsworth and his group at University of Tennessee-Knoxville have been working to find improved applications for nonwovens in the medical sector. Cotton breathable protective garments that are impermeable to liquids have been developed.

Cotton based nonwoven liner that is used next-to-skin with antimicrobial finish is an important component of the garment. This breathable garment passed the ASTM F1670 synthetic blood penetration test and monolithic impervious film cotton garment passed the viral penetration test ASTM F1671. This group has also developed flourochemical repellent finished electret face masks. These facemasks contain an outer spunbond polypropylene layer, middle electrostatically charged meltblown layer and faceside cotton rich nonwoven. These functionally finished facemasks were found to have high filtration efficiencies for 0.1  NaCl in the range of 95.9 to 98.6 %.

Military Applications: Military applications of nonwovens have been relatively fewer compared to their applications in automobiles and other industrial sectors such as filtration. However, recently United States Marine Corps has taken keen interest to develop nonwoven fabrics for use as combat utility uniforms. Under the Small Business Initiative Research program, Nanosyntex has successfully completed Phase I and Phase II research on developing lightweight nonwoven composite materials for defense applications. Results showed that the nonwoven fabrics can be made 25 % lighter than the current woven uniforms. These fabrics have high degree of moisture vapor transport and wrinkle resistance and are compatible with fusible applications.

According to Stephen Szczesuil of Natick Soldier System, who is the program manager for the project, getting people to accept nonwoven products for clothing will be the key to successful commercialization. Another major product once commercialized will provide enormous opportunities for the nonwovens industry is the nonparticulate decontamination wipes. Researchers at Texas Tech University have been for the past few years, working towards developing an alternate decontamination wipe technology that can replace the currently fielded M291 particulate decon kit. This work has given the nonwoven industry a new product heretofore untapped. The multilayered wipe will have both absorbtive and adsorbtive properties which will be very valuable to wipe away the toxic chemical from a soldier's body and also hold the toxic chemical, providing better cleaning and protection capabilities. Results using chemical warfare simulants such as pinacolyl methylphosphonate have been successful showing that the nonwoven wipe can be a replacement to M291 kit. Once the results using real chemical warfare agent is released in the public domain, marketing opportunities for the dry nonwoven wipe will be huge. The end users will include Department of Defense, Homeland Security, local governments, emergency responders and law enforcement personnel.

Nonwoven composites are finding applications in developing multifunctional products that have defense applications such as ballistic proof chest shield. US Patent 6,862,971 discusses the invention of multilayered composite that has nonwoven/leather/high performance fabrics which provide not only ballistic resistance but also cut resistance. Cut resistance is of significant value in the case of law enforcement personnel such as the police. The nonwoven layer comes next to the skin providing the necessary cushion and comfort. The chest shield can be inserted within the undergarments or between the inner and outer garments to provide the necessary cut and ballistic resistance.

Filtration Applications: The use of nonwovens in filtration is well-known and needs no elaborate discussion. However, more and more nanofiber based products are finding applications either as stand alone filter media or in combination with conventional nonwovens. Important concerns with regard to the application of nanofibers such as durability and process scale-up are currently being addressed both by academia and industry. Recent research at Texas Tech University has resulted in the development of well aligned self-assembled polyurethane nanofibers. These nanofibers resembled honeycomb web and ranged between 100 to 300 nm in diameter.

The orderly structure of nanofibers provides necessary durability and also helps with enhanced filtration due to the mesh-in-mesh structure. The issue surrounding the commercialization and scale-up of nanofiber production has been addressed by NanoStatics Corporation. NanoStatics has built 1 to 2 meters wide electrospinning unit that has a production speed of 100 meters per minute. Czech Republic based Elmarco is commercializing another version of electrospinning where the e-spinning electrode is in the form of a roller which is immersed in the polymer solution. This technology is marketed under the trade name NanospiderTM. According to Elmarco, polymers such as PA6, PEA, PES, Gelatin, Chitason were electrospun into nanofibers. They also claim that nanofibers from inorganic materials such as TiO2, SiO2, Al2O3, etc., have been successfully electrospun. Elmarco's new filter material AntimicrobeWebTM has been claimed to have bacterial and viral filtration efficiencies over 99.9 %. The future trend in the filtration will involve some form of nano or fine fibers that are less than 1 in diameter, either stand alone or in combination. In addition, functionalized filters that have capabilities to breakdown or decompose the toxins using metaloxides and silver nanoparticles have to be developed for the next generation filtration media.

In conclusion, multifunctional nonwoven composites and nonwovens with functionalized finishes will find niche applications in defense, filtration and automotive industries and will enter into new markets, heretofore unexplored. Based on performance, properties and end use applications, all nonwovens can be designed to have high-tech applications and can penetrate into value-added markets.

Indias current nonwoven production is around 50,000 tons/year as compared to China, which is 850,000 tons/year. Can India really race against China whose nonwoven industry has been growing over since the mid 1980s? The answer is Yes! India has abundant raw material resource and skilled labour force, which can be trained for the nonwoven industry. More importantly, India can get the know-how both from the West and East, which was not the case when the Chinese nonwovens industry developed. Unlike the commodity textile sector, where China really dominates, India can very well develop in the nonwoven sector. The market is not merely export, but can be predominantly domestic catering to the needs of the growing middle class population which will hit 800 million by 2012.

About the author:

Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar is Assistant Professor at Nonwoven and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA. He is also Co-Chairman of INDA-India Committee, INDA, USA. He has come to India to promote Nonwoven Fabrics Industry.

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