China divides industrial textiles into sixteen categories, and currently non-woven fabrics occupy a certain share in most categories, such as medical, health, environmental protection, geotechnical, construction, automotive, agricultural, industrial, safety, synthetic leather, packaging, furniture, military, and so on. Among them, non-woven fabrics have already occupied a large share and been widely used in fields such as hygiene, environmental filtration, geotechnical construction, artificial leather, automotive, industrial, packaging, and furniture. In medical, agricultural, canopy, protective, military and other fields, they have also reached a certain market penetration rate.
Sanitary materials
Sanitary materials mainly include diapers and sanitary napkins for daily use by women and infants, adult incontinence products, baby care wipes, household and public cleaning wipes, wet wipes for catering, etc. Women’s sanitary napkins are the fastest developing and most widely used sanitary products in China. Since the early 1990s, their development speed has been remarkable. By 2001, their market penetration rate had exceeded 52%, with a consumption of 33 billion pieces. It is expected that by 2005, their market penetration rate will reach 60%, with a consumption of 38.8 billion pieces. With its development, its fabric, structure, and built-in absorbent materials have undergone revolutionary changes. The fabric and side anti-seepage parts commonly use hot air, hot rolling, fine denier spunbond nonwoven fabrics, and SM S (spunbond/meltblown/spunbond) composite materials. The internal absorbent materials also widely use pulp air flow forming ultra-thin materials containing SAP superabsorbent polymers; Although the market penetration rate of baby diapers is still relatively low, it has also achieved significant development in recent years; However, the popularity of adult incontinence products, baby care wipes, household and public facility cleaning wipes, etc. is not high in China, and some spunlace nonwoven fabric manufacturers produce spunlace wipes mainly for export. China has a large population and the prevalence of sanitary materials is still low. With the further improvement of the national economic level, this field will become one of the largest markets for nonwoven materials in China.
Medical supplies
This mainly refers to various textile and non-woven fiber products used in hospitals, such as surgical gowns, surgical caps, masks, surgical covers, shoe covers, patient gowns, bed supplies, gauze, bandages, dressings, tapes, medical equipment covers, artificial human organs, and so on. In this field, non-woven fabrics play an extremely effective role in shielding bacteria and preventing cross infection. Developed countries have a non-woven fabric market share of 70% to 90% in medical textile products. However, in China, except for a small number of products such as surgical gowns, masks, shoe covers, and tapes made of spunbond fabrics, the application of non-woven fabric materials is still not widespread. Even the non-woven surgical products that have been used have a significant gap in functionality and grade compared to developed countries. For example, surgical gowns in developed countries such as Europe and America often use comfortable to wear and have good bacterial and blood shielding properties, such as SM S composite materials or hydroentangled non-woven materials.
However, in China, spunbond fabric and plastic film composite surgical gowns are more commonly used, and SM S has not been widely accepted yet; The widely used hydroentangled non-woven bandages, gauze, and hydroentangled surgical drapes mixed with wood pulp in foreign countries have not yet been promoted and used domestically; Some high-tech medical materials are still blank in China. Taking the SARS epidemic that emerged and spread in China at the beginning of the year as an example, some regions in China were unable to find relevant protective equipment standards and materials with good protective performance in the face of sudden outbreaks. At present, the surgical clothing of most medical personnel in China is not equipped with SM S clothing that has good shielding effect on bacteria and body fluids and is comfortable to wear due to price issues, which is extremely unfavorable for the protection of medical personnel. With the rapid growth of China’s economy and the increasing awareness of hygiene among people, this field will also become a huge market for non-woven fabrics.
Geosynthetic materials
Geosynthetic materials are a type of engineering material that has been developed in China since the 1980s and rapidly developed in the late 1990s, with a large amount of usage. Among them, textiles, non-woven fabrics, and their composite materials are a major category of industrial textiles, also known as geotextiles. Geotextiles are mainly used in various civil engineering projects, such as water conservancy, transportation, construction, seaports, airports, and military facilities, to enhance, drain, filter, protect, and improve engineering quality and service life. China began to use geosynthetics on a trial basis in the early 1980s, and by 1991, the application volume had exceeded 100 million square meters for the first time due to flood disasters. The catastrophic flood in 1998 attracted the attention of the national and civil engineering departments, which led to the formal inclusion of geosynthetics in the standards and the establishment of corresponding design specifications and application regulations. At this point, China’s geosynthetic materials have begun to enter the stage of standardized development. According to reports, in 2002, the application of geosynthetics in China exceeded 250 million square meters for the first time, and the variety of geosynthetics is becoming increasingly serialized.
With the development of geotextiles, the non-woven fabric process equipment suitable for producing such products in China has also achieved rapid development. It has gradually evolved from the ordinary short fiber needle punching method with a width of less than 2.5 meters in the early application stage to the short fiber needle punching method with a width of 4-6 meters and the polyester spunbond needle punching method with a width of 3.4-4.5 meters. The products are no longer simply made of a single material, but more often use a combination or combination of multiple materials, which greatly improves the quality and meets standardization requirements of the products. However, from the perspective of engineering quantity in our country, geotextiles are far from being widely popularized, and the proportion of non-woven products is also significantly lower compared to developed countries. It is estimated that the proportion of non-woven fabrics in geotextiles in China is only about 40%, while in the United States it is already around 80%.
Building waterproof materials
Building waterproof materials are also a rapidly developing industrial material in China in recent years. In the early days of our country, most of the roof waterproofing materials were paper tire and fiberglass tire felt. Since the reform and opening up, China’s type of building materials have achieved unprecedented development, and their application has reached 40% of the total usage. Among them, the application of modified asphalt waterproofing membranes such as SBS and APP has also increased from more than 20 million square meters before 1998 to 70 million square meters in 2001. With the promotion of increasing infrastructure construction efforts, China has a huge potential market in this field. Short fiber needle punched polyester tire base, spunbond needle punched polyester tire base, and spunbond polypropylene and waterproof resin composite materials will continue to occupy a certain market share. Of course, in addition to waterproofing quality, green building issues, including petroleum based materials, also need to be considered in the future.
Dongguan Liansheng Nonwoven Fabric Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of non-woven fabrics and non-woven fabrics, is worthy of your trust!
Post time: Aug-02-2024