Non-woven cloth, or cloth not woven from yarn but made from self-knit, mechanically and chemically processed fiber sheets, is now widely used in a market that supports a production of 200,000 tons a year.
Its demand is expected to increase, particularly in those fields using fine and absorptive ecological materials (see Table 1).
Related industries are interested in tests evaluating the appropriate thickness and strength of the cloth fitted to respective use.
The following are several test examples using the Shimadzu Autograph in various evaluations of strength.

Specimen

Name

:

Non-woven cloth

Shape

:

Long rectangular, width 50mm, thickness 1mm, length 200mm

Testing conditions

Testing machine

:

Shimadzu Autograph

Capacity of load cell

:

5kN

Testing speed

:

100mm/min.

Distance between grips

:

100mm

Room condition

:

Temperature 25゚C, humidity 50%

Best fitted grips

Type

:

Pneumatic flat grips, with a footvalve

Grip face

:

flat type, rubber coated

Capacity

:

5kN

Pneumatic pressure

:

400kpa(4kgf/cm2)

Fig.1 Flat Face Grips / Fig.2 Test Pieces

Mounting of specimen onto grips
Insert a test piece into upper and lower grips and press the footvalve, fastening the specimen by a stroke of the air cylinder.
Safe operation is secured by the speed controller.

Test results
Fig.3 shows the test results in the form ofa load-elongation curve, and Fig.4 presents overlapped curves of three tests to show the reproducibility of the characteristic behavior.
The first peak is a point where the width of the test piece rapidly narrows just beyond its elastic limit. The second peak is the point of maximum load, where the width of the test piece narrows around the center and it is ideally broken at the center, as shown in Fig.2 (photograph).
This test assures that a reliable cloth test can be performed with pneumatic-type flat face grips. The characteristic curve obtained in this test shows special behavior typical to non-woven cloth, but never seen in others.

Table 1 Use of Non-Woven Cloth

Everyday usage wet towels, paper diapers, cooking paper, sanitary goods
Industrial usage filters, heat insulators, cars, battery separator materials, IC circuit substrates
Clothing usage lining cloth, apparel
Agricultural usage hydroponic culturing materials, gardening materials, root penetration prevention materials, irrigation materials
Architectural usage carpets, wall materials, ceiling materials
Civil construction projects usage road construction, reclamation work, shore protection, embankments, forest maintenance, park construction
Medical care usage masks, operation cloths, bed sheets

Table Data on Test Piece

Test result
No. Max. load Elongation atmax. load
kN kgf (mm) (%)
1 1.48 151.6 51.0 51.0
2 1.30 133.5 54.6 54.6
3 1.31 133.9 58.8 58.8
Fig.3 Testing method and Test Results
Fig.4 Load-Elongation Curves