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Abstract
A greige (non-bleached) cotton lint was used to fabricate non-woven fabrics on a Fleissner MiniJet, using different water pressures for the fiber entanglements. The greige cotton and its hydroentangled non-woven fabrics were primarily tested for their hexane extracts (waxes) and water-soluble (sugars) contents using the AATCC TM97 Standard Extraction Test. Tests have shown that a water pressure of 125 Bar or higher almost totally removed the greige cotton's inherent hydrophobic waxes and water-soluble sugars. This discovery is a significant milestone in the development of greige cotton-based non-wovens because it could change the greige cotton's native hydrophobic character into a desirable hydrophilic character for many end-uses. In fact, the AATCC Test Method 79-2007 has confirmed that the greige cotton non-wovens fabricated with high water pressure of 125 Bar are absorbent, as indicated by the 1-second time or less it took for the water drop to completely diffuse onto the fabric surface.
Keywords
absorbent non-wovens, greige cotton lint, hydroentangled
Generally, cotton bleached in fiber form (mostly in the form of ginning motes, linters and textile processing wastes (comber noils, card strips, etc.) and mostly in blends with manufactured staple fibers, such as polypropylene, polyester, rayon, etc.) has been used until now to produce non-woven fabric structures for certain medical, hygienic and wiping end-uses.1 These products are attractively marketed and sold, using Cotton Incorporated's popular cotton logo/trademark (with the word ''ENHANCED'' printed beneath the logo) on non-woven products containing at least 15% cotton (Logo *: The registered trademark of Cotton Incorporated, 6399 Weston Parkway, Cary, NC. 27513). However, today, very little regular (classical) greige (non-bleached) cotton lint or, for that matter, even the bleached cotton lint (in the fiber form, before it is processed into non-woven fabrics) is used by US non-woven fabric manufacturing companies. 2,3 This discovery of making greige (non-bleached/ hydrophobic) cotton fiber into a hydrophilic cotton non-woven fabric, via the fiber hydroentangling process at certain specified metrics and conditions, may eliminate the traditional process of scouring. For certain end-use applications, perhaps the bleaching process may also be eliminated, provided a mechanically pre-cleaned cotton of satisfactory whiteness can be selected as the raw material.4
Materials and methods
A bale of commercially available pre-cleaned American Upland greige cotton lint was selected for the study. The...