Nonwoven fabrics for apparel and workwear, manufactured to order

Nonwovens reach further into apparel than most garment buyers expect. They appear as the whole garment in protective and disposable clothing, as a functional layer inside performance wear, and as the interlining that gives a shirt collar, cuff or lapel its shape. What changes between those uses is the fabric construction, not the category: the same three processes cover the field, combined and finished differently each time.

In exercise wear the requirement is moisture management. A fabric that moves perspiration away from the skin and dries quickly keeps the wearer comfortable across a range of temperatures, which is why microfilament constructions with high fibre surface area are specified as inner layers. In clean rooms the requirement is a barrier. The fabric has to hold back pathogens, microbes and particulates without shedding lint of its own, and it has to survive gowning and de-gowning without tearing. For first responders the requirement is durability under abuse: extreme abrasion resistance, high tensile strength, and treatments for fire retardance and water resistance, for bulletproof vests, firefighting suits and military apparel.

PET/PA6 splittable microfilament fabric is the construction behind most of the high-specification apparel work. It is spun as a bicomponent filament web and then hydroentangled at high pressure, which splits the filaments into microfilaments and consolidates the fabric in one step. The result is soft, smooth and scratch- and lint-free, with a barrier and filtration performance unusual in a fabric that drapes like a textile. It is absorbent and quick drying, gives thermal insulation and wind resistance, and takes finishing, dyeing, printing, cutting and stitching on standard garment equipment, so a maker can treat it as cloth rather than as a technical laminate.

Thermally calendered point-bonded polypropylene spunbond covers the volume end: aprons, capes, gloves, outerwear shells, protective coveralls and single-use clothing, where cost, hydrophobicity and chemical resistance matter more than hand. Round cross-section polyester spunbond adds heat resistance, dimensional stability and colour hold, including fluorescent high-visibility shades for workwear. Meltblown and its SM and SMS composites add the barrier layer that turns a spunbond shell into a protective garment fabric, since the fine meltblown fibres block liquid and particulate penetration while the spunbond faces carry the strength and abrasion resistance.

Treated and laminated grades close the gap where a single web cannot meet the specification. Extrusion coating and film lamination make a garment fabric waterproof or selectively breathable, and wide-width hot-melt welding joins panels without stitching, which matters where a seam would be the weak point in a barrier. These finishes are combined to order: a fabric can be coated on one side and laminated on the other, or treated for antistatic behaviour and flame retardance at once.

We manufacture apparel and workwear fabrics to order. Tell us the construction, basis weight, width, colour, treatment and the garment it is going into, and we will quote the specification delivered. The minimum order is one 40-foot container.