Textile composites from hydro-entangled non-woven fabrics

Production of nonwoven fabrics and composite technology are not new areas. However it seems very little has been done to look at the potential of hydro-entangled nonwovens as reinforcements in structural composites. A preliminary investigation is reported of the suitability of hydro-entangled nonwoven fabrics as fibre reinforcements in producing structural composites. Work reported involved producing various composite materials by impregnating hydro-entangled fibrous structure with a suitable polymer and evaluating the composite properties via a number of tests, such as tensile strength and impact resistance. Preliminary results show that there is good potential for producing composite structures from hydro-entangled nonwovens.