Effects of binder fiber contents bonding temperature, and needling intensity on biaxially oriented polyester nonwovens have been studied. Low melting point polyester staple binder were used with regular melting point polyester fibers. In order to assess the bonding efficiency of binder fibers in a nonwoven, the Fiber Utilization Efficiency(FUE) was allied as a measure to improve tenacity of the nonwovens. The 1311owing processing parameters were studied in order to improve FUE: web construction(biaxial web), blending ratios between binder fiber and matrix fiber(20/80, 30/70, 40/60, 50/50), needling intensity(31, 62 and 93 needle punches/cm2) and bonding temperature(120℃ to 220℃ with 10℃ increments). Directional tenacity difference in machine and transverse directions was also investigated with different needling intensity. In a biaxial web, the highest value of FUE(12.9% in machine direction and 12.2% in transverse direction at 160℃) was obtained by using 62 needle punches/cm2 with adding 30% binder fiber. High bonding temperature, above 50'S from the melting temperature of binder fiber, can improve FUE effectively.
