Nonwovens by FDI

Traditionally, workers in industry have turned to reusable laundered shop towels for a variety of cleaning applications. These shop towels are used to clean grease, oils and chemicals and are then put into specially marked containers where, often, a rental company will retrieve the towels and leave fresh towels for workers to use. It’s the way that many companies operate. With the new EPA wiper rule adopted in 2014, we in the nonwovens industry have a chance to truly revolutionize this practice of laundering towels for re-use.

Nonwovens are found in so many areas of filtration due to many reasons. Two key end-use segments of nonwoven applications are within air (dry filtration) and liquid (wet filtration).   Common nonwoven technologies used for filtration are spunbonded, meltblown and wetlaid.

According to a recent Nonwovens Industry article, printing and coloring wipes is evolving to communicate messages other than branding to wipes customers.   Since the combined consumer and industrial wipes markets are expected to increase to over $15.8 billion by 2017, manufacturers are expected to continue to move forward with new technologies.

In recent years flushable wipes have had some bad press. Perhaps unfairly, this $1.4 billion industry is accused of causing the increasing number of clogs plaguing sewage systems worldwide. The solution under consideration in several states is a legislative approach to flushability.

Last fall, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lifted an enormous regulatory burden from the manufacturing industry by instituting what has become known as the “wiper rule.”

Tim Wright wrote about the rule in an October 2013 article in Nonwovens Industry magazine: