Porosity and barrier properties of polyethylene meltblown nonwovens

There are several areas in which textiles have been highly desirable due to their specific and high performance for many industries and sectors including in civil engineering, automobile, medicine, filtration, and electronics. Polymer used has a significant effect on the properties of meltblown nonwovens. Polypropylene being the most commonly used polymer, very limited data have been reported on the polyethylene meltblown nonwovens which are desired due to their unique processing and performance advantages. In this study, we have investigated the effects of process variables, die temperature, air pressure, and die-to-collector distance on some characteristics of polyethylene meltblown nonwovens such as pore size, air permeability, hydrostatic head, and SEM analysis. It was observed that the variables have significant effects on the produced nonwovens, and many of the properties are comparable to those obtained with that of polypropylene meltblown webs.