Abstract:

 In this work the effect of needle-punching parameters, such as the punch-density and depth of needle penetration on the bending properties of polypropylene needled fabrics was investigated. Four samples of needled fabrics were produced using conventional Carding/ Cross-lapping machines. The bending stiffness of the samples was evaluated in the machine-direction using the two simply supported beam and simple cantilever methods. The results indicate that the bending modulus of the fabrics are affected by both the amount of the punch density and depth of needle penetration. The results also revealed that the values of bending modulus obtained by the two simply supported beam method are greater than those obtained by the cantilever method, which is due to the nonlinear nature of the moment-curvature relation of the bent fabric.