What is needle punching felting fabric?

The traditional felting farbric is often found in worsted woolen fabrics. The felting farbric is made of wool fibers through wet felting with water and agitation. In the wet felting process, the wool fiber, with its feltability, will grab the adjacent fibers and interlock together when absorbing the felting agent. The tips of the wool fiber lying on the surface in different directions creat a fuzzy surface, achieveing the felting effect. Wool Flannel and Wool Meltonare common products made by this technique. To ensure the sound felting style, the wool fiber content should not be less than 60%.

Is it possible to develop a kind of fabric that has the similar felting style using fibers containing less wool? If possible, fewer animal fibers and costs of raw materials are required in the felting fabric manufaturing and the product will be more competitive on the market. The needle puching finishing technique we’ll introduce to you in this article is able to achieve the vision. This technique, through the mechanical action of the equipment, makes the fibers to entangle and lock together to achieve the felting effect.

WHAT IS NEEDLE PUNCHING FELTING FABRIC?

1. What is needle punching?

Needle punching is a finishing technique in which a large number of needles in the shape of barbs move vertically upwards and downwards to make the fibres interspersed up and down. This increases the frictional forces between the fibres and makes the fabric more rigid. 

Needle punching is often used in the non-woven fabric industry and in recent years it has gained popularity in embroidery in recent years.

But what we want to introduce here, is the needle punching felting finish for apparel fabrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tep2UBAPaEc

You can see from the video, there are many felting needles in the needle board of a needing machine. They are led through the fabric by moving up and down. This finish can give the fabric a different look and hand feel.

2. Needle punching fabrics

Figure 1: Needle punching felting fabrics by Easetex

Product Type: Feltted wool-like fabrics

Composition: 100% polyester

Weight: can be customized

Feature: Soft brushed surface, fine hair, comfortable and warm, smooth and flat touch.

Here is an example, we are using 100% polyester faux fur teddy fabric with a needle punching finish. This renewal fabric is felted with a woollen boucle look and hand feel. Meanwhile, the cost is very affordable.

Figure 2. 100% polyester needle punching felt fabric

We can also combine needle punching with jacquard to generate a very unique look for apparel fabrics

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