Non-woven fabric Specification: What Each Number Actually Changes

Buyers lose money on non-woven fabric in a predictable way: they specify one figure tightly and leave the rest to the supplier. This is a walk through every figure that changes the outcome, in the order it matters.

Why the headline number is the least useful one

Every quotation leads with process. It is easy to compare and it is the number the factory can hit most cheaply. But it tells you almost nothing on its own: process sets the frame, and the parameters below set whether the product survives its first year in service. A buyer who compares only the headline figure is buying a sample, not a supply agreement.

For non-woven, the practical rule is to fix the headline figure at the level your product needs and then spend your negotiating attention on tensile strength and elongation. Those two are where cheap goods differ from adequate goods, and they are usually absent from the quotation sheet.

The numbers that decide performance

Read the table as a set of trade-offs rather than a checklist. Moving any single line usually costs money somewhere else, and the cheapest way to hit one figure is often to let another slip.

Process

Typical range: spunbond / spunlace / needle punch / SMS. Determines strength, softness and whether the edges fray.

Weight

Typical range: 15-200 gsm. Cost driver and the only figure most buyers compare.

Tensile strength

Typical range: MD 20-60 N/5 cm. Direction matters: CD strength is usually half of MD and fails first.

Elongation

Typical range: 20-80 %. Low elongation is brittle; high elongation bags out.

Width

Typical range: 160-320 cm. Wide goods reduce seams on covers and bags.

How to write a non-woven specification that protects you

A specification is only useful if a substitution becomes visible. That means writing the construction and the performance together, and naming the test that proves each one. For non-woven, the clause has to pin tensile strength and elongation, because those two separate a compliant lot from an adequate one:

Polypropylene spunbond, 80 gsm +/- 5 %, 160 cm, MD tensile >= 30 N/5 cm, CD >= 18 N/5 cm, UV stabilised, Pantone 19-3906 TCX

Note what is missing from that line: adjectives. No ‘high quality’, no ‘premium’, no ‘export grade’. Every clause is either a number with a tolerance or a named test. If a supplier cannot quote against a line written this way, that is information about the supplier.

Where the specification usually breaks down

The first failure is low cd strength. Material tears across the roll when pulled or sewn. The cause is usually fibre orientation biased to machine direction, typical of cheap spunbond. The test that exposes it before you order: Tensile MD and CD per ISO 9073-3; require both figures.

The second is weight shortfall. The roll weighs less than ordered and the cover feels thin. It comes from nominal gsm quoted from the line setting, not the delivered goods. Test with ISO 9073-1 mass per unit area on three samples per lot. and write the result into the purchase order, not just the enquiry.

Both failures share a pattern: they appear months after delivery, they are hard to attribute, and the cost lands on the buyer rather than the mill. That is exactly why the test belongs in the specification and the report belongs in the shipment file.

What to put in a non-woven enquiry

1. End use and the conditions, which together decide where tensile strength has to sit inside MD 20-60 N/5 cm.
2. The one figure that must hold, with mass per unit area named as the proof.
3. Quantity per colour and per delivery, against a typical MOQ of 1000-2000 kg per colour.
4. Destination market, because compliance changes the construction, not just the paperwork.
5. A physical standard viewed under a stated light source, not a screen proof.

With those five points we can quote against a real requirement instead of a generic range. Full ranges sit on the non-woven page, and the manufacturing side of the same question is on our quality control page.

Questions buyers ask before ordering

Do you quote MD and CD strength?

Yes, and you should insist on it. A single tensile figure usually means MD only, which hides the direction that fails.

Can you supply UV-stabilised material?

Yes, with a stated exposure period. ‘UV treated’ without hours or months is not a specification.

What is the MOQ for a custom colour?

1000-2000 kg for masterbatch colour; white and black from stock.

Failure modes worth a clause in the purchase order

Claims rarely come from a batch that was obviously wrong. They come from a width figure that sat inside the quoted band and outside what the product needed.

The other two, with acceptance numbers attached, are in the full failure analysis for non-woven. A supplier who cannot name the mode he sees most often is describing a catalogue, not a process.

Seven lines that turn a quotation into a specification

Most post-delivery arguments are not about quality. They are about a document that never said which figure would be measured, on which instrument, at whose cost.

1. Hydrophilic / hydrophobic: specified, not assumed is the market band. Fix the figure you will test at goods-in, and the instrument you will test it with.
2. Colour fastness (>= grade 3-4): fix the value per shipment, and state who pays for the re-test if a lot lands outside it.
3. Hand: soft / crisp / embossed is not an answer on its own. Ask for the last three lots’ actual readings and the spread behind them.
4. Process: agree the test method with the number. Two labs, two methods, two answers, one argument.
5. Deviation rule: anything outside the agreed bands is reported before shipment, not after arrival.
6. Packing and marking: shipping mark, roll or carton count and the tolerance on quantity, since a short shipment is a claim too.
7. Who inspects: third-party, in-house or none, decided in advance, with the AQL level written down.

Related reading

• Non-Woven for Automotive trim
• Weight in Non-woven fabric
• Promotional and retail bags