Melt Blown Processing and Characterization of Cellulose Acetate and Polyvinyl Alcohol Resins, 1993 Nonwovens Conference Proceedings

A.Y.A. Khan

L.C. Wadsworth

With increasing use of nonwovens in daily life, their disposability is becoming an important issue. An exploratory study was done to assess the processing performance of cellulose acetate and polyvinyl alcohol resins during melt blowing. A soft flow, extrusion grade cellulose acetate and a low molecular weight polyvinyl alcohol (melt index 26-30) based resin were used. Melt blowing trials were carried out on a 0.15 m (6 inch) pilot line. Both polymers exhibited good processability and resulted in uniform webs with a soft to moderate hand under the chosen processing conditions. The melt blown webs were characterized for average fiber diameter, variability of fiber diameter, air permeability, bursting strength, bending length, porosity, and tensile properties. It is interesting to note that cellulose acetate is a hydrophilic polymer and that polyvinyl alcohol resin is readily soluble in water and is biodegradable.