There are four criteria that I use to differentiate the technical felts from the nontechnical felts. (These same criteria can be used to determine whether or not a woman can be categorized as beautiful.) They are as follows:

1. Exotic and/or unique ingredients
2. Unusual specifications
3. Specific and dynamic targeted applications
4. Unique pre and/or post treatment

Using the above criterion it now becomes easier to classify a product as being "technical." So, now that we have laid the criterion for judging a needlepunched nonwoven product, what are some examples of the technical products being made around the world and right here in S.E. Asia?

An example of a technical felt made with "exotic and/or unique ingredients" are needlepunched felts with grass seeds mixed into the raw material source. That’s right, not all technical or high performance products need to be pretty. This unique fabric is not as easy to produce as one would assume. The needlepunched grass products made today are produced with a variety of special ingredients to enhance pollination, moisture retention, handling/installation strength, etc. These products are mainly made in the USA and somewhat in the European continent.

An example of a felt having "unique specifications" is specialized blood filtration media. This media must have uncompromising and precise specifications. If the specifications are not correct, the resultant fabric may indeed not only perform poorly, but may also become dangerous and unsafe in its application and use.

Examples of felts having "unique and dynamic targeted applications" are numerous. The products in this category are often times patented and more renowned. The Insituform process and products are a good example. The Insituform product is a needlepunched fabric that is used to repair and enhance aging sewers. After needlepunching, the fabric is treated with chemicals and sewn into a tube, which is later inverted into a sewer hole. The product is then cured via recirculating hot water. The Insituform product is a less costly alternative to the option of totally replacing a sewer system, which would require the digging up, and closing of streets, etc. This saves a lot of dollars to the municipality and eliminates this chaos of re-routing traffic.

Other examples in the application category would include the space shuttle exterior tiles. A portion of the tiles on the US space shuttle are made via a patented and specialized process which involves needlepunching various man made and natural fibers.

An example of a felt having "unique pre or post treatment" is specialized synthetic leather fabrics. Various synthetic leather fabrics are needled to a rather high density and after needlepunching are subjected to a chemical bath. After chemical impregnation the felt is calendared and then split into two or more layers. Depending on the application the material can then be buffed on one surface to raise a leathery look to the felt.

Needlepunching...A Brief Overview
Since some in the audience are not totally familiar with the needlepunching process I thought it would be interesting to reveal some of the history and tradition of this most interesting form of fabric interlocking. Needlepunched nonwovens are the oldest form of fully interlocked nonwovens known to mankind. Needlepunching was first developed in Europe around 1860. Although the needlepunching industry officially started before the turn of the century it was not until the late 1950s and early 1960s when the industry started to expand at a high rate of speed.

The first needle loom produced on a commercial basis came from the Bi-Water Company of Leeds England in and around 1866. The early needled fabrics were first made in Europe. History tells us the first needled fabrics produced commercially were from the Lancashire townships in the UK.

Needled fabrics progressed through the 1930s to the 1950s. The main products manufactured during these years were far from high tech. The products produced ranged from paddings and waddings made from regenerated fibers and from animal hairs. These pads were used as spring insulators in the mattress and furniture industry and as carpet underlayment pads. As with most nonwoven fabrics of the day, needled fabrics in the 1950s and early 60s were made from natural fibers such as jute, coir, cotton, wool, sisal, coconut fiber, etc.

Over the years the image of needlepunched fabrics around the world has been far from high performance and technical. In part this is due to the roots of needlepunching being a waste utilization industry. In the 1950s through the early 1970s the industry was made up of needlepunching companies utilizing fibrous waste. Many companies utilized the fibrous waste by needlepunching padding and waddings of various types, weights and configurations. While needlepunching no longer resembles that of the past, there is still an image problem that is associated with needlepunched nonwoven fabrics. This is especially true in Europe and North America where needlepunching has been established for decades. Interestingly, this problem is not as evident in N.E. and S.E. Asia, as the needlepunching industry there does not have such extensive roots.

There are well over 50 companies in S.E. Asia that are involved with needlepunching. The countries with significant involvement in needlepunching are Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. I thought it would be interesting to give the reader some insight as to the type of needlepunchers there are in each of these markets. Also I will discuss the types of products being made in S.E. Asia, and how these products compare to those made in the USA and Europe.

Australia
The Southern most needlepunching market in S.E. Asia is Australia. Of all the S.E. Asian countries Australia is by far the most established since most of the textile technology as well as ancestry came from Europe many years ago, the needlepunching in this country has been going on for decades and far longer than the other S.E. Asian countries.

There are approximately 17 companies utilizing needlepunching in Australia. Most of the needlepunching is found along the Southeast coast - namely Melbourne and Sidney. The needlepunching end use markets in Australia are more akin to those in Europe and the USA, and are much different than other S.E. Asian end markets.

The strongest end use market in the country is the broad category of home furnishings. Here we will find an array of companies producing needlepunched woolen blankets, spring insulator pads, indoor/outdoor carpet products, carpet cushions, and other like products. Fifty two percent of the country’s needlepunchers make some type of home furnishings products. Any country that has an established automotive market will also have an established network of needlepunching companies supporting that industry. This is certainly true of Australia. Of the 20 Asia Pacific countries, Australia ranks fifth in total automobile production with a total of 542,077 cars and trucks produced in 1993. Many of these cars and trucks have various needlepunched interior trim parts. As a result of this strong automotive influence, over 29% of the needlepunchers in Australia are supplying this industry.

HI-PER FAB 94 – Mr. John Foster (right), Executive Vice President of Foster Needle Company, Inc, in Singapore

The next strongest market in Australia is the geotextile industry. Most of the geotextiles made in the country are used here. The fiber production in Australia is limited mainly to polypropylene. As a result, all of the needlepunched geotextiles (as well as the automotive trim) are produced with polypropylene. Around 35% of the needlepunchers in this country are producing geotextiles.

Because of the supply of wool on the continent, there are a lot of companies needlepunching wool as the fiber of choice. Because of price, wool is not used in many markets other than in New Zealand and Australia. As far as I am aware, wool is not used as a fiber for textiles other than here in Australia.

Malaysia
The needlepunching industry in Malaysia is centered around two industries - home furnishings and automotive. Almost all of the needlepunchers are located on the peninsula within a few hours driving time from Kuala Lumpur.

Of the Asian Pacific countries Malaysia ranks 10^th in automotive production at 145,000 units. Unlike Australia, which produces cars with principally tufted floors, the cars made in Malaysia have some tufted and some needlepunched floors. Over 30% of this country’s needlepunchers are involved with automotive needle-punched fabrics.

Around 90% of the country’s needlepunched products go into the home furnishings sector. There is a good amount of needlepunched carpet being made in Malaysia, not only for automotive, but for industrial and even residential end uses. The lower cost of needlepunched floor covering makes the product a cost effective choice compared to the higher priced tufted alternative.

Almost all of the bedding and furniture insulator pads use coconut and palm fiber as the raw material source. There is an astonishing supply of these fibers in the country. Remarkably, almost 60% of the needlepunchers in Malaysia take advantage of this natural fiber source. For those of you who have never slept on a needlepunched palm oil mattress, it is believed to be one of the most comfortable and healthiest mattresses available.

Malaysia is void of many types of needlepunched products making the country very suitable for development in the needlepunching sector. There is no geotextile production in Malaysia. Also, there is no production of filters, medical, or papermaker felt. The Malaysian government has been encouraging foreign investment and indeed the Malaysian economy has been blooming. Economic growth has been 8-9.5% and per capita income has increased to USD 3,000 making it the wealthiest country in the region, with the exception of Singapore and Brunei.

As Malaysia strives to become fully industrialized by the year 2020, look for the country’s infrastructure to become more fully developed. As a result, needlepunched geotextile and filter media will be a requirement. Malaysia is also a large producer of footwear products, yet there is not a local producer of synthetic leather. All of the needlepunched synthetic leather must be imported from Taiwan or Korea. Not only will the needlepunching sector in this rapidly developing country continue to expand, so also will synthetic fiber in Malaysia. It must all be imported. The only commercially available local fiber supply is from the coconut and palm oil trees. Clearly, Malaysia is a country without a thoroughly developed needlepunching industry. Perhaps more than any other S.E. Asian country, Malaysia is very primed for considerable expansion in the needlepunching domain.

Thailand has more shear numbers of needlepunchers than any other S.E. Asian country. Thailand has a fairly developed and experienced textile industry and the needlepunching industry has just recently been expanding at a fairly high rate. Almost all of the needlepunching is located within a short driving distance from Bangkok.

The products produced in Thailand are very similar to those of Malaysia. The automotive industry supports 16% of the needlepunchers here. Thailand is a large producer of automobiles. The country ranks fourth among the Asian countries in automotive production. In 1993 Thailand produced 573,000 cars and trucks. Sixty percent of the needlepunchers here support the home furnishings industry. Like many of the other countries in the region, most of the home furnishings products produced are in the bedding and furniture spring insulation pad area. Just over 35% of Thailand’s needlepunchers produce apparel related items, namely shoe felts and interlinings.

Much like Malaysia, Thailand has a very undeveloped needlepunching market. There is a vast amount of potential growth for needlepunched fabrics in this country. Unlike many of its neighboring countries, Thailand has a good local supply of fibers including PP, PET, PE and nylon. For this reason Thailand is better poised than some of the other S.E. Asian countries to compete in upcoming years.

In the years to come, some of Thailand’s most obvious problems will provide opportunities in needlepunching. Pollution as well as horrendous infrastructure and traffic congestion are problems the Tai government is committed to improve. As the Tai government strives to resolve these deficiencies, new needlepunching markets will surely develop. Among these will be the geotextile and filtration markets, both of which are currently practically nonexistent.

I would now like to show you what I feel would be the ideal needlepunching line for producing practically any technical needlepunched felt (or for that matter even the nontechnical). Of course the ideal needlepunching line must fit one or more of the following categories. The line must:

1. Be able to run exotic and/or unique fibers and fiber blends.
2. Be able to offer into the web some unusual fabric specifications
3. Be able to produce a wide range of product for specific and dynamic targeted applications.
4. Must have unique pre and post needlepunching treatments.

It is difficult to incorporate all of the above elements into a needling line but the schematic represents an excellent configuration for the production of high performance textiles.

Fiber Blending
The first feature of the needle line worth mentioning is the fiber blending system. The fiber blending system will offer the ability to produce a mixture of fiber deniers, fiber lengths and fiber types. Good fiber blending is essential when producing high performance fabrics such as geotextiles, medical products such as blood filters, and many others.

Fiber Carding, Fiber Cross Lapping
The line has two cards and two cross lappers. I incorporated this not necessarily for high speeds though this will certainly help. There are certain high performance needlepunched fabrics that require bi-component fiber orientation. Double card and cross lappers will allow us to produce bi-component fabrics; fabrics that have two distinct fiber layers.

An example of this would be a needlepunched fire retardant fabric. We can cross lap a layer of lower cost polyester fibers on the first card and the more expensive and fire retarding aramid fiber on the second card. The fabric can then be needled together to form one high performance bi-component fabric.

Unwind Stand
A simple low cost item such as an unwind stand will allow us the opportunity to utilize various scrims to enhance the performance of the needlepunched fabrics we will produce. For example we may choose to boost the strength of our needled fabric in the machine direction by unwinding warp yarns between the two cards. In a configuration such as this it is wise to position the unwind stand in between the two cards so that the scrim can be properly "buried" in the middle of the fabric. I feel that the utilization of various high tech scrims will increase over time. There are new and exciting scrims available that truly enhance the look and performance of many needled fabrics.

Needle Looms
The line employs three needle looms; a single board down punch, a double board up punch and quadro punch machine. The total needle density of the line is 33,000 needles per linear meter. This is more than enough needle density to produce almost all technical, high performance fabrics effectively, other than perhaps some synthetic leather applications. The offset needling provides the opportunity to produce fabrics that have a much greater variety, versatility and ingenuity than if only a quadro punch machine was utilized.

The needle line has some other notable features to enable the fabric to have a variety of unusual specifications. These include:

Web Drafter. This machine is a series of coated rolls that slowly turn thus stretching the web in the machine direction. This systematic stretching reorients the fibers from predominantly the cross direction more towards the machine direction. As a result of the drafting machine, the fabrics produced will have "isotropic" tensile and elongation properties. Having roughly the same properties in both the XMD and the MD are important with many high performance fabrics but perhaps this is most often brought up in the geotextile industry.

Tenter Frame. Using a tenter frame and a web drafter enables us to produce the lightest weight fabrics possible. The tenter frame stretches the fabric in the XMD. This stretching obviously lowers the overall weight of the fabric. Utilizing the tenter, it is possible to produce finished weights of 200 GSM while maintaining consistent quality. The tenter will also result in a wider finished fabric. So if the last needle loom is 4.5 meters wide, it is possible that the finished width may be 5 meters or greater. The tenter frame will also affect the fiber orientation in a similar way the web drafter reorients fibers.

Calendar. The calendar at the end of the needlepunching line will result in many opportunities. The calendar can affect countless properties to the finished web depending on what is being produced, what fiber blend is being used and other variables. Among the main fabric properties that can be affected are tensile strength, elongation properties, thickness, density, and air or liquid permeability. The calendar is especially useful with polypropylene and other melting point fibers.

As I mentioned earlier, the needle line is designed to operate at 4.5 meters finished needling width and approximately 5 meters after the tenter frame is utilized. The wide width of this line will offer us the ability to needlepunch almost any needlepunched fabric. Finished fabric width of 4.5 to 5 meters is standard in the geotextile industry. For narrower goods the wide width of this needle line can also be of good use. The wide needle line can be used to produce 2 meter wide filter media. Of course an option may be to produce the filter media at 4 meters wide and use a slitter at the end of the line to slit the 4 meter goods down to 2 meters thus giving us two finished 2 meter wide products.

So while the wide width of this needle line is admittedly overly wide for 90% of the fabrics needled today, it will allow us to produce all of the wider high performance products being needled today and in the future. For those narrower goods, the wider line offers the ability to produce fabrics in a much more efficient method.

You can go on and on by adding more and more features to this needle line to further enable us to produce a more full range of needlepunched fabric. However, at some point this becomes cost prohibitive. As the line is set up now, many needlepunchers will find the cost prohibitive when evaluating the capitol expenditure to pounds per production hour. The current line has many features that will enable us to produce the range of products for most high performance and technical felts.

Now let’s cost out our needlepunching line. As you can see the price tag for acquiring a needle line to produce high performance products does not come cheap. The total installed cost for this line comes to just over $5,500,000 (USD). The $5,500,000 price is a quote I received from a company in Europe, and I would think that this price is typical of European sourced equipment.

Using the correct needles in this needle line is perhaps one of the most important features of all. It is often said the correct felting needle can literally "make or break" a needle fabric. Not having the proper needle can severely limit the needlepunching line’s potential. The properly designed felting needle will make a tremendous difference in the quality and consistency of the needled fabric.

There are hundreds of felting needle designs and configurations. As a result it is impossible to recommend a needle combination for our high tech needle without first knowing many details. Making a needle recommendation for any product is crucially important as the correct needle can affect line speeds, product quality, needle loom maintenance, among others. Recommending a needle for high tech or high performance products is even more critical as it is very possible that among the hundreds of needle styles available, only one or two needles will satisfactorily produce the product to the proper specifications and requirements. Among the lengthy list of items I consider when making a needle recommendation include the following: fiber type, denier and fabric weight, density requirements, tensile requirements, surface or hand requirements, condition of needle loom, needle density of the needle line, and any other key physical specifications. Many high performance fabrics are being produced on new generation needle designs such as the star blade felting needles with four barbed apexes.

Now that we have examined the history and tradition of needlepunching, theorized and given examples of technical/high performance fabrics and examined needlepunching particulars of the major S.E. Asian countries, I can conclude by saying it becomes extremely obvious the S.E. Asian countries are very much emerging onto the needlepunching scene. However, from a "high tech" perspective, there are very few technical/high performance fabrics being produced in this region at the present time.

Perhaps no more than any other region is there as much growth and development in the needlepunching sector. I hope today to have shown you the distinguishing characteristics of this region. Needlepunching is one of the most interesting, exciting and fastest growing forms of bonding fibers and fabrics and I hope today you have come to better understand the industry in this part of the world.