Tensile strength

Tensile strength

Tensile strength is directional. Because carded fibres lie roughly parallel, a web is stronger along the machine direction than across it, and the numbers on a data sheet are only comparable if the test direction is the same.

For towels that are pulled rather than dabbed — grooming, wiping around equipment, unfolding from a tight pack — the cross-direction figure is the one that predicts failure in use.