Hydroentanglement, and what it changes
Spunlace is the only bonding method we use. It decides how our towels feel, how much they shed, and what we can and cannot promise.
Spunlace — also called hydroentanglement — is a nonwoven bonding process in which a loose web of fibres is entangled by rows of high-pressure water jets, instead of by resin, heat or needles.
What the water does
The web leaves carding as a fragile sheet held together by nothing but fibre friction. It passes under rows of jets and over a screen or drum, and the water pushes surface fibres down through the thickness of the web. As they travel, those fibres wrap around their neighbours and lock the structure.
The bond is mechanical. There is no resin to cure, no calendar to melt, and nothing added that has to be declared as an adhesive.
The screen or drum also transfers its pattern: perforations, ribs, a mesh. That pattern is a physical property of the web, not a print on it.
Why the absence of a binder matters in use
A binder holds fibres by gluing them at the points where they cross. It is fast and inexpensive, and it is the reason some nonwovens stiffen as they dry or feel slightly tacky when wet.
In a hydroentangled web the fibre ends are wrapped into the structure rather than fixed in place. Against skin, that reads as a towel that stays soft as it dries and leaves no film where it has been pressed.
For a salon or a spa the practical version is simpler: the towel behaves the same at the end of the day as it did at the start.
What can still be decided afterwards
Once the web exists, the converting line decides the rest — slit width, emboss or perforation, fold, pack. Two customers can buy the same web and end up with products that feel different in the hand.
Blend and basis weight are fixed much earlier, at carding and web forming. That is why we ask what the towel is for before we ask what it should cost.
Where the method stops
Water bonding is energy-intensive, and heavier webs need more of it. That cost is in the price, which is why a very heavy spunlace towel is rarely the cheapest way to absorb water.
Very high wet strength, or a web that has to disperse in water, are separate design problems. Both are solvable, but each needs its own construction and its own test basis, so we quote them only after that basis is agreed.
What we will not do is quote a number we have not measured on the material we are offering. Every figure in a Qingcare quotation comes from a sheet run on that construction.
Send us the specification you are working to.
A target weight, a pack format, a market and an annual volume is enough to start. A sample of what you use today is better.