When you casually throw a piece of wet toilet paper into the toilet and watch it quickly dissolve and disappear in the water; When the mask you wear gently filters the air while maintaining good breathability, you may not realize that there is a sophisticated material technology hidden in these daily scenes – wet non-woven fabric. This manufacturing process, known as’ using water as a medium and fiber as a bone ‘, is quietly changing our lives with its unique advantages.
The Concerto of Water and Fiber: The Unique Charm of Wet Process Technology
The birth of wet non-woven fabric originated from human innovative thinking on material manufacturing. The biggest difference between wet process and traditional dry non-woven fabric is that it cleverly utilizes the fluidity of water to construct a fiber network. Imagine thousands of tiny fibers stretching and dispersing in water, like dancers dancing a waltz, finally arranged neatly and orderly into a net under the guidance of water flow – this is the core manufacturing principle of wet non-woven fabric.
Specifically, the wet process mainly includes four key steps: first, thoroughly loosen and mix the fiber raw materials in water to produce a uniform fiber suspension slurry; Then, the fiber suspension slurry is evenly spread into a net through a papermaking like process; Then, the fiber mesh is reinforced using methods such as thermal bonding, chemical bonding, or water jet bonding; Finally, it undergoes post-treatment processes such as drying and coiling to become the finished product. This process breaks the limitations of traditional spinning and weaving, and the fibers can achieve the most natural dispersion state in water, thereby forming materials with a more uniform structure.
It is worth mentioning that modern wet technology has achieved breakthroughs in high efficiency and energy conservation. Wetlace by Andritz Company ™ Taking wet water jet technology as an example, its patented water jet machine can operate stably at high speeds, effectively eliminating the difference between the two sides of the fiber web, ensuring product thickness, and controlling fiber loss rate at an extremely low level. This efficient production method enables the labor productivity of wet non-woven fabrics to reach 10-20 times that of dry methods, while the production cost is only 60-70% of dry methods, demonstrating significant economic benefits.
Performance advantage: The vast universe within small fibers
The reason why wet non-woven fabric stands out among many materials is due to its unique performance advantages. Firstly, the free dispersion of fibers in water creates a uniform structure of the material, and this disordered arrangement of fiber networks ensures a more balanced strength of the material in all directions, avoiding directional differences caused by warp and weft weaving in traditional fabrics.
Secondly, the wet process has strong adaptability to fiber raw materials. Both natural fibers (such as wood pulp and cotton fibers) and chemical fibers (such as polyester and viscose), as well as shorter length recycled fibers, can be fully utilized in wet production. This not only broadens the sources of raw materials, but also provides more possibilities for product functional design. For example, by adjusting the type and ratio of fibers, specialized materials with high water absorption, high breathability, or high filtration can be produced.
Furthermore, wet non-woven fabrics have excellent fluffiness and softness. Due to the fact that fibers do not require strong mechanical stretching and can maintain a natural fluffy state, wet process products are particularly outstanding in the field of hygiene products. The medical dressings produced by Jinyi New Materials utilize this characteristic, ensuring good adhesion and providing a comfortable user experience.
Finally, in terms of environmental performance, wet processes have shown great potential. The wood pulp composite hydroentangled non-woven fabric developed by Yunai New Materials can be completely degraded in natural environments, and the wet toilet paper produced by it can dissolve completely in water in just a few seconds, fundamentally solving the environmental protection problem of traditional hygiene products.
Diversified applications: from daily necessities to high-tech fields
The wide range of applications for wet non-woven fabrics may exceed your imagination. In the field of healthcare, it is the core material for masks, wet wipes, and medical dressings. With its excellent breathability and barrier properties, it provides protection for health. The medical non-woven materials produced by Jinyi New Materials have achieved significant results in the medical field and become industry benchmarks.
Wet non-woven fabric is ubiquitous in home life. You can see it from the wet toilet paper and cotton towel you use every day to the base material of the cotton pad and facial mask. The washable toilet paper produced by Yunai New Materials is not only convenient and practical, but also solves the problem of pipeline blockage in traditional products. Its annual output accounts for 10% of the total production capacity of similar products in the country.
In the industrial field, wet nonwoven fabrics are showing surprising innovative applications. The wet non-woven battery separator developed by Guangdong Xinrui New Materials is prepared by thermally induced phase separation process, which has high ion channel and electronic conductivity performance, and can significantly improve the charging and discharging speed and safety of the battery, providing key material support for the new energy industry.
Even more astonishing is the breakthrough of wet non-woven fabric in the field of environmental protection. A new type of catalytic degradation wet skeleton non-woven fabric can achieve a 99.99% degradation rate of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and can maintain a catalytic efficiency of over 90% even after 48 months. This material is widely used in products such as air purifiers and air conditioning filters, providing new ideas for improving indoor air quality.
Wet non-woven fabrics also play an important role in fields such as agriculture, packaging, and automobiles. From water retaining coverings for agricultural cultivation, to environmentally friendly materials for food packaging, to filter layers for automotive interiors, wet non-woven fabrics are meeting the needs of different industries with their diverse properties.
Development Status and Future Prospects
According to market research, the global wet laid nonwoven fabric market has reached approximately 1.053 billion US dollars in 2024 and is expected to grow to 1.388 billion US dollars by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from 2025 to 2031. This steady growth trend reflects the promising development prospects of the wet non-woven fabric industry.
In the Chinese market, the wet non-woven fabric industry is entering a period of rapid development. Jinyi New Materials, Yunai New Materials and other enterprises continuously expand production capacity and improve product quality by introducing advanced technology and independent innovation. The Wet Water Prickling Research Institute, established in collaboration with universities such as Donghua University, focuses on the research and development of green, recyclable, and biodegradable materials, demonstrating a good trend of combining production, academia, and research to promote industrial upgrading.
However, the wet non-woven fabric industry also faces challenges. The problem of recycling is one of the key factors restricting the sustainable development of the industry. Due to the possible presence of pollutants or multiple composite materials in some hygiene non-woven fabrics, it poses difficulties for recycling and disposal. In response, the industry is actively exploring solutions such as mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, and biodegradation. Mechanical recycling processes waste non-woven fabrics into fibers through physical methods; Chemical recycling extracts high-quality fibers through dissolution and regeneration processes; The development of biodegradable materials reduces environmental burden from the source.
Looking ahead to the future, wet non-woven fabric technology will develop towards a more environmentally friendly, efficient, and multifunctional direction. On the one hand, the application of bio based materials and biodegradable materials will further expand, promoting the green transformation of the entire industry chain. On the other hand, the introduction of intelligent production technology will improve production efficiency and product quality stability. In the application field, with the development of industries such as new energy and high-end filtration, wet non-woven fabrics will show greater innovation space.
From a small piece of wet toilet paper to a high-tech battery separator, wet non-woven fabric technology is weaving a more environmentally friendly, efficient, and comfortable material world with “water” as the medium and “fibers” as the skeleton. This seemingly ordinary technology actually embodies a profound understanding and innovative pursuit of materials science by humans. The next time you use a product containing wet non-woven fabric, you may have a better understanding and admiration for this “masterpiece of water and fiber”. Do you know any other application scenarios for wet non-woven fabrics? Welcome to share your findings in the comment section!
Dongguan Liansheng Non woven Technology Co., Ltd. was established in May 2020. It is a large-scale non-woven fabric production enterprise integrating research and development, production, and sales. It can produce various colors of PP spunbond non-woven fabrics with a width of less than 3.2 meters from 9 grams to 300 grams.
Post time: Sep-06-2025