Needle specifications and key technical parameters suitable for 'needle-punched nonwoven fabrics for cold-weather clothing made with HCS fiber'
- dkfiber2004
- Nov 4
- 4 min read
HCS (Hollow Conjugated Silicone) fiber offers high loft and excellent resilience, allowing for superior thermal insulation even at low weight. For this reason, it is widely used as a filling or insulating nonwoven material in cold-weather apparel.
In this post, we will outline the manufacturing process of needle-punched nonwoven fabrics using HCS polyester fiber, focusing on the process flow and equipment specifications—including carding, web formation, needle punching, and heat setting—that enhance insulation performance.
Needle Punching Equipment and Key Specifications (Needles, Speed, etc.)
The standard specifications for needle punching equipment used in the production of nonwoven fabrics for cold-weather apparel—including needle type, punching speed, working width, and stroke depth—are summarized as follows.
1. Needle Gauge and Type
For lightweight nonwovens used in apparel, fine-gauge felting needles are typically employed.
In general, needle gauges between 36 and 40 are used—the higher the gauge number, the finer the needle and the smaller the barb.
36 gauge: Relatively thick and rigid; suitable for coarse fibers or dense felt.
38 gauge: All-purpose; ideal for medium-denier fibers.
40 gauge and above: Designed for delicate webs and fine fibers.
For polyester fibers around 7 denier, such as HCS, triangular cross-section needles with approximately 38 gauge are commonly used. These needles provide sufficient fiber entanglement while minimizing fiber damage.
The standard triangular cross-section needle is the most widely used type due to its versatility across various applications. Each of its three edges typically contains two to three barbs, allowing efficient fiber capture during the punching process.
Depending on the production requirements, special needle types such as four-edge star-shaped, spiral (twisted), or conical needles may also be employed to enhance productivity.
For example, star-shaped needles have more barbs per unit area, enabling greater fiber entanglement in a single pass—making them advantageous for shallow penetration or high-speed production.Conical needles, on the other hand, gradually increase in diameter, reducing initial penetration resistance. This allows for smoother processing and lower needle breakage rates.
However, such specialized needles are mainly used for technical or high-density applications (e.g., recycled fibers, aramid fibers), while standard triangular felting needles remain the most common choice for general apparel nonwovens.
2. Punching Speed: Stroke per Minute (SPM)
The number of needle strokes per minute is adjusted according to the machine’s capacity and the desired product characteristics.
Typical needle-punching machines operate from several hundred up to around 1,000 SPM, while high-speed models can reach 1,200–1,500 SPM.
For lightweight nonwovens, a medium-speed operation of around 800–1,200 SPM is typically adopted to maintain product thickness and minimize fiber damage.
If the speed is too low, productivity decreases and visible punch marks may appear; conversely, excessive speed can overstretch the fibers, leading to overly dense or hardened webs.Therefore, optimizing SPM according to fabric weight and required mechanical properties is crucial for achieving balanced product quality.
3. Working Width
The working width of a needle-punching line is a key factor that determines both production capacity and final product dimensions.
For apparel-grade nonwovens, the finished rolls are usually cut to a width of approximately 1.5–2 meters, but during production, wider webs are formed to maximize efficiency.Most commercial needle-punching lines operate within a 2–3 meter width range, while large-scale systems can accommodate widths of up to 6 meters or more.
For lightweight nonwovens used in cold-weather apparel, production and post-processing are typically handled on machines with a working width of 2–3 meters.
While wider machines offer higher productivity and greater roll output per batch, achieving uniform quality across the width requires precise control in the carding and cross-lapper stages, as well as optimized needle distribution throughout the punching zone.
4. Punching Stroke Depth (Penetration Depth)
The stroke depth, which indicates how deeply the needle penetrates into the fiber web, is another critical parameter. It is typically set slightly greater than the web thickness, allowing the needle tips to fully penetrate or just pass through the lower surface of the web for effective fiber entanglement.
For lightweight nonwoven production, the stroke length of a typical needle loom operates within the range of 20–50 mm, with around 30 mm being a common setting.This means the needle moves approximately 3 cm up and down, allowing it to fully penetrate thin webs (a few millimeters thick) and effectively entangle the upper and lower fiber layers.
Typically, the penetration depth is set to about 1.1–1.3 times the web thickness.In a double-sided needle board configuration, where punching occurs from both the top and bottom, the stroke is divided so that each set of needles reaches approximately the middle layer of the web.
For example, when processing a 10 mm-thick web with 15 mm stroke depth applied from both sides, the two needle penetration zones overlap near the center, ensuring uniform fiber entanglement throughout the entire thickness.
As a practical example, the high-speed needle looms from Yingyang (China) offer an adjustable stroke range of 25–60 mm, while the SHS-PL model from Samwha Machinery (Korea) operates at a 30 mm stroke with a maximum speed of 1,000 SPM.These specifications provide sufficient penetration force and production efficiency for manufacturing nonwoven fabrics used in cold-weather apparel.
Summarizing the points mentioned above, the typical equipment specifications for needle-punched nonwoven production used in cold-weather apparel can be organized as follows:
Category | Typical Specifications (Based on Lightweight Nonwoven Production) |
Needle Gauge & Type | Felting needles of 36–40 gauge (typically 38 gauge triangular type).Needle cross-section: Triangular, with optional use of star-shaped, spiral, or conical types if required. |
Punching Speed (SPM) | Operates typically at around 600–1,200 SPM. |
Working Width | Generally 2–3 meters wide. |
Stroke Depth | Approximately 30 mm (adjustable range 20–50 mm, typically 1.1–1.3× the web thickness). |
The values in the table represent typical industrial standards, which can be adjusted to achieve optimal performance depending on the product type and target properties.
By arranging needles at this density and setting the line speed and SPM to achieve approximately 10 needle penetrations per point, the process creates dozens of fiber bonding points per square centimeter, resulting in adequate tensile strength and structural integrity of the final nonwoven fabric.