Determining the influence of processing parameters on spunbonded non-woven pore shape using rough set theory

The performance of spunbonded nonwoven is closely related to its pore structure. However, pore shape has been less studied than other measures of nonwoven pore structure such as the pore size and its distribution. In order to study the influence of processing parameters on pore shape in spunbonded nonwoven, thirty spunbonded nonwovens were produced using different combinations of metering pump and mesh belt frequencies. Using digital image processing technology, eight parameters were used to characterize the pore shape. Rough set theory, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis were used to reduce the attributes of these parameters. The results prove that rough set theory is better for attribute reduction than principal component or cluster analysis. The most representative pore shape parameters, i.e., compactness and eccentricity, were identified based on rough set theory. The results show that as the mesh belt frequency is increased, the value of eccentricity tends to increase and the value of compactness declines. In contrast, when the metering pump frequency increases, the value of compactness increases. © 2017 The Society of Fiber Science and Technology, Japan.