The influence of technological parameters on the filtration efficiency of electret needled non-woven fabrics

The main objective of the presented research is to analyse the possibility of improvement of filter efficiency by employment of the triboelectrical effect, which is present during the process of carding and needling of a specially prepared mixture of fibres. To select the most important technological parameters influencing the efficiency of developed filter materials a statistical analysis was completed using ANOVA and t-Student tests. The analysis of results indicates that manufacturing of needled non-woven fabrics using a mixture of fibres without antistatic spin finish results in obtaining the filtering material, whose properties depend strongly on the proper settings of technological parameters. The most important parameters significantly influencing the particle capture efficiency of manufactured materials are: linear density of both constituent fibres, gauge of needle, depth of needle punching, mass per unit area of a non-woven sample and surface content of PA fibres. Proposed in paper model adequately fits the response data. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.