Thru-air bonding is a variety of thermal bonding where heated air is applied to a fiber web as it moves along a conveyor belt. An effective process is well suited to producing a homogenous bond.
Sufficient dwell time – the amount of time the fabric spends in the heated air – is essential to producing effective bonding and a nonwoven material with the desired properties. This requires close control of the hot air stream and the web process speed.
Manual inspection is difficult in this continuous process because of the hot air streams and throughput speeds. An automated solution ensures that surface defects are detected and also supports the continuity of the process by identifying potential web breaks at an early stage.