Melt blown fabric machines produce nonwoven materials made of very fine fibers formed through a process known as meltblowing. The melt blown fiber formation process, combined with properties like high surface area and small pore size, make these nonwovens suitable for a variety of applications.

What Are Melt Blown Fabric Machines?

Melt blown fabric machine – also called melt blowing systems or meltblown lines – consist of several main components:

• Extruder – Melts and pumps polymer resins like polypropylene or polyethylene.
• Die assembly – Contains spinnerets or nozzles that extrude the molten polymer.
• Compressed air system – Generates high-velocity air jets that draw out the extruding fibers.
• Conveyor belt – Collects the extruded fibers to form a nonwoven web.
• Heat and quench section – Solidifies the meltblown fibers.
• Post-treatment unit – Includes options for web bonding, slitting and winding.

In operation, molten polymer is extruded through the nozzles while high-speed air jets draw and attenuate the extruding polymer into very fine fibers. The randomly dispersed meltblown fibers are deposited onto a moving conveyor belt, which draws the web at the same rate fibers are being formed.

The web then passes through a heat and quench section that solidifies the fine fiber structure. Post-treatment options bond, consolidate and wind the nonwoven web to produce a useable meltblown fabric.

How Meltblown Fibers Are Formed？

The key aspect of melt blowing is the high-velocity air that exits the die in jets alongside the extruding polymer. As polymer emerges from the nozzles:

• The air stretches and attenuates the nascent fibers very rapidly.
• The fibers are drawn out to fine diameters of 1 micron or less within 20 cm of the die.
• The fiber trajectories become randomized, dispersing fibers uniformly across the web.

The high-temperature air also helps cool and solidify the fibers immediately after formation, stabilizing their thin structure before fibers can recombine.

Features Of Melt Blown Fabric Machines

• Die dimensions – Nozzle width, shape and spacing.
• Air flow – Temperature, pressure and jet velocity.
• Polymer throughputs – How quickly the line converts resin into fabric.
• Web characteristics – Basis weight, thickness, fiber diameter and pore size.
• Line widths – The maximum nonwoven fabric width produced in a single pass.
• Processing capabilities – What polymer types the machine is optimized for.

Manufacturers offer machines with different configurations, throughputs and heating/cooling systems to produce nonwoven webs with varied properties for specific end uses.