New Ingeo grades for spunmelt

NatureWorks has announced the commercial availability of two new Ingeo high performance biopolymer grades designed for fibres and nonwovens applications that deliver lower shrinkage, faster crystallization, and higher melting points across a broad range of manufacturing processes.

The new grades broaden the application window for Ingeo use in the production of personal care and hygiene products, filtration media, medical fabrics, civil engineering fabrics and geotextile and agricultural fabrics.

Ingeo 6100D is a mid viscosity grade designed for spunbond nonwoven and conventional staple fibre/filament melt spinning applications, while Ingeo 6260D is a low viscosity grade designed primarily for meltblown nonwoven applications. Both grades offer the highest melting points and fastest crystallization rates in the Ingeo fiber grade resins portfolio.

“These new Ingeo grades provide benefits across all processing technologies and in a more extensive range of applications,” said NatureWorks global segment manager Robert Green. “These grades are the result of intensive research and development and significant long-term investments in state-of-the-art production processes. They are the first of a number of next generation solutions.”

The reduced shrinkage of Ingeo fibres made from 6100D and 6260D leads to improved fabric dimensional stability.

These grades deliver increased hydrolysis resistance, and offer around 30% higher stiffness (modulus) at temperatures above their glass transition temperature. Both are capable of higher heat set temperatures, leading to higher melting/sticking points during processing and use. Higher melting point creates advantages in bi-component systems in which the new grades are combined with existing Ingeo low melting point resins. All of these attributes contribute to a larger overall Ingeo processing window and greater ease of processing.

When new Ingeo 6100D is compared to the existing Ingeo grade 6202D, one of the most often applied grades for fibres and spunbond nonwovens, NatureWorks scientists found:
•    Peak melting point increased by 8 °C from 164 °C to 172 °C.
•    Melting shoulder increased by 15 °C.
•    Fibre crystallinity increased by around 20%.
•    Quiescent crystallization rate increased three to four times.
•    Lower stress required for stress induced crystallization.

In spunbond applications the fibres made from new Ingeo grade 6100D show a high strength to weight ratio with fibres in the 15-35 micron diameter range. These spunbond attributes make the new grades ideal for fabrics in geotextile, medical, automotive and hygiene applications.

New 6260D grade for melt blown applications can generally produce fibres in the 2-7 micron diameter range with desirable attributes for a broad range of applications and products. Resultant fibre characteristics can be translated into attributes such as low pressure drop for filtration media, or softness for hygiene applications. Nonwovens shrinkage in melt blown fabric applications will be around 80% less than what was previously achievable.