Spunlace nonwoven fabric — also widely referred to as hydroentangled nonwoven — is produced by directing precisely controlled, high-pressure water jets onto a loosely arranged web of fibers. The mechanical force of these water streams causes individual fibers to interlock with one another without the use of any chemical binder, adhesive, or thermal bonding agent. The result is a coherent, dimensionally stable textile structure that is soft, breathable, lint-free, and fully biocompatible. This binder-free manufacturing route is not merely a process preference — it is the fundamental property that makes spunlace fabric uniquely suited to direct patient contact and sterile clinical environments.
Healthcare is among the most demanding application domains for textile materials. A fabric used in a hospital setting must simultaneously deliver properties that are difficult to combine: mechanical integrity under wet conditions, zero fiber shedding, compatibility with sterilization processes, and absolute freedom from chemical extractables that could irritate skin or compromise wound healing. No single conventional woven or bonded nonwoven textile satisfies all of these criteria together. The Medical Series produced by Zhejiang Aojia Nonwoven Technology Co., Ltd. addresses this clinical challenge directly through dedicated hydroentanglement manufacturing lines, careful fiber specification, and strict quality control applied across every stage of production.
Understanding why medical spunlace performs the way it does begins with the manufacturing process itself. Raw fibers — viscose, polyester, or a blend of the two — are opened, cleaned, and formed into a uniform fiber web through a carding and lapping system. This web is then fed through a series of hydroentanglement heads, each delivering thousands of fine, high-pressure water jets per minute. These jets penetrate the fiber web from above and below, redirecting and mechanically entangling the individual fibers without fusing or chemically bonding them.
Because no adhesive is introduced at any stage, the resulting fabric retains the natural surface characteristics of its constituent fibers — softness from viscose, dimensional stability from polyester. The interfiber friction created by the entanglement process alone is sufficient to provide the tensile strength and tear resistance required for clinical use. After hydroentanglement, the fabric passes through a drying system and is wound into rolls ready for further converting operations such as slitting, lamination, or impregnation.
This process is fundamentally different from spunbond, meltblown, or needle-punch nonwoven manufacturing. Spunbond and meltblown fabrics are produced from polymer melts, which limits fiber choice and introduces the potential for residual polymer oligomers. Needle-punch fabrics use barbed needles to mechanically felt fibers, which generates fiber breakage and lint. Hydroentanglement does neither. It works with fiber webs at ambient temperature, preserving fiber integrity and eliminating the primary sources of linting and particle contamination that make alternative nonwovens problematic in sterile medical environments.
The performance profile of any medical-grade spunlace fabric is determined first and most directly by fiber selection. Zhejiang Aojia's Medical Series employs two distinct fiber systems, each optimized for a specific clinical application domain.
The standard composition for wound care substrates is a 70% viscose / 30% polyester blend (70% Viscose / 30% PET). Viscose — a regenerated cellulose fiber — is inherently hydrophilic, with a moisture regain of approximately 13% under standard conditions. This high hydrophilicity drives rapid uptake of wound exudate, drawing fluid away from the wound surface and maintaining the moist wound environment that clinical evidence consistently associates with faster epithelialization and reduced scarring. However, viscose alone is mechanically weak when wet — its wet-to-dry tensile strength ratio can fall below 50% in certain grades — which is why the 30% polyester component is critical. Polyester (PET) is hydrophobic and dimensionally stable under saturation conditions. Its presence within the entangled fiber matrix provides the structural backbone that keeps the wound dressing intact during exudate absorption and during the mechanical stress of dressing removal from a moist wound bed.
For respiratory protection applications — specifically face mask cloth — the fiber composition shifts to 100% polyester spunlace nonwoven. The rationale is clinically distinct from wound care. A mask layer is not required to absorb liquid; it is required to intercept airborne particles while offering minimal resistance to breathing over extended wear periods. Polyester's hydrophobicity is advantageous here: the fiber geometry does not swell or deform under the humid conditions created by exhaled breath, so filtration efficiency and breathability remain consistent throughout the working day. The 100% polyester construction also delivers excellent shape retention — the mask layer does not collapse, wrinkle, or deform against the face during wear, which is both a comfort and a functional performance requirement.
Basis weight, measured in grams per square meter (g/m²), is the primary specification parameter for any nonwoven fabric and the starting point for medical converter selection. Both the wound dressing substrate and the face mask cloth produced by Aojia are available in the 40–60 g/m² range. Within this range, basis weight selection is application-driven: lower GSM values produce lighter, more conformable fabrics suited to mask inner layers and lightweight wound contact layers; higher GSM values increase absorbent capacity and structural robustness for primary dressings handling significant exudate volumes.
Width capability is a critical factor for industrial converters and is often the specification that determines whether a fabric supplier can serve high-volume production requirements. Aojia's wound dressing fabric is available in widths from 100 mm to 3,200 mm, accommodating both narrow specialty slitting for small dressing formats and wide mother rolls for high-throughput converting lines. The face mask cloth runs from 145 mm to 3,300 mm, covering the full spectrum of mask pattern widths used in both manual and automated mask production equipment.
Wet tensile strength and burst strength are the two mechanical parameters that most directly govern wound dressing clinical safety. Wet tensile strength is measured by saturating a fabric specimen with liquid and then applying a tensile load along the machine direction and cross direction until failure — the fabric must not fragment or break under conditions representative of a saturated dressing being removed from a wound. Burst strength measures resistance to hydrostatic pressure applied perpendicularly to the fabric plane, relevant for dressings used under compression bandaging systems. Both parameters must meet minimum thresholds defined by relevant medical textile standards, and both are directly influenced by fiber composition and hydroentanglement process parameters.
Lint generation — defined as the release of loose fiber particles from the fabric surface under mechanical handling — is a patient safety concern in any wound care or surgical environment. Loose fibers deposited in a wound bed can act as foreign body irritants and may contribute to delayed wound healing or chronic inflammation. The hydroentanglement structure of spunlace fabric inherently minimizes loose fiber ends because the entanglement process engages the full fiber length rather than cutting or breaking fibers as needle-punch processing does. This makes medical spunlace a genuinely low-linting solution and a clear technical improvement over traditional woven gauze, which generates significant lint from cut fiber ends at fabric edges.
Sterilization compatibility is a non-negotiable requirement for any material entering a sterile medical product. Spunlace fabrics must demonstrate stable mechanical and chemical properties after exposure to the three primary industrial sterilization methods: ethylene oxide (EtO) gas sterilization, gamma irradiation at standard dose levels (typically 25 kGy), and electron beam (E-beam) processing. Both the viscose/polyester blend and the 100% polyester construction used in Aojia's medical products are engineered to withstand these processes without loss of tensile integrity, dimensional change, or introduction of new chemical species that could affect biocompatibility.
Medical spunlace fabric from Aojia is produced in two surface structures — plain and mesh — and the distinction between them is clinically relevant rather than merely aesthetic.
Plain surface fabric presents a smooth, uniform contact face with no regular pattern of apertures. This structure minimizes mechanical friction at the wound-fabric interface, reducing the risk of maceration or abrasion at the wound margin. It also delivers the most consistent fluid uptake across the fabric surface, making it the standard choice for primary wound contact layers and transdermal delivery substrates where uniform drug or hydrogel distribution matters.
Mesh-structured fabric features a regular open grid pattern created by the spatial arrangement of the hydroentanglement water jets. The apertures in the mesh structure serve two clinical functions: they create defined fluid drainage channels that facilitate rapid downward transport of wound exudate through the fabric to an absorbent secondary layer, and they promote air circulation through the dressing, which helps prevent excessive moisture accumulation and maceration of periwound skin. Mesh structures are particularly well-matched to applications where exudate management is a primary clinical priority, such as higher-exudate wound categories, or where the fabric will function as a non-adherent wound contact layer over a highly absorptive pad.
The Spunlace Fabric For Medical Use from Zhejiang Aojia Nonwoven Technology Co., Ltd. encompasses two primary product categories, each with its own fiber specification, structural options, and application scope.
The wound dressing substrate is built on the 70% viscose / 30% polyester hydroentangled platform and serves as the functional textile component in a broad range of wound care products. These include primary wound contact layers for acute and chronic wounds, the absorbent substrate layer in surgical dressings and adhesive bandages, the backing fabric for intravenous (IV) site securement dressings, the electrode attachment fabric in ECG and monitoring electrode pads, and the carrier substrate for transdermal drug delivery patches and hydrogel-based wound care systems. In each of these applications, the fabric's combination of controlled absorbency, wet strength, biocompatibility, and sterilization compatibility is the enabling property that makes the finished medical device function safely and effectively.
The face mask cloth is built on 100% polyester spunlace nonwoven and functions primarily as the inner comfort layer, outer structural layer, or both within multi-layer disposable mask constructions. Its defining technical profile — ultra-soft, lightweight, with high filtration efficiency and low breathing resistance — makes it suitable for daily-use disposable masks and general-use medical masks. The skin-friendliness of 100% polyester spunlace, free from chemical binders and finishing agents, is particularly important for the inner layer of masks that maintain prolonged contact with the facial skin of medical staff and patients.
Medical textile materials are subject to multi-layered regulatory oversight that varies by market but shares common technical requirements. In the European Union, wound dressings are regulated as Class I or Class IIa medical devices under MDR 2017/745, requiring conformity assessment against applicable harmonized standards. EN 13726 governs test methods for primary wound dressings; EN 14079 covers absorbent dressings of nonwoven fabric. Surgical drapes and gowns fall under EN 13795. In the United States, wound dressings cleared through the FDA 510(k) pathway must demonstrate substantial equivalence in biocompatibility, physical performance, and sterility to a predicate device.
Biocompatibility testing under ISO 10993 is the universal starting point. The series includes cytotoxicity (ISO 10993-5), sensitization (ISO 10993-10), skin irritation (ISO 10993-23), and for implant-adjacent applications, systemic toxicity and genotoxicity evaluations. The binder-free structure of spunlace fabric simplifies this compliance pathway significantly: because no chemical binder, cross-linking agent, or functional finish is applied during manufacturing, the pool of potential extractable and leachable substances is inherently smaller and more predictable than for chemically bonded or finished nonwovens. This reduces the scope and cost of extractables and leachables (E&L) testing — an increasingly important consideration as regulatory agencies sharpen their focus on E&L profiling for patient-contact materials.
For face mask applications, the applicable standards include EN 14683 for medical face masks in Europe and ASTM F2100 in the United States, both of which specify performance requirements including bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE), differential pressure (breathability), and splash resistance that the fabric component must support.
Standard catalog specifications address the majority of high-volume medical nonwoven applications, but specialty clinical products routinely require custom-engineered fabric solutions. Zhejiang Aojia Nonwoven Technology Co., Ltd. operates two dedicated spunlace production lines — one optimized for high-consistency commercial-scale production and a second dedicated to R&D and specialty product development — providing the infrastructure to support custom engineering across multiple dimensions simultaneously.
Custom basis weight formulation allows converters to specify GSM outside the standard 40–60 g/m² range for applications with specific absorbency or structural requirements. Custom fiber blend ratios accommodate applications where the standard 70/30 viscose/polyester split does not deliver the exact balance of absorbency and strength needed — for example, a higher viscose ratio might be specified for an ultra-high-absorbency wound care product, while a higher polyester ratio might be chosen for a reinforced wound closure strip substrate. Custom surface structures, including proprietary mesh aperture geometries, can be developed for specific fluid management profiles.
Functional surface treatments relevant to medical applications include anti-bacterial finishing for fabrics used in infection control products, anti-static treatment for fabrics used in proximity to electronic monitoring equipment, and special composite lamination processes for creating multi-layer medical laminates combining spunlace with barrier films, superabsorbent polymer layers, or hydrocolloid matrices. Water repellency and hydrophilic finishing can also be applied to shift the fabric's liquid interaction behavior for specific applications.
Those with specialized clinical performance requirements are encouraged to reach the Aojia technical team through the Contact Us page for direct consultation on custom fabric development.
The Medical Series sits within a broader manufacturing platform that Zhejiang Aojia Nonwoven Technology Co., Ltd. has built around spunlace hydroentanglement technology across multiple application markets. The Wipes Series applies the same core hydroentanglement process to produce substrate fabrics for clinical disinfection wipes, sterile wound cleansing wipes, and surgical cavity wipes — products that share the medical sector's demand for low-linting, high-absorbency, biocompatible fabric substrates. The Cosmetology Series leverages the same softness and skin-contact safety characteristics for facial mask sheets, makeup removal wipes, and cosmetic application substrates — products that sit at the interface between medical and personal care application requirements.
The Base Cloth Series provides the technical nonwoven substrate used in composite medical laminates and coated specialty fabrics where a spunlace layer is bonded to a barrier film, foam, or superabsorbent polymer layer to create a finished medical device component. The Wiping Cloth Series serves industrial and healthcare surface cleaning applications. The Home Improvement Series extends the platform into nonwoven construction and surface treatment substrates. The full product portfolio is available for review with complete specifications for each category.
This breadth of application coverage across a single core manufacturing technology gives Aojia a unique capability to serve buyers whose requirements span multiple product categories — a medical device manufacturer who sources both wound dressing substrate and clinical wipes fabric from a single supplier benefits from process consistency, unified quality documentation, and simplified supply chain management.
We have 2 advanced spunlace production lines: one for high-quality products, the other for new product R&D and production. With one-stop services, we independently control production requirements, boasting advantages in cost, quality control and product diversification.
We develop products with special specs and uses based on user and market needs, while providing optimal service and support. We also offer custom production with special processes as required, including water repellency, flame retardancy, anti-aging, anti-static, anti-bacterial, anti-ultraviolet and special composite properties.
