Wet-laid nonwoven nylon battery separator material

摘要

A nonwoven composite web suitable for use as a battery separator is formed by a wet process on a papermaking machine. The nonwoven composite material is made from a furnish of nylon binder fibers and nylon staple fibers. The web coming off the papermaking machine is dried using infra-red dryers followed by heated dryer cans. After drying, the web is thermally bonded using heated calendar rolls. The nylon binder fibers melt as the web passes through the calendar rolls and thermally bond the nylon staple fibers of the web when the melted binder fiber material fuses upon cooling. The use of dryer cans to dry and partially bond the web eliminates the need for surfactant treatment to improve potassium hydroxide absorption.