Emerging markets explore the balance between performance and cost of medical textiles

In recent years, Asia's demand for non-woven fabrics has increased rapidly. In particular, China has become a major exporter of non-woven fabrics in the world. 51% of non-woven fabrics in the United States are imported from the European Community or China. At present, the production situation of non-woven fabrics in most countries is not clear. Valreya Erzhen, product manager of Medical Products division of Oslon company in Finland, believes it is particularly important to strengthen regulation and management in emerging markets, we should make full use of the existing non-woven fabric resources in Asia, abandon the tortuous industrial chain and sell directly abroad. Of course, the premise of realizing a new pattern of industrial chain supply is to be infinitely close to the terminal demand in the technical field. Nanotechnology breaks through high-cost restrictions. Medical textiles need to meet two conditions: first, low cost, supporting one-time consumption; Second, it must play a 100% role when using, and its performance must also meet the needs of end customers, such as barrier, absorption and strength. Non-woven fabrics are full of imaginable innovations in production, and the new process will promote and improve the processing of the entire non-woven fabric, including resin slice type, mixing ratio, fiber fineness, shape, shape, density and thickness, filler type, additive formula and various finishing methods. Although nanotechnology has appeared for many years, it has not been fully used in non-woven fabric processing. At present, non-woven fabrics can be treated by nano-coating finishing or nano-particle addition into the melt, and the amount of nano-materials used is not large. Although this will lead to high cost and limited performance improvement, in recent years, the application of nanotechnology in the field of non-woven fabrics has made breakthrough progress, and the US Pujie group has launched a fully commercialized Arium technology, it can produce sub-micron fibers without modifying resin slices or reducing production speed, greatly improving the performance of non-woven fabrics. In addition, the structure of non-woven fabrics can be improved in a variety of ways, such as compounding with non-woven fabrics produced by other methods. Service and durability need to be improved. Today, the fastest growing part of the medical products market is incontinence products, which is also the current investment hotspot. High quality incontinence products need to meet three conditions: simple, comfortable, safe and reliable. They must have good absorption and can absorb odor. Non-woven fabrics have been used in a variety of medical products, and market opportunities are constantly emerging, such as protective clothing, surgical curtains, surgical clothing and isolation clothing to prevent infection, etc. , have become an important part of human appearance protection. The vice president of a US sanitary products company said that non-woven fabrics will be fully used in a wider range of medical fields in the future. However, the biggest limitation of non-woven fabrics used on medical protective clothing is compliance, and non-woven fabrics with two-way elasticity and more close-fitting will undoubtedly become the future development direction. In addition, the aseptic protection system, including sterilization bags, inner packaging and outer packaging, requires a large number of non-woven fabrics. The aseptic protection system is mainly used to protect the integrity of sterilization products and appliances, ensuring cleanliness in different disease rooms requires better strength and durability of non-woven fabrics without requirements for comfort. Non-woven fabrics have also begun to appear in some small-scale uses. Although the market capacity is small, the added value content is high, so there is no price pressure, these products include advanced wound dressings and common bandages, plastic garments and repair materials. In recent years, there have been many opportunities for growth in the U. S. non-woven fabric market, such as the special need for products with unique performance in home health care and mobile rescue stations, non-woven sheets that feel soft and comfortable like cotton fabrics are not only 'disposable' products, but also cheaper than the sheets currently in use. It can be speculated that home health care is not only a simple use of bandages and pain relief, manufacturers need to listen more to customers' voices to establish accurate product standards, while gradually integrating health care and treatment, home care products will continue to grow. The sustainable development of society and the treatment of medical wastes have always been a topic of public concern. The life cycle of products is crucial. The high barrier and high cost of medical textiles are two contradictory communities, especially when it comes to sustainable development. Valreya Erren said that sustainable development is a complex issue that can be analyzed from multiple angles, from the current production methods of products, to products using renewable resources as raw materials, comparing different products and their treatment methods, these research results show that: the impact of 'discard' non-woven fabrics and reusable products on the environment will lead to contradictory conclusions, and the impact of disposable products on the overall environment is small, it also has stable product quality, good performance, incomparable integrity and better economy. (China teachers' daily)