Continuous plasma-chemical processing of fabrics at atmospheric pressure

Many textile finishing operations use wet processing techniques with a detrimental impact on the environment. In addition, the wet processes use approximately 60% of the energy consumed in the textile industry. The use of non-equilibrium atmospheric-pressure plasmas is emerging as an environmentally attractive alternative for the safe and economical surface treatment of fabrics. Since the growth rates of nonwovens production are extremely high, when compared with the conventional textiles industry, the novel plasma techniques for nonwovens surface hydrophilization are of particular interest, and there is an urgent need for the development of efficient, robust and cost-effective plasma treaters capable of in-line operation at 100–1000 m/min nonwovens processing speeds.