Hot-air cotton is a hot-air non-woven fabric, also known as tuyere cotton. It is a new type of thermal insulation material. It is widely used in N95 folding masks. It is a replacement product of spray-coated cotton and silk-like cotton. The hot-air cotton component is ES fiber, which is a sheath-core composite fiber obtained by successfully combining low-melting components and high-melting components on a single filament. Hot-air cotton production speed is fast, the output is large, and the cost is low.

Advantages: It has the characteristics of high bulkiness, good elasticity, soft hand feeling, strong warmth retention, good air permeability and water permeability. It mainly plays the role of primary filtration, heat preservation and heat insulation, moisture-proof and moisture-proof, which can improve the comfort of the wearer.

What is ES fiber? The "ES" in ES hot air cotton is a composite fiber, which is the abbreviation of "Ethylene-Propylene Side BySide" in English, and refers to the name of the raw material. As a new type of thermally bonded composite fiber, ES fiber has gained high evaluation in the world. Among them, the "hot air" of hot air cotton refers to a process in which after the fiber is carded, the hot air on the drying equipment is used to penetrate the fiber web and heat it to bond the resulting non-woven fabric.

At present, there are two types of ES fibers: the first: polyethylene/polypropylene composite fiber is composited by PE/PP, the skin layer is PE (polyethylene, melting point 130°C), and the core layer is PP (polypropylene, melting point 165°C). The second type: polyethylene/polyester composite fiber is composited by PE/PET, the skin layer is PE, and the core layer is PET (polyester, melting point 255℃-260℃).

Qualitative methods of ES fiber, ES fiber qualitative requires a combination of multiple methods, such as microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, melting point method, dissolution method and so on.

First, you need a microscope to see the fiber longitudinal section and cross-sectional morphology, whether there are skin-core structure characteristics, the surface layer can be qualitatively analyzed by Fourier infrared spectroscopy whether it is PE, and the melting temperature of the fiber can be analyzed by a melting point meter.

There may be two types of core layer fibers in ES fiber. Organic reagents can be used to dissolve the core layer, observe the dissolved residue, and finally obtain the qualitative result of hot-air cotton. At present, there are many hypothetical ES fibers on the market, which are mixed with polyester fibers or other types of fibers, pure polypropylene or pure polyethylene fibers, etc. Therefore, when companies purchase such materials, it is recommended to check the ingredients first.