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The reason why non-woven fabrics cannot be reused


Time:

2020-11-04

Sterile barrier properties are lost after use

Sterile barrier properties are lost after use

According to research, the shelf life of sterile goods is closely related to the thickness of non-woven fabrics and the number of wrapping layers. Disposable non-woven packaging materials, after a series of high-temperature steam sterilization and chemical washing, their fiber structure is deformed, the pores are sparse, the thickness is reduced, and even small holes that are not easy to detect with the naked eye, the bacteriological inhibition rate will suddenly drop or lose the bacteriological inflection performance. In the Disinfection Technical Specification, the requirements for packaging materials are: during storage, provide a bacterial barrier and maintain a sterile state. If disposable packaging materials are reused, the sterilized storage cannot reach a safe expiration date.

The internal microscopic properties change after sterilization

The non-woven

packaging material is generally SMS composite non-woven fabric. The main material of this type of non-woven fabric is polypropylene, which is processed through multiple processes through meltblown and spunbond processes, and the microstructure is fine plastic fiber (see figure below). Shrinkage after high temperature is the characteristic of plastic items, real high temperature resistant plastics are not, and high temperature resistance is also a relative concept, so non-woven fabrics will also have corresponding shrinkage reactions at the microscopic level.

After high temperature sterilization, the fine plastic fibers of the non-woven fabric

will shrink to a certain extent, which is reflected in the use of the sterilized non-woven fabric is more brittle than before sterilization, and the flexibility has decreased. The change of non-woven packaging materials is one of the reasons why non-woven fabrics can only be used once.

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