What You Need to Know About SMS Fabric
Today’s manufacturing technology has created new kinds of nonwoven fabrics for cleanroom, healthcare, and industrial usage, such as the spunbond and meltblown materials. Combined together into one strong fabric, spunbonded-meltblown-spunbonded (SMS) material makes up the majority of isolation gowns and lab coats readily available at Total Source Manufacturing. But what exactly is SMS fabric? Let’s break it down here.
Nonwoven fabric
Nonwoven fabrics are created by thermally, chemically or manually bonding materials together, rather than using the traditional methods of weaving or knitting used for cotton and other natural materials.
Made from polymers, such as polypropylene, in a special extrusion process, SMS material is used for sterile gowns, surgical masks, shoe covers and bouffants because it provides an excellent dry particulate barrier and resists chemical and liquid transfer.
How spunbonded layers are made
The first layer in the SMS fabric is spunbonded. This is made by melting a propylene or ethylene polymer strip and having it flow continuously through a spinneret. This creates minute filaments that are captured and deposited onto a belt in a random web pattern.
As it cools, it forms the spunbonded material. This fabric is extremely strong and puncture-resistant while still being lightweight.
How the meltblown layer is made
Sandwiched between two layers of spunbonded fabric is the meltblown material layer. Thermoplastic resins, often in pellet form, are stored in bags that feed into a hopper. This feeds into the extruder which melts the polymers and releases narrow filaments. Next, these polymer filaments encounter high velocity heated air at the melting temperature. This air blows the filaments into microfibers which then mesh with other microfibers which are collected in random webs on a collection screen.
As it cools, it forms the meltblown material. This fabric is softer and more pliable, adding a measure of comfort that spunbonded material alone would not achieve.
The results
Laminated together, the spunbonded-meltblown-spunbonded layers form one amazingly diverse SMS fabric. This extraordinary fabric has multiple benefits when used in an industrial, cleanroom or medical application. These benefits include chemical resistance, liquid resistance, fire resistance, filtering, and bacteria and virus resistance.
Easy to wash and comfortable to wear, SMS material is made into products that are durable, lightweight and soft. These products can also be easily packaged to sterile standards because of the manufacturing process.
Get your SMS products in bulk
Looking for gowns, frocks, lab coats, shoe covers, and coveralls made with this versatile material? With over ten factories sourced at Total Source Manufacturing, we’ve got the SMS products that you need. Need it in bulk? No problem. We ship pallets worldwide and can get you supplied as soon as possible. Contact us for a special quote on your SMS order.
